Meta has quietly launched a new app called Forum. It’s described as “a private space for the conversations that matter most to you,” built specifically for Facebook Groups. The company seems to be pushing the idea that the app will help users get “real answers” from “real people.” As such, the new app is very Reddit-like in its purpose.
Meta has quietly launched a new app called Forum. It’s described as “a private space for the conversations that matter most to you,” built specifically for Facebook Groups. The company seems to be pushing the idea that the app will help users get “real answers” from “real people.” As such, the new app is very Reddit-like in its purpose.
To use Forum, you will need a Facebook account: after authorization, your profile and activity history will be transferred automatically. So it is not exactly a platform for anonymous communication like Reddit. True, users will be able to choose anonymous nicknames, as is already possible in the main Facebook application. However, group administrators will still see their real names, writes Engadget.
Unlike your regular Facebook feed, which shows a mix of posts from friends, pages you follow, groups, and random posts from the algorithm, the Forum feed will consist solely of discussions from your various communities. However, because the app asks users for their likes when they first log in, it will likely also throw up posts from other groups that match their interests.
Any post made to groups via Forum will be duplicated in the main Facebook app and vice versa, making it easy to start and continue discussions in either app.
This isn't the first time Meta has launched a separate Groups app. Back when the company was just Facebook, it launched a standalone Groups app, which it eventually shut down in 2017.
However, the new app, like most modern apps, already has several AI features. The first of these is the “Ask” tool. According to Meta, it can collect answers from different groups at the same time, so users don’t have to search for the necessary information in each community separately. Another AI-based feature is an assistant for administrators, which will help moderators manage their groups.
When asked by reporters, the company said the product is still in the testing phase. “We publicly test a lot of new products to see what people find interesting and useful for their experience with our apps,” a Meta representative said.
