Facebook launches teens-only app, Lifestage

It would appear that Mark Zuckerberg is pulling out all the stops in an effort to combat the meteoric rise of Snapchat, first with Instagram Stories and now with a standalone iOS app, Lifestage.

The USP employed to capture the hearts and minds of Gen Y is that the app comes with an age restriction, anyone over 22 isn’t allowed to use it.

In essence Lifestage is similar to Snapchat and the earliest form of Facebook. It’s a platform where you can build a profile using photos and videos of things you like, things you dislike, your facial expressions, your best friends, and so on. Once 20 users register for a single school, that school is then legitimised allowing other students to discover the profiles of other students. Essentially users can only see their own profile until at least 20 other students from their school sign up.

One of the big differences, and a major feature setting it apart from Facebook is the public nature of the content. As Facebook put it themselves –

“Everything you post in Lifestage is always public and viewable by everyone, inside and outside your school. There is no way to limit the audience of your videos. We can’t confirm that people who claim to go to a certain school actually go to that school. All videos you upload to your profile are fully public content”

As an answer to Snapchat it certainly has some interesting characteristics but it has been received with mixed reviews. While the concept of a “Kids only” social network surely has its perks, there doesn’t seem to be any way to actually enforce it.

The app itself was built by Michael Sayman, a 19-year old former Facebook-intern and current  Facebook product manager. His previous successes include a $1 app with tips on the Club Penguin game and the insanely popular 4Snaps, photo-charades app.

HM36-Blog-Banner2

So built by a teen, for the teens, will Lifestage sink or swim?

You can download Lifestage for iOS now, the android version is sure to follow shortly.

giphy

Latest Posts

Everyone said Threads was just another desperate attempt by Meta to copy Twitter – and, well – they were right. But two years down the line and Threads is slowly building its own case…for itself, and against its rivals X and Bluesky. In July 2023, Threads emerged gaining 2 million…
Read More
AI is accelerating. Reels are rising. And your content plan deserves better than guesswork. I know you’re busy. You’re juggling campaign deadlines before summer, trying to keep pace with platform changes, and just when you thought you had the hang of it – eek! Social moves…
Read More
If you’re creating social media content regularly, you know how chaotic things can get. Endless campaigns, shifting priorities, last-minute changes… It’s a lot. That’s why design templates are more than a convenience; they’re a strategic foundation for marketing on social. Done right, they can boost consistency, save hours, and improve…
Read More