Meta adds AI answers and a new top voice role to Forum, its Facebook Groups app.
Forum, Meta’s US app for Facebook Groups, now tests AI answers drawn from group posts, and a top voice role replacing contributor badges.
Meta has added new features to Forum, a separate app that pulls a person’s Facebook groups into one place.
Meta says it started testing Forum in May, and on 29 September it announced three additions: a new role for top community voices, more ways for its AI search tool Ask to answer questions from group posts, and topic labels on posts. Forum is available to download in the US on iOS and Android, and people log in with their Facebook account.
The member role is the change that reaches furthest. It replaces the contributor badges and the group expert role on Facebook, and Meta says it is starting to test on Forum in the US and on Facebook globally.
The new role for top community voices
Meta says the role is earned through contributions that help a community: answering questions, sharing firsthand experience, offering practical tips and recommendations, and starting conversations. It comes with a new badge and new benefits, including posts that publish faster. Admins can grant it directly, and Meta will also nominate members to help admins spot their top voices. Members are told when they receive it and can remove themselves at any time. All posts stay subject to Meta’s Community Standards.
Ask, and topic labels
Ask uses AI to highlight existing group posts and comments so people get answers grounded in real experience. It shows conversations from groups a person is already in, plus public groups they have not joined, and links straight into the discussion. Two features are in test: comparing options, where Ask pulls together recommendations when someone is choosing something such as a running shoe or a gift, and suggested questions based on recent searches.
Forum is also testing topic labels on posts, such as Solo Travel or Korean Food, which open more conversations on the same topic.
Meta says it will share more on what it is building for group admins in the coming weeks. It has not given a date for Forum outside the US.
What it means for brands
Ask turns public group threads into product answers. When someone asks Forum to compare running shoes or gift ideas, the recommendations it pulls together come from what members have already written about your category, and that includes public groups the person never joined. A brand that runs a Facebook group also gets a new lever: the old contributor badges are going, and the admin decides who carries the new role.
This week, search the public groups in your category for the questions a buyer would put to Ask, read what members recommend, and if you run a group, list the members who already answer questions well so you can grant them the role as it reaches your group.
Sources
The NBK Social briefing
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