Meta tried this once before. A Facebook Groups app launched in 2014, shut down in 2017, and was mostly forgotten.
Now the firm brought the idea back. The new app is called Forum.
Forum is a new Meta app for Facebook Groups. It gives them their own home outside the main app.
Users sign in with their Facebook account. That loads their groups, profile, and past posts inside Forum.
Anything posted in Forum still shows up on the main app. The two products are wired together on purpose.
The pitch is Reddit-style. Think a quieter spot for real talk, with nicknames in place of full names.
Feeds are built around topics, not the friend graph. Meta calls the app a space "built for deeper discussions, real answers and communities you care about". That framing pulls right from the Reddit playbook.
The app also leans on AI. A tab called "Ask" pulls answers to user questions from group chats.
A second AI tool for group admins handles member work. It can also flag and clean up posts.
Most users will not see Forum unless Meta starts pushing it. The launch has been quiet, and Meta did not return a request for comment.
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Forum is the second new Meta app in the last month. The first was Instants, a vanishing-photo app for Instagram friends that borrows heavily from BeReal and Snapchat.
The Wall Street Journal recently reported on a Meta staff meeting. At it, Zuckerberg said AI tools are letting Meta ship apps faster and for less money.
His line, per the report, was that the firm could probably build "50 new apps". He also said to start with a few first.
That is a real shift from the past decade. For years, Meta's playbook was about keeping users locked inside Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger.
Forum and Instants are signals that the next era is about spinning off pieces and seeing what sticks. The AI tools make that cheap enough to actually try.
The same AI lever is also reshaping work. Meta has cut 8,000 jobs as it leans into AI.
Other firms are doing the same. Big consulting shops have started cutting staff for the same reason.
Most of Meta's recent app launches are close copies of products that already exist. Edits borrows from CapCut. Instants is shaped like BeReal.
Forum is the same basic idea Reddit has been running for two decades. Reddit went public in 2024, and Meta is now building its version of Reddit.
The market will decide if that is a smart land grab or just more apps. The bar is rising fast across tech.
Google's own search overhaul shows how much AI is reshaping the basics. Meta is now trying to keep up.
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