Meta is quietly launching a new Reddit-like app called Forum

Meta has quietly released a new standalone app for Facebook groups called “Forum”. The company appears to be positioning Forum as a platform that works similar to Reddit, describing the app as “a dedicated space created for deeper discussions, real answers, and communities that care about you.”

The app appears to have been spotted first by social media consultant Matt Navarra.

After you sign in with your Facebook account, the Forum will load into your groups, profile, and activity and allow you to post with a nickname, just like in the standard Facebook app. Meta noted that your groups still exist on Facebook and anything you share on the forum will be visible in your Facebook groups.

Meta says the Forum’s resources focus on conversations within groups, allowing users to see “what real people are saying, not just what’s trending,” and making it easy to pick up where they left off.

The app features an AI-powered “Ask” tab that allows users to ask questions and receive answers compiled from discussions in various groups. There is also an AI assistant admin to help admins manage groups and moderate content.

This isn’t the first time Meta has launched a standalone app for groups. In 2014, the company launched a dedicated Groups app to make it easier for users to share content between groups, but that effort was discontinued in 2017.

Forum is one of two new apps from Meta in recent weeks. Last month, the social media company launched a new app called Instants that allows users to share disappearing photos with friends on Instagram.

Instants and Forum come amid a broader effort at Meta to release more apps. The Wall Street Journal reported a few weeks ago that CEO Mark Zuckerberg told employees that with AI-driven efficiencies allowing the company to create more apps, the social media giant now aims to launch far more apps than it has in the past.

Referring to Meta’s chief product officer Chris Cox, Zuckerberg reportedly said, “So Chris and I were talking about ‘okay, can we make 50 new apps?’ Like, I guess so. But we should probably start by doing a few before we just try to do 50 at once.”

Meta might think that consumers want more apps, but that’s probably not the case, especially since its new apps mostly end up being copycats of other popular services. Instants, for example, borrows ideas from BeReal and Snapchat, while Meta Edits, launched last year, is largely a copy of ByteDance’s CapCut.

Meta did not immediately return a request for comment.