The news: Meta is testing Forum, an iOS app for online discussion and communities that is set to compete with Reddit. Forum’s pitch for “deeper discussions, real answers, and communities you care about”—plus a dedicated Q&A-style Ask tab—position the app in the same functional territory as Reddit’s advice/FAQ culture, per TechCrunch.

• The app feeds from content in tens of millions of existing Facebook Groups, so communities, history, and member graphs are already in place.
• Forum’s AI-powered “Ask” tab aggregates answers from multiple Facebook groups, giving Meta a “Google meets Reddit" look while also directly picking up Reddit's own AI "Ask" feature name.

Upon the news of Forum’s release last week, Reddit’s stock fell nearly 6% before beginning to recover Tuesday, per CNBC.

Why it’s worth watching: Reddit’s success as an online community destination has drawn competition—including from Digg, which first sought to reinvent itself as a trust-first online forum in January before pivoting to an AI news aggregation platform instead.

Meta’s ad stack and data infrastructure are already optimized for high-intent, community content, which could make Forum attractive to future advertisers if its footprint expands to Android, engagement ramps up, and new users are attracted to the app.

Zooming out: Forum’s release is reminiscent of Threads’ rollout in 2023. Meta announced the app and waited until it went viral as an Instagram spinoff rivaling X before defining features and ad strategy. In fewer than three years, Threads surpassed X in daily active users (DAUs) with 143.2 million (iOS and Android combined) versus X’s 126.2 million, per Similarweb data cited by Forbes.

If Meta applies similar user adoption strategies, Forum could succeed in boosting time spent on Meta properties, harnessing existing user data to drive its answer engine, and attracting users who aren’t sold on Reddit’s value proposition.

Implications for brands: Forum offers a near-zero-friction expansion into Q&A-driven discovery for brands already entrenched in Meta’s content and ad ecosystems provided users are open to engaging with yet another app.

For advertisers that have struggled getting engagement on Reddit—whether due to strict self-promotion guardrails or difficulty in breaking into established subreddit cultures—Forum might provide a less busy alternative to reach high-intent users looking for community or answers.

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