Skip to main content

Facebook’s teens-only app Lifestage has flunked out of the App Store

Lifestage
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Facebook’s teenager-focused app is no longer on the App Store after only a year of existence — but the social media platform says the app’s short lifespan is has already helped inspire youth-favored options inside Facebook. The developer pulled Lifestage, a social network for high schoolers that took some inspiration from Snapchat, earlier this month, confirming on Tuesday that the app was no longer available for download. The social platform also recently announced that the  Facebook Groups app features are now completely integrated into Facebook and that the stand-alone app will be discontinued on September 1.

If you’ve never heard of Lifestage, you’re not alone — Facebook launched the app quietly last year and it never topped the charts in the App Store. Lifestage was a social network designed for high schoolers. The idea was to connect students at the same school through video profiles and selfies.

Recommended Videos

The app itself was built by a teenager, Michael Sayman, who was just 19 when the app launched after working for Facebook for a year.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

Since the app is designed for high schoolers, anyone who was over 21 was blocked from viewing any profiles or data. Facebook also designed other security features, like quick swipes to block a user and easy in-app reporting of any abuse. The app still raised security questions, however, since anyone could lie about their age to get inside the app.

While Lifestages in no longer around, the app is still inside smartphones in spirit, influencing some of Facebook’s latest features including the augmented reality camera and Stories inside both Facebook and Instagram.

“We originally launched Lifestage to make it easier for teens in the U.S. to connect with others at their school by creating a video profile with content for all the things that make up their identity,” Facebook told Business Insider, which first noticed the app’s absence from the App Store. “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.”

Lifestage hadn’t seen updates for several months before being eliminated from the App Store entirely. While originally an iOS app, Lifestage also launched for Android two months after the iOS launch.

Facebook will also be eliminating the separate Groups app, with the community features still accessible inside the main app. Facebook says the change is to focus on groups inside the main Facebook app.

Hillary K. Grigonis
Hillary never planned on becoming a photographer—and then she was handed a camera at her first writing job and she's been…
Facebook’s massive outage saw millions sign up for rival apps
facebook hacked

When Facebook users had finished mocking the company over its calamitous global outage on Monday, October 4, many apparently flocked to rival apps in order to get back in touch with friends and family.

The six-hour outage -- caused by configuration changes to Facebook's routers that prevented its computer systems from communicating in the usual way -- also impacted Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram, which Facebook also operates.

Read more
Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram are back after several hours offline
facebook hacked

Well, here's one way to start a week off on the wrong foot: Facebook, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram were all down for several hours on Monday. Yes, completely down. Starting at roughly 9 a.m. PT, Downdetector started to show a sharp spike in reports of outages -- though as we look back, users were discussing unsent messages and broken apps even earlier.

As of 4 p.m. PT, the services had for the most part returned to working order, albeit with some cobwebs left to shake out, leaving everyone collectively scratching their heads and wondering how an outage of this scale happened.

Read more
Apple has decreased App Store prices in the U.K., South Africa, other countries
App store icon showing three notifications.

Apple has announced some pricing changes in a number of markets around the world. As local taxes and exchange rates change in key markets, Apple App Store users may find that the prices of their favorite apps or in-app purchases have shifted somewhat. Over the next few days, App Store prices will be decreasing in the United Kingdom, South Africa, and all territories that use the Euro as their primary currency. On the other side of the coin, Apple is increasing prices in the countries of Georgia and Tajikistan due to an increase in the value-added tax of 18% for those nations.
Developers have been notified of these changes and how they will affect their earnings from app sales. In some instances, the changes are legislative, such as with the recent changes in Italy to the Digital Services Tax. Developers will now receive a higher cut from the proceeds of their app sales in Italy.

These tax code changes come alongside a redesign of Apple's online store. After the site was down for an hour on Tuesday, it reappeared with a new set of images and links to its main product lines, dedicated store pages, and other resources like accessories, support, and guides. In the past, the online store being down has usually preceded an announcement of a new device, but in this case, there doesn't appear to be any new products.

Read more