Meta’s Forum: What It Is and How the New Reddit-Like App Works

Meta started testing Forum in May and rolled out a handful of new features in September. The standalone app brings the Facebook Groups experience into a dedicated space built around conversations and communities.

But Forum isn’t a completely separate social network. It’s connected to your Facebook account and brings over your groups, profile, and existing activity. Anything you post on Forum also appears in your Facebook groups, so the two stay connected.

What Is Meta’s Forum?

Forum is Meta’s dedicated app for group conversations, created to move that experience out of Facebook’s main feed. Discussions no longer have to compete with Reels, friends’ posts, and ads.

The idea isn’t entirely new. It follows a model similar to Reddit, where users gather in topic-based communities to discuss shared interests. Reddit now has more than 1.2 billion registered users.

Meta’s approach is to make those conversations the main event, without ads or recommendations from accounts you don’t follow.

And Meta already has one thing Reddit had to build over time: a massive community base. Facebook Groups have 1.8 billion users, giving Forum a ready-made audience from day one.

What Facebook’s Forum App Is For

Forum is Meta’s answer to users who want more conversation and less noise in their feeds. The main idea is to give groups more weight as a standalone experience, separating community discussions from the busy Facebook feed. 

At the same time, Forum puts Meta in direct competition with Reddit, where discussions and community-driven answers are the main attraction. 

One of Forum’s standout features is Ask. You type a question, and Forum gathers answers from conversations across different groups so you don’t have to search through posts one by one. It works a bit like Google’s AI Overviews, which combine several sources into one answer. In Forum’s case, AI searches Facebook Groups and surfaces posts and comments based on members’ own experiences.

For now, Ask is available to Forum users in the US. Keep in mind that its suggestions don’t verify whether the advice shared in those groups is accurate, so it’s best to treat the answers as a starting point rather than a definitive source. 

Meta ultimately wants Forum to become the place you go when you have a question, whether the answer comes from AI or another member. 

There’s a larger strategy behind this too. Much of Reddit’s value comes from its enormous archive of human knowledge, sorted by topic and ranked by votes, and AI chatbots increasingly cite its most useful threads. Forum looks like Meta’s attempt to build a similar searchable library of human conversations inside its own ecosystem, one that could also help train and improve its AI tools.

What’s New in Forum

Forum’s September update comes with an interesting batch of new features. All are still in testing, and Meta hasn’t said when they’ll roll out more widely.

Top Community Voices Badge

Meta is testing a new role for members who regularly contribute to their groups, whether that’s answering questions, sharing practical tips, or starting useful discussions. It replaces the previous contributor badges and Group Expert role, and comes with a badge and faster post publishing. Group admins can assign the role, while Meta will also nominate potential candidates to help admins spot active contributors.

Answers From Multiple Groups

Meta is also testing a feature that pulls relevant answers from different groups for the same question. Instead of relying only on responses from the group where a question was posted, users could see answers from other communities and choose the one that works best for them.

Topic Labels

Forum is testing topic labels on posts, with examples like “Solo Travel” and “Korean Food”. Tap a label, and you can discover other conversations around the same topic.

How Forum Works

Getting started on Forum is quite simple:

1. Download the app from the App Store or Google Play.
2. Log in with your Facebook account.
3. Your groups, profile, and activity will connect automatically. You have the option to post under a nickname. Your groups will continue to exist on Facebook, and anything you share on Forum will be visible in your Facebook groups.
4. You can now post, ask questions, or reply.

Unlike Facebook’s main feed, Forum is built around group conversations rather than personal posts. Your feed focuses on what people are discussing, asking, and commenting on across your communities. 

If you manage a group, Forum also brings some new tools for admins. You’ll still have access to Facebook’s existing management features, plus a built-in AI assistant that can help with moderation, routine tasks, and keeping the community active.

Forum for Social Media Managers

Forum points to three trends worth keeping an eye on as a social media manager:

• Communities
• Search built around real conversations
• AI powered by user-generated content

The fact that Meta is launching an app dedicated entirely to groups sends a clear message: conversations between people still matter. Social media isn’t only about keeping up with the short-form video algorithm. Spaces where people ask questions, share recommendations, debate ideas, and swap experiences can be just as valuable.

There’s also a key difference between community conversations and content with a short shelf life. A Reel might stay relevant for a few hours or days, while a genuinely helpful answer in a community can keep resurfacing whenever someone has the same question.

If you already manage a Facebook Group, Forum could be an opportunity to give your community a fresh push. And if you don’t have one, it might be worth asking whether your social media strategy puts too much weight on short-lived content, and not enough on the spaces where your audience talks to each other.

How Businesses Can Use Forum

If you run a brand or business, there are several ways you could put Forum to work:

• Build a niche community early: Getting involved on a new platform early can help your brand become a familiar name in its space.
• Offer real customer support: A Forum community gives customers a place to help each other, while your team can step in to moderate discussions and answer questions. It’s a more human way to build trust than relying solely on an FAQ page or ad campaign.
• Collect product feedback: Community conversations can show you what customers are asking about, where they’re getting stuck, and what they’d like to see improved.
• Run expert Q&As: Putting your team or founders directly in front of your community can help build credibility and give customers a chance to interact with the people behind the brand.
• Create a space for loyal customers: Your most engaged customers may want to connect with each other, not just with your brand. Giving them a dedicated space can turn that engagement into a stronger community.

Forum launches at a time when social feeds are leaning harder into entertainment, and Reddit’s continued growth shows people still want spaces for real opinions, shared experiences, and practical answers.