During this week’s second quarter earnings call, CEO Mark Zuckerberg told investors that AI tools are speeding up how his teams build software.
He pointed to a wave of recent launches as proof.
These include a new app for Marketplace sellers, a standalone Facebook Groups app, an AI-assisted gaming app, a fresh photos app from Instagram, and even a bedtime story experiment powered by AI.
More apps are coming soon, Zuckerberg said. He didn’t share exact details, but he made it clear that Meta plans to keep testing new ideas at a faster clip than before.
Trial and Error
Years ago, Meta ran an internal incubator called Creative Labs. That team built several standalone apps. Slingshot let people share photos. Rooms offered anonymous chat.
Paper worked like a news reader, similar to Flipboard. Moments handled photo sharing, and Riff let people make videos together.
None of these apps caught on. By 2015, Meta had shut them all down. The company tried again in the early 2020s with a group called NPE Team, short for New Product Experimentation.
This team developed even more apps. There was Bump for chatting, Aux for sharing music, and Move for managing tasks.
A dating app called Spark appeared, along with a calling app named CatchUp.
The list also included a zine-making tool called E.gg, an events app called Venue, a creator Q&A app called Hotline, a video app called Super, a couples app called Tuned, and a music app called BARS.
Again, none of these apps became a lasting hit. Meta eventually shut them down too.
Also read: Meta Quietly Pulls the Plug on Its Metaverse Dream
Threads
This time feels different, according to Meta. The company points to Threads as its clearest success story yet.
Threads now has 500 million monthly users. That’s a big number. Zuckerberg has said before that he believes Threads could eventually become Meta’s next app to hit a billion users.
Meta didn’t build that growth on AI alone. The company leaned hard on its existing platforms to get the app off the ground.
It pushed Threads to users across Facebook and Instagram from the very start. That helped the app find an audience fast. But AI played a real role too.
Meta’s Chief Financial Officer, Susan Li, told investors that large language models are driving what she called meaningful gains in how the company recommends content to users.
According to Li, these AI models help in two main ways. First, they understand what a piece of content is actually about.
That lets Meta’s systems make smarter recommendations and generate better training data for future models.
Second, AI tools are now helping engineers do their jobs. They check content quality, spot emerging trends, and test changes to how content gets ranked.
Li also shared a notable milestone. Every single Reel and Feed post on Instagram now passes through an AI model.
That model checks the topic and tone of each post. This process helps Meta fine-tune what shows up in people’s feeds.
Meta’s App Lineup
Meta is also building new recommendation systems designed specifically around large language models. This will help future apps grow faster and reach more people from day one.
Investors on the earnings call didn’t press executives for more details about upcoming apps. Most questions focused on Meta’s AI spending and its enterprise tools instead.
Zuckerberg hinted at timing. He said new consumer products are coming soon, but he didn’t get specific on a launch date or name any specific apps.
Given Meta’s track record, some skepticism makes sense. The company has built plenty of apps that never found their footing.
But Threads suggests something has changed. AI tools may be giving Meta’s product teams a real edge this time, one that helps ideas move from concept to launch much faster than before.
Whether that translates into another billion-user hit remains to be seen. For now, all eyes are on what Meta ships next.
