Facebook has killed Lifestage, the standalone app it released almost one year ago as a dedicated social network for high schoolers.
Lifestage was pulled from the App Store on August 4, a Facebook spokesperson confirmed to Business Insider on Tuesday. The Snapchat-like app hadn't been updated for months and never managed to crack the App Store's top charts during its short lifespan.
Created by 20-year-old Facebook employee Michael Sayman, Lifestage was intended to help teens find and connect with other classmates who went to their school. Instead of direct messaging, high schoolers were supposed to use the app to share selfies and videos that all of their classmates could watch.
Lifestage was so focused on reaching high schoolers that it blocked people who listed their age as over 21 in the app from joining a school or looking up other accounts. But anyone could easily enter their fake age and pretend to be younger, which raised privacy concerns.
Even though the app never managed to catch on among teens, Facebook said that feedback from Lifestage has informed its other Snapchat-like, camera-centric slew of products, like Instagram and Facebook Stories.
“We originally launched Lifestage to make it easier for teens in the US to connect with others at their school by creating a video profile with content for all of things that make up their identity," a company spokesperson told BI. "Teens continue to make up an important part of the global community on Facebook, and we've learned a lot from Lifestage. We will continue to incorporate these learnings into features in the main Facebook app.”
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