Introducing Facebook’s New App Lifestage

Facebook recently launched a new standalone iOS app called Lifestage, specifically for teens, where users create video-only profiles. Users are asked to answer questions about their likes, dislikes, best friend, etc. to fill their profile, but the questions are “answered” with video instead of text.

While it aligns with Facebook’s video-first approach, the app isn’t meant for everyone. In fact, it is specifically for people 21 and under. If you are 22 or older, you can’t view anyone else’s profile besides your own.

The purpose of the app is for users to learn more about their classmates, and was actually created by a 19-year-old. When you sign up (you don’t need a Facebook account), you are prompted to select your high school. The app also doesn’t show you other profiles until at least 20 people from your school are using it. Sounds familiar to how Facebook originally launched doesn’t it? If word-of-mouth is their primary way of getting users interested in joining, Facebook may find it challenging to acquire a lot of users right away.

Another challenge Lifestage faces is privacy issues. After you create an account, you are shown the below screen that basically says everything is viewable to the public, and there’s no guarantee that the 16-year-old claiming to be your classmate actually attends your school or is even under 21 for that matter. Yikes. Nonetheless, the app does let you report and block users.

If there’s ever the ability for brands to have their own profiles, this could be an interesting way for brands to reach a younger audience, especially if that’s their primary demographic, and could be another outlet for young influencers.