Facebook confirms it is testing LOL, a feed of funny videos and GIF-like clips pulled from News Feed posts by top meme Pages
a meme hub meant to lure teens from Snapchat, Instagram, and TikTok Maggie Tillman / Pocket-lint : Facebook is testing a new LOL app with teens, but will they even want it? Brittany A. Roston / SlashGear : Facebook testing LOL short video platform targeting teen users Karissa Bell / Mashable : Facebook to teens: Plz laugh at these old memes David Cohen / Adweek : Facebook Is Testing LOL, a Video Feed of Memes, to Try to Win Back Teens João Carrasqueira / Neowin : Facebook isn't sure how to attract teens, but it won't stop trying AJ Dellinger / Engadget : Facebook's latest attempt to court teens is a ‘cringey’ meme library Sam Rutherford / Gizmodo : Facebook's Secret Meme App for Kids Sounds Like a Freaking Embarrassment Paige Leskin / Business Insider : Facebook is working on a new platform specifically for meme-obsessed teens that's already being described as ‘cringey’ Michael K. Spencer / FutureSin : GenZ Are “Lol” ing at Facebook Queenie Wong / CNET : Facebook is building a meme hub called LOL to attract teens Lauren Feiner / CNBC : Facebook is making another attempt to win back teens. Here's how some of its previous tries have gone Peter Cao / 9to5Mac : Facebook trying to win back the youth with upcoming ‘LOL’ app focused on funny videos and GIFs Tweets: Taylor Lorenz / @taylorlorenz : Why any high schooler would log onto FB dot com to see weeks old memes in an (adult) curated Watch-like tab is beyond me. Also people want to see memes when they're fresh, it's not like a Hey, watch this old meme's greatest hits http://techcrunch.com/... Alexia Bonatsos / @alexia : Facebook is like that old guy with a van parked outside your high school https://twitter.com/... Josh Constine / @joshconstine : Scandals, parents, & baby pics may have permanently scared teens away. Even if it has good ideas, Facebook's brand haunts it ability to launch new products. Here's my full report on LOL http://techcrunch.com/... 6/ Sophia Kunthara / @sophiakunthara : Only an old would think “LOL” is a good name for a dated meme feed. http://techcrunch.com/... @genepark : My lunch mates just asked why I just let out a deep loud guttural sigh and this is why http://twitter.com/... Bruce Lawson / @sapere_vivere : Just showed this to my 13yo. He's not sure whether to laugh or vomit. “Facebook is for really old people like you,” he said. http://twitter.com/... Arthur Clune / @fatrat : Never ending feed of alt-right memes, here we come. http://twitter.com/... Casey Newton / @caseynewton : One thing I'd add to this good @joshconstine scoop is that Facebook has a whole team devoted to building apps for young Facebook-nevers. So we should expect to see new LOLs periodically forever http://techcrunch.com/... Joe Weisenthal / @thestalwart : Wow, 2019 is crazy! Facebook is starting to get into being a place for memes. And Buzzfeed starts getting into serious journalism. http://techcrunch.com/... @mattnavarra : Facebook is secretly building a NEW teen video feed called LOL http://techcrunch.com/...Info:- It's divided into categories like “For You”, “Fails”, “Pranks"- Content is pulled from News Feed posts by top meme Pages on FB- Currently in private beta with US high school students http://twitter.com/... @techcrunch : Facebook is secretly building LOL, a cringey teen meme hub http://techcrunch.com/... by @joshconstine http://twitter.com/... See also Mediagazer
Context & Ripple Effects
LOL is Facebook's second attempt to bottle what already worked once: in 2016, Weird Facebook's meme culture was credited with making the platform fun for teens again, and LOL now formalizes that by pulling clips from top meme Pages into a standalone private-beta feed aimed squarely at Snapchat, Instagram, and TikTok users.
The bet sits inside a longer arc of youth-focused experiments — a pattern the later coverage tests hard, since Facebook went on to restructure its 100+ person youth team and shut LOL down within weeks, before pivoting to remake the core product instead via a TikTok-style internal memo and an eventual Gen Z-focused redesign.
First-order effects
- Teens in the private beta get a dedicated meme-video feed built from News Feed posts by top meme Pages, while those Pages gain a new distribution surface beyond the main app.
Second-order effects
- A standalone LOL puts Facebook in direct feature competition with Snapchat, Instagram, and TikTok for the same teen attention — but its quick shutdown pushed Meta's response back into Messenger Kids investment and, ultimately, restructuring the main feed around unconnected recommendations.
Third-order effects
- LOL's failure marks the end of Facebook's bolt-on-app approach to youth: if the pattern holds, winning teens requires rebuilding the core product — unconnected-content feeds, full-screen video, Local and Explore tabs — rather than launching disposable side apps.
The trend: Facebook's teen strategy has shifted from launching standalone experimental apps like LOL to systematically rebuilding the main feed and design around younger users.