Meta launches AI Mode on Facebook, turning public posts into searchable answers

Meta's new 'AI Mode' on Facebook pulls from public info across its platforms

As Meta tries to catch up in the AI race and boost engagement with its AI bot, the company announced Monday that it's rolling out new AI features on Facebook that aim to change how users find information, create content, and interact with the platform. The headline update is "AI Mode," a new way to search Facebook that uses Meta AI to surface answers pulled from public posts across the platform, including Groups and Reels. Instead of scrolling through search results, users can ask a question in plain language and get a synthesized answer based on what people are actually discussing. This follows Meta's quiet launch last month of Forum, a Reddit-style app that includes its own AI "Ask" tab, letting users pose questions and get answers pulled from discussions happening across Facebook Groups. Both AI Mode and Forum's Ask tab raise a familiar question: how reliable are answers generated from public posts and group chatter? Because the AI is summarizing content from everyday users rather than vetted sources, there's a real risk of outdated or misleading information slipping through, a concern that's already been raised about Google's own AI Mode on Reddit. Beyond search, Facebook also added editing tools that let users play around with collage cutouts and transition effects for their video montages. Another new feature is the AI-powered photo presets, allowing users to change up their look with different clothes, hairstyles, and accessories. Sports fans, for instance, can virtually wear their favorite team jerseys just by tapping the "AI Edit" icon in Stories and choose "Wear It," or go directly to their profile picture and select "Restyle profile picture with AI" and "Wardrobe." These updates add to a growing list of AI features Meta has shipped on Facebook in recent months. In February, the company introduced animated profile pictures that bring still photos to life -- adding a wave, or placing a virtual party hat on someone's head. In March, Meta added an AI feature to Facebook Marketplace that automatically replies to buyer messages on sellers' behalf. Most recently, earlier this month, Facebook launched an AI assistant for creators that offers personalized suggestions -- including the best times to post and summaries of what audiences are saying in the comments -- based on a creator's content and performance history. Taken together, the flurry of releases points to a broader strategy: Meta wants Facebook's AI tools to make the platform stickier and more useful, while also diversifying how it makes money. Alongside these feature rollouts, the company recently launched global subscription plans for Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp -- starting at $3.99 a month -- that unlock additional features, with more AI-related subscription tiers reportedly on the way.

Facebook's new AI Mode search gets its info from public posts

Your public Facebook posts could help inform AI-generated results in Meta's new AI Mode. When you search on Facebook, the "AI Mode" option will appear alongside the usual search modes like "People" and "Marketplace." It's one of several new AI features Meta is rolling out starting today, including photo presets that swap sports jerseys onto fans and suggestions for collage templates. Instead of "just links," it gives users AI-generated results that pull from publicly-posted content across Meta's platforms, like the AI search feature in its new Reddit-like Forum app. Users can also ask Meta's AI follow-up questions in response to the search results it generates. Google has similarly pulled from Reddit threads for its search results and AI overviews. Now Meta says its feature "uses Meta AI to give you answers grounded in what people are saying publicly across our apps" and has said that the Muse Spark AI model behind it will "over time unlock new features that cite recommendations and content people share across Instagram, Facebook, and Threads."

Facebook's new AI tools offer more of the same, with photo-editing and question-answering capabilities - Engadget

Meta just announced a suite of AI tools for Facebook users. Nothing here looks especially new, but availability on Facebook could be of some use to certain power users. First up, there's the simply-named AI Mode. This is a standard chatbot that answers questions, with Meta using the example everyone uses when rolling out one of these tools. The company highlights a person asking the chatbot for nearby summer vacation spots. Meta does say that AI Mode pulls data from across its apps, like from Groups and Reels, so maybe the information provided will be slightly different than when asking about summer getaways via Gemini, Claude, Grok, ChatGPT and all the rest. The company promises "real perspectives and experience rather than a generic list of search results." This is all powered by the Meta's recently-announced Muse Spark technology. The update also includes photo-editing capabilities, as that tends to be the other big selling point of these tools beyond "find me somewhere to vacation." There are fresh collage cutout templates for altering photos from the camera roll and new transition effects to create "smooth, stylized video montages that are ready to share." Meta says it can whip up these videos with "just a tap." Finally, there are new photo presets that "make it easy to change your clothing, hair and accessories with AI." Meta is pitching this for sports fans, so folks "can easily rep your fandom and virtually wear a team jersey to celebrate." Nothing says true fandom like a fake jersey. This is launching right now to mobile Facebook users. We don't know if there's a version coming to the web, but that would likely be difficult as computers don't tend to have a camera roll or anything like that.

