Meta has quietly released Forum, a new standalone app that gives Facebook Groups a separate home for community discussions, questions, and AI-powered answers.

The app, listed on Apple’s App Store as “Forum, a Facebook app,” is designed for users who want a dedicated space for group conversations without opening the main Facebook app. Meta describes Forum as a place for “deeper discussions,” “real answers,” and communities users care about.

Forum is currently available as an iPhone app. Reports indicate that it has launched in select regions, including the US, while broader availability and an Android release have not been confirmed yet.

Forum puts Facebook Groups into a separate app

Forum works by connecting to a user’s Facebook account. After signing in, users can access the Facebook Groups they already belong to, while also discovering new groups based on their interests.

The app gives group discussions a more focused layout compared with Facebook’s main feed. Instead of mixing group posts with friend updates, Reels, pages, ads, and recommendations, Forum centers the experience around community conversations.

Users can post inside groups, browse discussions, and participate using a nickname. However, Forum is still connected to Facebook Groups, which means posts made through the app can also appear inside the original groups on Facebook.

That makes Forum similar to Reddit in format, but different in identity. Reddit is built around pseudonymous communities, while Forum still sits on top of Facebook’s existing account and group system.

The app includes an AI-powered Ask tab

One of Forum’s main features is an Ask tab.

The Ask tab lets users ask questions and receive answers generated from discussions across Facebook Groups. According to TechCrunch, the feature pulls information from group conversations and turns it into responses for users. Forum also includes an AI assistant for group admins to help with group management and moderation.

The Verge, which tested the app, reported that Forum’s AI chatbot shows answers based on relevant group posts and links back to the original discussions. This allows users to read an AI summary first, then open the posts that informed the answer.

This feature is what separates Forum from a simple Facebook Groups redesign. Meta is not only giving groups a new app. It is also trying to make group discussions easier to search and summarize.

Why Forum is being compared to Reddit

Forum is being described as Reddit-like because it is built around topics, communities, and discussion threads.

The app lets users follow communities, ask questions, discover posts, and join conversations around specific interests. That structure is similar to how Reddit organizes discussion through subreddits.

But Forum is not a direct copy of Reddit. It does not start with new communities created inside the app. Instead, it uses Facebook Groups that already exist. This gives Meta a large base of active communities from day one.

The biggest difference is user identity. Reddit users often participate under anonymous or pseudonymous handles. Forum allows nickname posting, but the app still relies on Facebook accounts and Facebook Groups.

Meta is trying again with a standalone Groups app

This is not Meta’s first attempt to separate Facebook Groups from the main Facebook app.

Facebook launched a standalone Groups app in 2014, but shut it down in 2017. That earlier app was mainly built to make group posting and browsing easier. Forum brings back the same basic idea, but adds AI search and summarization at the center of the experience.

That timing matters.

Online communities have become more valuable as users look for answers from real people instead of generic search results. Reddit has benefited from this behavior, especially as people search for practical opinions, product advice, local recommendations, and personal experiences.

Forum suggests Meta wants Facebook Groups to play a similar role inside its own ecosystem.

Forum could make Facebook Groups more searchable

Facebook Groups have long been one of Facebook’s strongest community features. People use them for local advice, parenting discussions, hobby groups, professional communities, buying and selling, gaming, support groups, and niche interests.

The problem is that group content has often been difficult to search, organize, and reuse.

Forum appears to solve that in two ways. First, it gives group discussions a dedicated app. Second, it uses AI to turn past discussions into answers.

If the Ask tab works well, users may not need to scroll through dozens of posts to find useful advice. They can ask a question, get a summarized answer, and then open the group posts behind it.

For Meta, this could make Facebook Groups more useful at a time when social platforms are competing not only for attention, but also for search behavior.

The rollout is still limited

Meta has not made a major public announcement for Forum yet. The app has appeared quietly through Apple’s App Store, and early reports suggest the rollout is still limited.

The App Store listing currently describes Forum as an iPhone app. India Today reported that Forum is available for iPhone users in the US, with no clear global launch timeline. Business Standard also reported that the app is currently unavailable in India.

It is not yet clear whether Meta plans to turn Forum into a major standalone product or keep it as a smaller test around Facebook Groups and AI-powered community answers.

What Forum means for Meta

Forum shows that Meta is still looking for ways to make Facebook Groups more relevant.

The main Facebook app has become crowded with many types of content. Forum gives one of Facebook’s most active community features its own space, while also tying it to Meta’s growing AI push.

The app may look like a Reddit rival on the surface, but its real purpose appears broader. Meta is trying to make Facebook Groups easier to browse, easier to search, and more useful as a source of real human answers.

For now, Forum is a limited iPhone app. But if Meta expands it, the app could become an important test of how community content fits into AI-powered social search.