Meta’s Forum is part Reddit, part Facebook, and part Google AI Overview

The new Meta Forum app for iPhones takes Facebook Groups and moves them to a dedicated app with a dedicated AI chatbot to go with it, like an AI update for ill-fated Groups app Facebook was shut down in 2017.

Instead of going to ChatGPT or putting “Reddit” at the end of a Google search, Forum users can view, search, and post advice directly in their Facebook groups, powered by Meta’s AI.

When I logged in with my Facebook account, the Forum automatically pulled up the groups I belonged to on Facebook and filled my feed with posts from those groups, along with comments from groups I’m not a part of, similar to my Reddit feed, albeit without the Reddit trick.

Groups aren’t front and center on Facebook, so I wasn’t surprised to find some on my list that I had completely forgotten about. In addition to feeds, you can also see a small version of your Facebook profile that only shows your group posts, browse new groups, and post directly to specific groups.

The Forum’s AI chats are located under the “Ask” tab, where you can find AI-generated answers from posts to various Facebook groups, similar to how Google’s search results are AI comments pull from Reddit content is licensed and other sources on the Internet.

To test it, I asked the AI ​​a few concerning questions Magic: Gathering. Meta’s chatbot for explaining articles from multiple sources Magical groups I belong to, and they gave great advice, and suggestions for groups in my area in New Jersey. The results also included the AI ​​notes, so you can scan them to see the full discussion on the notes.

Meta communications director Feryal Hemamda confirmed the launch of the Forum in a statement Seaside: “We test a lot of new features publicly to see what people enjoy and find useful in their experiences with our apps.”