Facebook is taking a page from Google's playbook with these new features

Like most other tech companies these days, Meta has been increasingly infusing AI into many of its products. The latest instance of this will see three new AI-powered features roll out to Facebook. These features aim to enhance search and bring more creative tools to the social experience. The first of these features takes a page right out of Google Search's playbook. Meta announced today that Facebook will be getting an AI mode. This new mode will answer whatever questions you have. It will also surface information based on what people are saying publicly across Meta's apps, like Groups and Reels. The second new feature coming your way is collage cutout templates and transition effects. This is an update to the camera roll sharing suggestions that Meta introduced late last year. As the company explains, these tools will allow you to " produce smooth, stylized video montages." Meta notes that this is an opt-in only feature and it can be turned off at any time. The final part of this rollout introduces new photo presets. With these presets, you'll be able to use AI to change your clothing, hair, and accessories. All you'll have to do is tap on the "AI edit" icon in stories and select "Wear it." You can also go to your profile picture and tap "Restyle" to do the same.

Facebook now has an AI search engine that pulls answers from your Group posts and Reels

Meta launched AI Mode on Facebook, using Meta AI to surface answers from public posts across Groups, Reels, and Marketplace listings. Meta has launched AI Mode on Facebook, a new search experience that uses Meta AI to pull answers from public posts across the platform. The feature surfaces information from Facebook Groups, Reels, and Marketplace listings, turning years of user-generated content into a searchable knowledge base. It is rolling out now to users in the United States. AI Mode sits inside Facebook's existing search bar. When a user asks a question, Meta AI generates a conversational answer drawn from public content rather than returning a list of links. The system can recommend products from Marketplace, surface advice from Group discussions, and pull clips from Reels that match the query. The feature builds on Meta's broader push to embed AI across its platforms. In May, the company launched Forum, a standalone Reddit-style app built on Facebook Groups that includes an AI "Ask" tab for querying Group discussions. AI Mode extends that same logic to the main Facebook app, giving Meta AI access to a far larger pool of public content. The timing is notable. Google's AI search overhaul has accelerated a traffic collapse for publishers, with zero-click searches now accounting for roughly 60 per cent of all queries. Meta is applying the same approach to social content, synthesising public posts into AI-generated answers instead of sending users to the original discussions. Meta did not say whether Group admins or individual users can opt their public posts out of AI Mode results. The company has not disclosed how it handles posts that were public when written but later changed to private, or whether deleted posts are excluded from the training data. These are significant gaps for a feature that treats user content as raw material for an AI system. AI Mode is one piece of a much larger AI rollout. Meta now offers AI-generated animated profile pictures, introduced in February. A Marketplace auto-reply feature launched in March uses Meta AI to draft responses to buyer inquiries. A creator assistant tool, available since June 3 in the US, India, and Canada, helps content creators with captions and engagement suggestions. The company is also building a subscription business around AI. Facebook Plus and Instagram Plus launched on May 27 at $3.99 per month each, offering ad-free browsing and premium features. Meta has announced two additional AI-specific tiers coming later this year: Meta One Plus at $7.99 per month and Meta One Premium at $19.99 per month, which will include access to more advanced AI models and higher usage limits. The subscription pricing positions Meta's AI features against standalone chatbot services. ChatGPT Plus costs $20 per month. Google's Gemini Advanced is $19.99 per month. Meta is betting that embedding AI into apps people already use every day, rather than asking them to open a separate tool, will drive adoption more effectively. Whether that bet pays off depends on accuracy. AI-generated answers drawn from social media posts carry a higher risk of misinformation than those sourced from curated databases or verified publishers. Facebook Groups contain medical advice from unqualified strangers, financial tips from anonymous accounts, and product recommendations that may be paid promotions. Meta AI does not distinguish between a dermatologist's post and a conspiracy theorist's, at least not in any way the company has publicly described. Google's AI Overviews have already demonstrated the problem at scale. An analysis by Oumi found that Google's AI answers are roughly 91 per cent accurate, but with trillions of queries per year, that error rate translates to millions of incorrect answers served daily. Meta's content pool is arguably less reliable than Google's web index, and the company has not published comparable accuracy metrics for AI Mode. The feature also raises questions about the value exchange between Meta and its users. People post in Facebook Groups to help each other, share experiences, and build communities. AI Mode extracts that value and repackages it as Meta's product, without compensation or clear attribution to the original authors. Meta has been restructuring aggressively to fund its AI ambitions. The company cut roughly 21,000 jobs across 2023 and 2024, then announced another round of layoffs in early 2026 focused on underperforming employees. Mark Zuckerberg has described AI as the company's top priority, with capital expenditure on AI infrastructure expected to reach $60 to $65 billion in 2025 alone. AI Mode is the latest product to emerge from that spending. It is a straightforward play: Facebook has decades of public content that no competitor can match, and Meta AI now has a front door to all of it. The question is whether users will trust an AI that answers their questions by mining their neighbours' posts, and whether the people whose posts are being mined will be comfortable with that arrangement.