Wave Goodbye to Two More Facebook Apps: Lifestage and Groups

Two stand-alone Facebook applications are no more: Lifestage and Groups. The social network introduced iOS app Lifestage nearly one year ago, late last August, geared toward teens. The app enabled users to create video profiles and view videos posted by other users at their schools, with content only being shared once those schools reached 20 users. Even though users of all ages were technically able to create profiles and videos in Lifestage, users 22 and older could only view their own profiles. Lifestage users also had the ability to block and report other users. A Facebook spokesperson confirmed the shutdown of Lifestage, saying in an email to Social Pro Daily, “As of Aug. 4, we ended support for the Lifestage app. 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 of things that make up their identity. 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.” Facebook’s Groups app had a bit more history, launching in November 2014 as a way for Facebook users to access all of their groups from a single location. Facebook said in an announcement about the shutdown of the Groups app that it has increased its focus on groups in the flagship Facebook apps, adding that users will no longer be able to login to the Groups app after Sept. 1, but all groups they belong to will be accessible via the Facebook app. Lifestage and Groups are not the only stand-alone apps from Facebook to be shuttered. The social network pulled the plug on its Paper app in June 2016, shifting its focus to Instant Articles. Paper debuted in February 2014 as a redesigned, full-screen, immersive alternative to Facebook’s News Feed, curated into sections. In December 2015, Facebook shut down its Facebook Creative Labs unit and three of the stand-alone apps it created: Slingshot, which enabled users to share photos and videos that friends could only see if they responded with “Slings” of their own; Rooms, an anonymous chatting app that enabled users to get together in “rooms” dedicated to topics and discuss those topics in the style of internet predecessors such as forums, message boards and chat rooms; and Riff, which enabled users to collaborate on videos. And in May 2014, two other Facebook stand-alone apps met their demise: Poke, which debuted in December 2012 as a way for users to share messages, photos, videos or Pokes that expired in seconds; and Camera, which aggregated users’ friends’ photos into one feed and enabled editing and simultaneous sharing of multiple photos. Image courtesy of ricardoinfante/iStock.