Facebook has just launched, exclusively in the United States and only for iPhone, a new app called Forum, which is clearly inspired by forums and Q&A platforms in the style of Reddit or Quora. The social network has not yet issued an official statement on the matter, but by analyzing the information on its iOS App Store listing, we can already draw some interesting conclusions.
Deep discussions and “real” answers
As Facebook itself describes it, Forum was created as a space designed for discussions “that go deeper, real answers, and the communities that matter to you, built for the groups you already love and the ones you have yet to discover.”
This is an important point to keep in mind. Although Forum is launching as a standalone app, it actually appears that it will be directly tied to the classic groups you already know from Facebook. In fact, the social network says that Forum will be “simply a space built around them.” It also explains to new Forum users that they only need to log in with their Facebook account, and their groups, profile, and activity will be transferred to the new app.
And of course, with that in mind, users need to consider several important aspects related to privacy and the way they want to manage their public visibility:
- Groups will continue to exist on Facebook
- Anything shared on Forum will be visible in Facebook groups.
- You have the option to post with a nickname.
One striking thing about Forum’s public debut is that it gives the impression that Facebook is being a bit dismissive of its own groups and the way users interact with them. It repeatedly uses phrasing along the lines of “what real people are saying, not just what is trending.”
Real people. Fascinating.
It may simply be acknowledging the problems Facebook’s main feed currently has (packed with suggested videos, memes, and advertising) and trying to rescue the little good this network still has left (its communities) by stripping away all the clutter from the main feed.
A new Q&A feature
Without a doubt, one of the biggest phenomena of the past year has been the rebirth of Reddit, a long-standing internet staple that has been gaining a great deal of visibility in the age of AI, thanks to how favorably it is regarded by different generative engines, but also by Google, core update after core update. And just as Reddit’s endless discussions about almost any topic are becoming a go-to reference point for many people (especially in the United States), Facebook wants its new Ask feature to serve a similar purpose.
This feature will make it possible to gather responses from different groups, so users can get solutions “right away” from people who have already been through the same thing and join the conversation, with example questions provided by the social network such as “What is the most underrated food in Japan?” or “What is the best hiking trail near me?” As insider Matt Navarra explains, one of the first to spot this new app, “Basically, this is about turning Facebook Groups into an AI-powered answer engine.”
Management tools
To make it easier to manage this new environment, group admins will continue to have access to all of their tools in Facebook, with the addition of an AI assistant for admins in Forum to help manage their groups, moderate content, and “keep their communities healthy,” all while remaining in control.
Meta expands its family
The final takeaway is, of course, that Zuckerberg has decided to create yet another app to grow Meta’s already large family of social networks, platforms, and tools. Forum thus arrives in a Meta ecosystem where some of the most widely used social networks in the world coexist (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp), along with messaging tools as powerful as Messenger, a social network as, ahem, original as Threads, one geared toward the failed metaverse (Meta Horizons), and several aimed at advertisers (Meta Business Suite, Meta Ads Manager).
Why bet on a separate new app instead of integrating it into Facebook?
I would honestly love to know your opinion. At first glance, it occurs to me that the “Facebook” brand carries a certain stigma as an aging social network, “for parents,” and Meta may be looking for a new environment to attract younger users who want Reddit’s immediacy without the noise of the traditional feed.
Now we will have to see whether the strategy works for it.
Image: Gemini based on Meta
