Type | Anonymous social network |
---|---|
Discontinued | Yes, service is offline |
Discontinued | 1.99.94 (iOS) / February 18, 2019 |
Operating system(s) | Android, iOS |
After School [1] was a proprietary iOS and Android, social network mobile application that allows users in a defined network, aimed at high schools, to share anonymous text-based posts and images with others. [2] As of July 2016, After School had users at more than 20,000 American high schools. [3]
According to CEO Michael Callahan, the app was created as a network “that teens could use to express themselves, to reach out to others and to ask for and offer help to fellow teens in distress.” [4]
The app, created by Michael Callahan and Cory Levy of ONE, Inc., debuted in mid-November 2014. In the re-release of the app in April 2015, [5] After School implemented “mature content” filters, age verification, 24/7 live anonymous support, and FIRST (Fastest Internet Response System for Threats). [6] In February 2016, After School announced raising a $16.4 million Series A round. [4] The app also detects threatening or harmful messages using "language algorithms" [7] and "enforces a single-report immediate user removal for violations." [8]
While the service has not been formally discontinued, the website is offline and the applications are no longer available for download in the Google Play Store and Apple App Store as of 2020. It is now part of the Utah operation of Ancestry.com.
The service has received criticism for enabling cyberbullying due to its anonymous nature and intended audience, as well as not being accessible by parents or teachers. [9]
Core team | ||
---|---|---|
Michael Callahan | Romain Declé-Nancy | Cory Levy |
The company's staff was acquired by Ancestry.com LLC in 2021. [10] Ancestry.com
Plurk is a free social networking and microblogging service that allows users to send updates through short messages or links, which can be up to 360 text characters in length.
Kik Messenger, commonly called Kik, is a freeware instant messaging mobile app from the Canadian company Kik Interactive, available on iOS and Android operating systems.
Since the arrival of early social networking sites in the early 2000s, online social networking platforms have expanded exponentially, with the biggest names in social media in the mid-2010s being Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat. The massive influx of personal information that has become available online and stored in the cloud has put user privacy at the forefront of discussion regarding the database's ability to safely store such personal information. The extent to which users and social media platform administrators can access user profiles has become a new topic of ethical consideration, and the legality, awareness, and boundaries of subsequent privacy violations are critical concerns in advance of the technological age.
SKOUT is the developer of a location-based social networking and dating application and website. SKOUT was one of the first dating and mobile people discovery applications to emphasize generalized user location. SKOUT is available on both iOS and Android operating systems. Other SKOUT properties include Nixter, a nightlife app, and Fuse, an ephemeral group messaging app. SKOUT reported that over 500 million connections were made using its app in 2013.
Cyberbullying is a form of bullying or harassment using electronic means. It has become increasingly common, especially among teenagers and adolescents, due to young people's increased use of social media. Related issues include online harassment and trolling. In 2015, according to cyberbullying statistics from the i–Safe Foundation, over half of adolescents and teens had been bullied online, and about the same number had engaged in cyberbullying. Both the bully and the victim are negatively affected, and the intensity, duration, and frequency of bullying are three aspects that increase the negative effects on both of them.
ASKfm was a Latvian question and answer network launched in June 2010 as a competitor to Formspring. After registration, the user fills out their profile and can ask questions, reply on their profile, create photo polls. Also from 2021, app users can communicate anonymously or openly in public chats or tête-à-tête in private chats. The platform had 300 million registered users as of November 2021.
Life360 Inc. is a San Francisco, California–based American information technology company that provides location-based services, including sharing and notifications, to consumers globally. Its main service is called Life360, a family social networking app released in 2008. It is a location-based service designed primarily to enable friends and family members to share their location with each other.
Spring.me was a social networking service. Until a rebranding in 2013, it was known as Formspring, a question-and-answer-based social network launched in 2009 by Ade Olonoh, the founder of online form builder Formstack.
