What it’s like to use Facebook’s new Snapchat competitor that’s only for high schoolers (FB)

Facebook has a new app that’s for teens only.

The app, which is called Lifestage, was quietly released last Friday afternoon in the App Store. It was designed by 19-year-old Facebook employee Michael Sayman and looks eerily similar to Snapchat at first glance.

Both Snapchat and Lifestage open to a camera and encourage you to take goofy videos, but the main difference with Lifestage is that it’s centered entirely around high schools. You have to join a school to see videos from classmates, and there’s no way to directly message someone.

Lifestage is designed for young people to “show others who they are and to find out more about the people in their school community as well as meet new people,” according to Sayman, who joined Facebook immediately after graduating high school two years ago.

Even though I’m not technically young enough to use Lifestage (the app blocks you from joining a school if say you’re older than 21), I decided to give it a try by pretending to be younger.

SEE ALSO: Facebook wants people to share selfies like they do on Snapchat

19-year-old Facebook product manager Michael Sayman created Lifestage as a way to explore how Generation Z wants to communicate through social media.

Facebook declined to make Sayman available for an interview with Business Insider, but the young employee did explain why Lifestage was created in a post on his personal Facebook page last week.

“Lifestage looks back at the days of Facebook from 2004 and explores what can be done if we went back and turned the crank all the way forward to 2016 with video-first,” he wrote.

“Back in 2004, Facebook was all about ‘who I am,'” according to Sayman. “Today as Facebook has grown into so much more, we see the opportunity to explore that concept of ‘who I am’ once again, but for Generation Z in 2016.”

Lifestage is strictly intended for high schoolers. You have to enter your age when you first login, and if you’re under 21 years old you won’t be able to add a school you belong to.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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