Meta $META +0.23% has released a standalone app called Forum that turns Facebook Groups into a Reddit $RDDT -3.56%-style discussion platform, according to TechCrunch. Social media consultant Matt Navarra was among the first to notice the app's presence in the App Store.
Signing into Forum with a Facebook account pulls in a user's groups, profile, and activity from that platform. While the app allows posting under a pseudonym, Engadget notes that a user's actual identity remains visible to the administrators of any group they participate in. Posts made through Forum are simultaneously published to the matching Facebook Group, keeping both platforms in sync.
Where Facebook's main feed blends posts from friends, followed Pages, and algorithmically suggested content, Forum is built around a different premise — its feed draws exclusively from the discussions taking place inside a user's groups. At first launch, Engadget reports that the app prompts users to indicate their content preferences, a step that likely enables it to recommend posts from groups beyond the ones they already belong to.
Forum includes two AI features. One is a feature called "Ask," which aggregates relevant information scattered across multiple group discussions so users can get answers in one place rather than manually combing through each community. The other AI feature is aimed at group administrators, offering tools to assist with the ongoing work of running and moderating their communities.
