Facebook Designed, But Never Launched, Teen App
Court records reveal that Facebook designed a messaging app for high school students called 'Bell' but ultimately decided not to launch it. Despite internal research identifying an engagement opportunity, the project was shelved. The decision was likely due to regulatory, reputational, or user trust concerns.
- The app, under consideration in 2018, was designed to create distinct social networks for individual high schools, limiting students to communicating only with their classmates. - An April 2018 internal presentation detailed features such as school-wide messaging, group chats for specific classes or clubs, and anonymous confession posts. - Plans for 'Bell' also suggested a potential integration with educational software, specifically mentioning Google Classroom. - The unreleased app's details became public through documents submitted as evidence in a major lawsuit against Meta and other social media firms, brought by 33 U.S. state attorneys general, numerous school districts, and hundreds of families. - This legal action claims that tech companies intentionally designed addictive platforms and marketed them to minors, despite being aware of research indicating potential harm to children's mental health. - 'Bell' was one of several attempts by Facebook to capture the teen market, following the 2016 launch of 'Lifestage,' a video-centric app for high schoolers, and a reported 2017 project called 'Talk,' a messaging app with parental controls. - Broader context for these teen-focused projects includes leaked internal research showing that Facebook knew Instagram negatively impacted the mental health of some teenage girls. - Internal company documents have also shown that daily use of the main Facebook app by teenagers and young adults has been on a downward trend since 2012-2013.
