Meta has unveiled a new standalone app called 'Forum', which brings Facebook Groups into a dedicated feed, separate from the main Facebook experience. The app was spotted by Matt Navarra, without any official announcement from the company. Its App Store listing describes Forum as 'an exclusive space for the conversations that matter most to you'. It's designed for groups users already belong to and those they haven't yet discovered.
The Forum feed displays discussions from a user's existing Groups, rather than mixing them with posts from friends, Pages, and algorithmically recommended content.
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When first logging in, users are asked what they want to see more of, indicating that the app will also show posts from other Groups that align with their interests. Any posts made through the Forum are synced back to the main Facebook app and vice versa.
Users will need an existing Facebook account to log in. The app supports anonymized usernames for public interactions, similar to the option already available on Facebook, although group admins can see the real identities behind these accounts.
AI in the Forum
Two features AI are available on Forum. The first, called 'Ask', reportedly pulls answers from all of a user's Groupsso they don't have to search each community individually. The second is an AI assistant for group admins, helping with administrative tasks.
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This isn't Meta's first attempt at a standalone Groups product. The company launched a dedicated app for Facebook Groups years ago, before shutting it down in 2017. It's been compared to Reddit, given the app's focus on niche community discussions, recommendations from real people, and Q&A-style content. Forum is available in the App Store now.
The Forum also shows how Meta is trying to re-invigorate the concept of digital communities, at a time when traditional social media feeds have become filled with algorithmic content, ads, and short viral videos. By isolating Facebook Groups into a separate app, the company appears to be reinvesting in more “human” conversations and niche communities of interest, largely following the philosophy that made Reddit so popular in recent years.
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At the same time, the integration of artificial intelligence features reveals Meta's new strategy, which wants to transform social networks into smarter platforms for knowledge discovery and community management. If Forum manages to attract active users and create more quality interactions, then it may become one of Meta's most interesting moves after Threads.
