If you’re after an alternative to the hellscape that is Reddit, Meta’s newly-launched Forum might be the fresh hellscape you’re looking for. The social media giant has quietly launched its newest app, first discovered by one Matt Navarra.
The app is designed around Facebook Groups, offering similar functionality to Reddit, Quora, and other places that may or may not answer your questions seriously. It’s currently available for iOS users, with an Android version still missing in action.
Forum poster
Forum describes itself as “a dedicated space built for deeper discussions, real answers, and the communities you care about.” Call us suspicious, but it could also be a convenient spot to collate Meta’s next batch of AI training data. You obviously won’t hear the social media company mention that bit, though.
Even though it’s supposed to be built around real people, Meta couldn’t resist adding AI into the mix. There’s a function inside Forum called Ask that uses AI to find conversations within various Groups that might have the answers you seek. It’ll also display posts from Groups you’re not a part of, based on interests you specify when you download and install the app. It’ll be a bit like the Facebook feed, then. Hopefully, Meta has some way to keep it free of quite so much useless garbage.
There are limits to using it. Users can’t just join Forum and be done with it. They’ll need a functional Facebook account, with their data ported over to the new app upon login. Posts within the app will also be visible in the main Facebook Groups areas, so this app… actually, we’re not entirely sure what the point is.
There’s also no guarantee that Forum will stick around for too long. A Facebook spokesperson, speaking to Engadget, said, “We test lots of new products publicly to see what people find interesting and useful to their experiences across our apps.” This one might never make it all the way to the ‘fully-released’ stage.