Whisper is a proprietary mobile app available without charge. It is a form of anonymous social media, allowing users to post and share photo and video messages anonymously, although this claim has been challenged with privacy concerns over Whisper's handling of user data. The postings, called "whispers", consist of text superimposed over an image, and the background imagery is either automatically retrieved from Whisper's search engine or uploaded by the user. The app, launched in March 2012, is the main product of the media company WhisperText LLC, which was co-founded by CEO Michael Heyward, the son of the entertainment executive Andy Heyward, and Brad Brooks, who is the CEO of mobile messaging service TigerText. Since 2015, the service has sought to become more of a brand advertising platform, with promotional partnerships with Netflix, NBCUniversal, Disney, HBO, and MTV. According to TechCrunch, as of March 2017, Whisper has a total of 17 billion monthly pageviews on its mobile and desktop websites, social channels and publisher network, with 250 million monthly users across 187 countries. It is owned by MediaLab. In October 2022, Whisper was removed from the Apple App Store, and was added to the App Store again but was removed in 2023 again temporarily, but was recently restored to iOS in March of 2024. Whisper was again removed from the IOS App store and as off October 2024 is still not listed as an app. In September 2024 the app was removed from the Google Play Store and no longer works on Android devices. Whisper never made a statement about the removal of support for Android.
Pheed was a mobile pay-per-view technology and social networking service founded by O.D. Kobo, Tony DeNiro, and Phil Haus. In March 2014, 18 months from launch, a subsidiary of América Móvil acquired the service for $40 million in cash and stock.
Anonymous social media is a subcategory of social media wherein the main social function is to share and interact around content and information anonymously on mobile and web-based platforms. Another key aspect of anonymous social media is that content or information posted is not connected with particular online identities or profiles.
Yik Yak is a pseudonymous social media smartphone application that initially launched in 2013 and relaunched in 2021. The app, which is available for iOS and (formerly) Android, allows college students to create and view discussion threads within a 5-mile (8.0 km) radius. It is similar to other anonymous sharing apps such as Nearby, but differs from others such as Whisper in that it is intended for sharing primarily with those in proximity to the user.
Talkspace, Inc. is an online and mobile therapy company based in New York City. It was founded by Oren and Roni Frank in 2012. Talkspace users have access to licensed therapists through the website or mobile app on iOS and Android. Talkspace has been criticized for making questionable claims about its effectiveness, compromised user privacy, posted fake reviews to improve its rating in an app store, and uses freelance therapists of uncertain qualifications.
YouNow is an American live streaming broadcasting service where users stream their own live video content or interact with the video streams of other users in real time. The service is available on its website and on Android and iOS apps.
Cory Levy is the founder of FirstText.com and ZFellows.com. Z Fellows is a fellowship that offers you $10,000 to stop what you're doing for a week to work on a side project alongside mentors ranging from the Founder of Tinder to Netflix. He formerly co-founded and was the COO of ONE, Inc., creators of the After School App, an anonymous social network for high school students. He is also the founder of Internapalooza, a one-day tech conference for Silicon Valley interns.
Ogle is a free smartphone based social media application. It is available for iOS and Android. Ogle acts like a school wide forum that lets users and users' classmates share and interact. Users can share photos, videos, questions, even thoughts and watch submissions grow in popularity as other users vote and comment on them.
Unmute was a mobile voice messaging application, only available on the iOS platform. It has been featured as a "Best New App" in the iPhone App Store and has been featured on Product Hunt. Users include teens as well as celebrities, including actor Bellamy Young (Scandal), who hosted an Unmute call with thousands of listeners. Unmute has been compared to the livestreaming applications YouNow and Periscope, though Unmute is audio-only.
Oswald Labs is a Dutch-Indian based accessibility technology company that builds products for individuals with disabilities. It specializes in enterprise web accessibility, offers smartphone apps, and also runs a startup accelerator. It was established in 2016 by Anand Chowdhary, Nishant Gadihoke, and Mahendra Raghuwanshi after their product, Oswald Extension, won an event at the AngelHack hackathon in New Delhi.
Benjamin Pasternak is an Australian technology entrepreneur. He is the co-founder and CEO of SIMULATE, an American food technology company, that has raised US$57M in investment to date. SIMULATE's signature product, NUGGS, launched in July 2019. It is a plant-based alternative to chicken nuggets. Previously, Pasternak founded Monkey, a social networking app that enabled teenagers to video chat with like-minded people.
Michael Arthur Sayman, is a Peruvian–Bolivian–American mobile application entrepreneur, software engineer, political activist, and author. He is best known for creating top-charting apps as a teenager to provide for his family during the Great Recession, as well as his subsequent work at Facebook. Described by Semana as "the most influential Latino in Silicon Valley", in 2019, Sayman was included on Forbes's 30 Under 30 list, and has additionally been featured at TED.