Facebook Groups have been one of the few parts of the old social network that still feel like a destination rather than a feed. People use them for neighborhood issues, hobbies, medical advice, and the kind of practical questions that do not belong on Reels.
Meta has been trying for years to make that activity easier to find inside the main app. On Tuesday it pointed people to a separate door.
The product is 'Forum,' a dedicated iOS and Android app in the U.S. that syncs with the Facebook groups a person already belongs to.
Log in with a Facebook account and the groups show up in one place, with recent posts, discovery of public communities that have not been joined yet, and a set of features Meta says it has been testing since May.
The Newsroom post framed it as an app for people who want to go deeper in groups rather than scroll past them. Admin tools are coming in later updates. There is no price.
There is also no timeline for countries outside the US, and the company is still describing the whole thing as an exploration.
The feature Meta is pushing hardest is Ask.
Instead of generating a fresh answer from the open web, it uses AI to pull existing posts and comments from groups, including public ones the user has not joined, and point to conversations that look like they already contain the answer.
Two modes sit on top of that.
Compare Your Options is meant for choices such as a running shoe, a gift, or a book.
Pick Up Where You Left Off suggests follow-up questions from recent searches.
Topic labels on posts, examples include Solo Travel and Korean Food, are meant to turn a single thread into a browseable interest.
Posts still have to meet Community Standards. Whether the retrieval is accurate, or just confident, will be the first thing users notice.
The other test is social status. Contributor badges and the group expert role are being replaced by a recognition layer for people who answer questions, share firsthand experience, offer tips, or start conversations that keep a group moving.
It comes with a badge and faster post publishing. Admins can grant it. Meta can nominate members for admins to consider.
Members can drop the role themselves.
The test starts on Forum in the U.S. and on Facebook globally. That is a small but familiar incentive design: reward the people who already do the unpaid work that makes a group useful, and hope they do more of it.
The comparison everyone reached for is Reddit, with a side of Quora and a structural rhyme with Messenger, which once peeled chat out of Facebook and gave it its own app.
Forum does not create a new network.
Instead, it is literally a reskin of Groups, which adds retrieval, and tries to make expertise visible.
In other words, things are less dramatic than a new social graph and more revealing about what Meta thinks still works.
Groups already have the conversations. The company is betting that a quieter interface, topic labels, and an AI layer that points back into those threads will get people to spend time there on purpose.
What it does not settle is whether people will install another Meta app for something they can already open inside Facebook.
The May test never came with public numbers. Tuesday's post did not either. Traders treated the news as a Reddit problem for a few hours. The more durable question is smaller.
If Ask keeps sending people into real threads, Forum is a search box for communities Meta already owns. If it becomes another summary layer that people do not click through, it is just Groups with a new icon.
