A staggering 1.13 billion people log onto Facebook every day, but younger users are increasingly ditching the social network for apps such as Snapchat.
To win them back, Facebook has launched a new app called Lifestage, specifically designed for under 21s.
Instead of posting wordy status updates, young users can let the world see what they are doing by sharing videos.
Perhaps designed to appeal to a generation inspired by YouTube vloggers such as Ksi and Zoella, the app first asks users to shoot videos of themselves pulling different faces and dancing, for example, which it compiles into a longer video that’s used instead of a profile picture, TechCrunch reported.
The app goes back to Facebook’s roots, linking young people at school, college and university who can share content without their parents seeing.
However, it's only currently only available from the US App Store and is currently being tested at a handful of schools in the country.
A Facebook spokesman said: “We're testing Lifestage, a new standalone app from Facebook. Built for teens who want to connect with others at their school, Lifestage allows them to create a video profile with content for all of things that make up their identity - things like what they like and don't like, their best friend, and more."
While anyone over the age of 13 can download Lifestage in the US, users over the age of 22 will only be able to see their own profile, and teenagers can block and report users to prevent strangers viewing their videos.
Young users don’t need a Facebook account to sign up for the new iOS app, instead they can simply select their high school and input personal information to get started.
“It's not just about the happy moments - build a video profile of the things you like, but also things you don’t like,” Facebook says in the Lifestage App Store listing.
“Post what you are into right now – and replace the video in that field whenever you want. Share to dozens of fields in sections of your profile."
Lifestage only shows profiles aside from the user's own once 12 people from their school have joined and their school is unlocked.
It will only be unlocked for a limited number of schools, with the app rolling out school by school, as Facebook did when it first launched.
The company says: "Discover video profiles created by others in your school to learn more about them."
It’s the brainchild of Facebook’s 19-year-old product manager Michael Sayman, who built his own range of successful apps before joining the social network and dreaming up an app his friends would want to use.
He noticed Facebook opened to a user’s profile instead of the News Feed in 2004 and built Lifestage to do the same, inviting users to answer questions using videos to unlock more.
A feed shows people from a user’s school who have recently answered questions, allowing them to tap on videos to watch them. Updated profiles are denoted with a sunglasses-smile emoji, while those without updates are marked with a sad face or even a poop emoji after a period of neglect.
Unlike with Snapchat, there’s no way of contacting friends directly because youngsters already have a choice of apps for doing that.
Instead, users can add their Snapchat or Instagram handle to make them easily reachable, making it seem as if the app is not intended to go head-to-head with Snapchat, even if it does have similarities.
Facebook's noticed the way people share content has changed since it launched, with users preferring to share photos and videos, leading the social network to roll out new apps like Lifestage.
But commentators have suggested different ‘real’ purposes of the app, including it being a way to gather data for advertising purposes and to improve the main Facebook app.
For example, data collected could inform how Facebook will try to attract young users to its main offering, or how to put video at the heart of its original app.
But judging by the comments section on the App Store, some users aren’t happy about the amount of personal information they have to hand over to use Lifestage.
A user named Lolzeka wrote: “I don't like how much information you have to give out. I don't want my phone number to be known nor do I want everyone to know my Instagram and Snapchat. I could not figure out how to take a picture or why my school was needed.”
The company notes on the App Store posting: “Everything you post in Lifestage is always public and viewable by everyone, inside and outside your school,” and is likely to incur the wrath of privacy campaigners.
“There is no way to limit the audience of your videos,” Facebook continued. “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.”
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
