Facebook goes back to the Forum age with its new app

Dust off your avatar, prepare your HTML tags, and get ready to ask “ASL,” because Facebook is bringing back the Forum — at least by name. Meta’s flagship platform has officially launched Forum, a community-centric app it has been testing since May.

Here’s an analogy that helps explain what Forum is: The new app is to Facebook groups what Messenger is to Facebook chat threads. Forum users can see all the groups they are part of in one central location, and they can scout for new groups that match their interests.

“On Forum, we’re testing a new way to explore your interests,” reads a blog post. “You may start to see topic labels on posts, like Solo Travel or Korean Food. Tap one and you’ll find more conversations on the same topic, making it easier to dive deeper into the things you care about.”

Tech leakers noticed Forum’s existence earlier this year

. The app was described at the time as Meta’s answer to Reddit. If Meta was trying to ape the s0-called “front page of the internet,” then it certainly wasn’t the first tech company to adopt that strategy. Reddit’s utility as a source for AI chatbots convinced many platforms to reimagine its comment threads.

As chatbots have shifted in YouTube’s direction, new strategies like answer engine optimization have replaced the Reddit copycats. But this is Meta we’re talking about: No matter what the LLMs are scraping these days, Forum will be AI features. An Ask cue will help Forum users find the most relevant information within their Facebook groups.

There are some human-powered features on the new app, too. A “top voices”replaces contributor badges, giving in-group experts a new way to identify themselves.

Ultimately, Forum is one part of a broader reimagining of Facebook. As tech companies look to revive the old-school ideas of websurfing and discovery, they are turning their communities into recommendation engines. We’ve seen that transformation happen all over Facebook, from the Marketplace to the video feed. Now, change is coming to your groups. Are you ready to log into the Forum?