Facebook unveiled its latest software on Friday, August 19, to catch the attention of social media most active users: teenagers. With Lifestage, teens can communicate throughout school social network.
Facebook’s Lifestage iOs app will let teens turning biographical information into a video to share with other users on their profiles. Everyone has the option of downloading the app, however, only those aged 21 or under can interact with other users. After downloading the app, users enter their age and link their counts to a specific high school or university. Nevertheless, Facebook did not provide information about how it will prevent users who do not belong to the same school to see users’ profile.
In this sense, the app will not provide privacy due to anyone registered on Lifestage and fulfilling age parameters is available to watch others profile content.
It seems like all content posted on Lifestage accounts becomes public and viewable by everyone, regardless if they belong or not to the linked educational institution. Also, the app does not count with a filter or a verification barrier to verify if teens who claim to be enrolled in a school are attending to that institution.
It is possible that coming app’s update will offer more privacy settings. In the meantime, teenagers count with a “fresh” platform to communicate and interact with people of similar age and similar interests.
Video-friendly social network for teens
Created by the 19-year-old Facebook product manager, Michael Sayman, the app will allow users to share a biographical video on their profile. The visual profile tool has been designed to help teens becoming known with school’s social network.
The video friendly-social app for teenagers allows users to discover video profiles created by others posted on their accounts. Lifestage has been described by its very own creator as a video diary where people answer biographical questions and instead of having a profile picture, users record a profile video to learn more about themselves and share it with other school’s mates.
The app is currently available only for iOS, and it is restricted for those who are 21 and younger. According to a blog spot released on Saturday, 22-year-old users or older will only be able to see their profile, but won’t be able to see others’ profiles or to communicate with them.
Lifestage’s age restriction has been updated to return to Facebook’s roots (a social media platform to let young college students to interact with other same-age users). Over the last decade, Facebook has been invaded by business accounts and other users (adults, kids) and has lost its primary objective of connecting young populations. The app will also allow users to share videos, photos and to give ‘likes’ or ‘dislikes’ to users’ posts.
The new social platform will not support, however, messaging and it seems like that feature will not be updated soon. The company has not provided either information about when the app will be available for Android devices.
Source: Daily Dot