Meta has released a new standalone application called Forum that separates Facebook Groups activity from the main Facebook feed into its own dedicated product. The app became publicly available in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store in late May 2026, with no formal announcement from the company; its existence was first flagged publicly by social media consultant Matt Navarra.
What Forum Is and How It Works
The App Store listing describes Forum as "a dedicated space for the conversations that matter most to you," built for the groups users already belong to and those they have yet to discover. Signing into the Forum with a Facebook account pulls in a user's groups, profile, and activity from that platform. Anything a user posts in their groups on the Forum will still show up on the main Facebook app, and vice versa, enabling users to easily continue or start conversations from either application.
Where Facebook's main feed blends posts from friends, followed Pages, and algorithmically suggested content, Forum is built around a different premise; its feed draws exclusively from the discussions taking place inside a user's groups. When logging in for the first time, users are asked what they want to see more of, suggesting the app will also surface posts from other Groups aligned with their interests.
Pseudonymity and Administrator Visibility
The app supports anonymized usernames for public interactions, similar to the option already available on Facebook, though group administrators can still see the real identities behind those accounts. That distinction matters for users who may assume the nickname feature provides full anonymity: it does not. Participation in any group remains visible to that group's administrators under the account's actual identity.
AI Features for Users and Administrators
Forum includes an AI-powered Ask tab that lets users pose questions and receive answers compiled from discussions across different groups. The app also features an admin AI assistant to help administrators manage groups and moderate content. Administrators retain access to all their existing tools on Facebook while also gaining access to the AI assistant on Forum to help manage their groups, moderate content, and keep their communities active.
Meta's Previous Attempt at a Standalone Groups Product
This is not the first time Meta has launched an app centred around Groups. Back when it was just known as Facebook, the company also released a standalone Groups app, which it eventually shut down in 2017. The new Forum app arrives nearly a decade after that product was discontinued.
Forum Within Meta's Broader App Expansion
The launch follows Meta's recent release of Instants, a separate app designed for sharing ephemeral photos among Instagram connections. Both products are part of a deliberate expansion of Meta's app portfolio. CEO Mark Zuckerberg told employees that AI-driven efficiencies have made it possible to build products faster. "So Chris and I have been talking about 'all right, well, can we build 50 new apps?' Like, yeah, probably. But we probably should start by doing a few before we just, like, ramp up trying to do 50 all at once," Zuckerberg said, referring to Meta chief product officer Chris Cox, according to TechCrunch.
Practical Implications for Brands and Community Managers
For brands and organizations that already maintain active Facebook Groups, Forum introduces a second surface through which that content is discoverable and searchable. Because posts sync between Forum and Facebook, existing Group content is immediately present in the new app without any additional publishing steps. The AI-powered Ask feature draws answers from across group discussions, which means the quality and volume of content already posted in a group will directly influence how that community appears in Forum's answer-style results. Community managers who oversee Groups on Facebook may also need to account for the admin AI assistant as an additional moderation layer within their workflows.
Forum appeared without a formal launch event, and some features may vary by country or region.
