• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia
TechFortune 500

Facebook Is Taking a Different Approach With Its New App for Teens

By
Kia Kokalitcheva
Kia Kokalitcheva
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Kia Kokalitcheva
Kia Kokalitcheva
Down Arrow Button Icon
August 19, 2016, 9:54 PM ET
#CDUdigital Conference In Berlin
BERLIN, GERMANY - SEPTEMBER 12: A visitor uses a mobile phone in front of the Facebook logo at the #CDUdigital conference on September 12, 2015 in Berlin, Germany. The world's largest social media network was launched by Mark Zuckerberg and his Harvard College roommates in 2004, and had its initial public offering in February 2012. (Photo by Adam Berry/Getty Images)Photograph by Adam Berry — Getty Images

Facebook is finally taking a different approach to winning over young users.

The social network on Friday introduced yet another app for sharing photos and videos intended to challenge its fast-growing rival Snapchat and its popularity with teens. The new app, Lifestage, is intended for teens for posting photos and videos, as well as to express their likes and dislikes, emotions, and friendships.

The app opens directly to a camera screen, a signaling its focus on photos, and lets users browse the profiles of their school classmates (it’s currently invite-only on iOS, and each school needs 20 users to become active).

Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter.

Michael Sayman, a 19-year-old app developer who was offered a job at Facebook after landing a meeting with CEO Mark Zuckerberg during the company’s annual conference in 2014, told mediaoutlets that Lifestage’s design was inspired by old versions of Facebook itself. At its core, Facebook was, and still is, an online directory for users to look up others or check up on their friends.

“What if we were to grab what Facebook from 2004 was and bring it to 2016 and bring it into what we’ve been trying to understand with video and content creation,” Sayman told Mashable.

Up until now, Facebook’s attempts to clone Snapchat have been to largely recreate the same features and look of the app. It was as if teens would be won over by simply creating a silly-seeming photo and video app. Those efforts over the past few years—Poke, Slingshot, Riff—didn’t catch on.

But Sayman’s observation that the idea behind the original Facebook should be translated into today’s technology and how youth interact shows a departure in the company’s approach. Just like Snapchat capitalized on young users’ new desire for non-permanent communication and self-expression through disappearing photos and messages, Lifestage is an attempt to capitalize on one of its own main features: user profiles where they can post information about themselves and photos and videos.

Earlier this month, Facebook-owned Instagram, once the cool photo app for teens, went after Snapchat with the release of Stories, a feature that lets users share daily reels of photos and videos with their followers that disappear after 24 hours. Snapchat already had a similar feature of the same name. And like Lifestage’s approach, it figured out how to meld utility with Instagram’s current design to produce something that could appeal to users drawn to ephemeral messaging apps.

There’s of course no way of telling whether Lifestage will be successful—social apps are largely a crapshoot. But at least Facebook has begun to change how it thinks about creating an appealing and enduring photo and video-sharing app.

About the Author
By Kia Kokalitcheva
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • Future 50
  • World’s Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
Sections
  • Finance
  • Leadership
  • Success
  • Tech
  • Asia
  • Europe
  • Environment
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Health
  • Retail
  • Lifestyle
  • Politics
  • Newsletters
  • Magazine
  • Features
  • Commentary
  • Mpw
  • CEO Initiative
  • Conferences
  • Personal Finance
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
About Us
  • About Us
  • Editorial Calendar
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Diversity And Inclusion
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map

Latest in Tech

PoliticsiRobot
Roomba bites the dust: iRobot files for bankruptcy, but don’t worry—your robot vacuum should still work
By Molly Liebergall and Morning BrewDecember 16, 2025
1 hour ago
Justina
Future of Workskills
Can’t get a job? Blame AI? Train in ‘power skills,’ IBM exec says: ‘You can’t hire a college student now to just come in and create a spreadsheet’
By Nick LichtenbergDecember 16, 2025
1 hour ago
NewslettersTerm Sheet
Valerie Health raises $30 million Series A to scale “AI front offices” for physicians
By Allie GarfinkleDecember 16, 2025
2 hours ago
InvestingStock
Global selloff in stocks signals AI bubble may be ending in the healthiest way possible
By Jim EdwardsDecember 16, 2025
3 hours ago
A Ford F-150 Lightning on sale at a Chicago dealership on December 15, 2025. (Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images)
NewslettersFortune Tech
Ford takes a $19.5 billion hit as EV demand drops
By Andrew NuscaDecember 16, 2025
3 hours ago
Detroit, Michigan, Residents picket DTE Energy, opposing the electric utility's plan to provide power for a proposed $7 billion data center in rural Michigan.
EnvironmentData centers
A grassroots NIMBY revolt is turning voters in Republican strongholds against the AI data-center boom
By Eva RoytburgDecember 16, 2025
6 hours ago

Most Popular

placeholder alt text
Success
'I had to take 60 meetings': Jeff Bezos says 'the hardest thing I've ever done' was raising the first million dollars of seed capital for Amazon
By Dave SmithDecember 15, 2025
21 hours ago
placeholder alt text
Success
Meetings are not work, says Southwest Airlines CEO—and he’s taking action, by blocking his calendar every afternoon from Wednesday to Friday 
By Preston ForeDecember 15, 2025
23 hours ago
placeholder alt text
Success
Sorry, six-figure earners: Elon Musk says that money will 'disappear' in the future as AI makes work (and salaries) irrelevant
By Orianna Rosa RoyleDecember 15, 2025
1 day ago
placeholder alt text
AI
Deloitte's CTO on a stunning AI transformation stat: Companies are spending 93% on tech and only 7% on people
By Nick LichtenbergDecember 15, 2025
1 day ago
placeholder alt text
Personal Finance
Current price of silver as of Monday, December 15, 2025
By Joseph HostetlerDecember 15, 2025
1 day ago
placeholder alt text
North America
Ford writes down $19.5 billion as it pivots electric Lighting line of vehicles
By Sasha RogelbergDecember 15, 2025
17 hours ago

© 2025 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.