Technology news and discussion on TalkFuse.
Meta says AI is making it easier to build new apps — and more are coming
Meta says advances in artificial intelligence are allowing it to develop and launch standalone apps more quickly, with further products planned. Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said the company intends to test more ideas and use its recommendation systems to grow successful services, marking another attempt to expand beyond Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
Recent launches include Instagram Instants, the Forum Groups app and Seller for Marketplace users, alongside experiments in gaming, photos and AI bedtime stories. Meta’s earlier app incubators produced numerous services that were later closed, but Threads has reached 500 million monthly active users; the company credits AI-powered recommendations, including LLM analysis of every Instagram Reel and Feed post for topic and tone, with helping improve discovery and growth.
In short
- Meta plans more standalone apps enabled by AI-assisted development.
- Previous experimental apps largely failed, but Threads has gained traction.
- LLMs now improve Meta’s content recommendations and engineering processes.
Steelman: both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
AI tools could lower the cost and time needed to build apps, letting Meta test more ideas and respond to distinct user needs. Supporters may argue that recommendation systems can help promising services find an audience, as Meta says happened with Threads, while giving the company more ways to serve users and businesses.
The case against
Rapidly producing apps does not ensure they offer lasting value, and Meta’s history of closing incubated services raises questions about whether a wider slate of launches will fragment attention or be sustained. Critics may also question the reliance on extensive analysis of posts to drive recommendations, given concerns about privacy, the influence of automated ranking on what people see, and whether growth should be the main measure of success.
Explained simply
Meta owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, the world's largest social media platforms. The company has long attempted to develop standalone apps to reduce reliance on these core services, though many previous efforts failed and were shut down. To succeed where it previously struggled, Meta is now changing its approach to developing new apps.
Meta's new strategy involves using artificial intelligence to develop and launch standalone apps faster. AI systems analyse user data to identify what content people want, then recommend it to help apps grow. The company believes this approach will be more successful than its previous app-building methods.
Threads, a social platform from Meta, has reached 500 million monthly users. This success was partly due to AI-powered recommendation systems that showed people content they were interested in. The company plans to use similar AI techniques to develop and test more new app ideas.
AI Business Companies Entertainment Gaming Technology