Facebook pulls plug on app for under-21s after just one year

Aug 10, 2017 | Facebook marketing, Mobile, Social media

Facebook has closed a video-focused app targeted at under-21s less than a year after it was launched.

Lifestage was designed to connect students going to the same school or university, making all of their posts available to each other.

However, the app faced criticism for having limited privacy controls and a “confusing” user interface.

Speaking to Business Insider, the social media giant said it had “learned a lot” from the app and would feed this into Facebook itself.

Lifestage was developed by a product manager who was a teenager himself when it became available on the iOS App Store in late August 2016.

Members were encouraged to answer personal questions by filming video replies and were rewarded with emoji graphics for doing so.

Users were supposed to be under 21 to see others’ profiles, but the software could be fooled into providing access if older members typed in false birth dates.

The app expanded to Android in October 2016 but never achieved mass adoption.

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