In less than two years after its launch, Meta is shutting down its social media application, Campus, which was introduced by Facebook in September 2020. The app is solely designed for college students.
With Facebook Campus, it attempted a return to its roots as a college-student focused social networking app with a private section on Facebook that was open to those with an @.edu email address.
Campus users could get access to a special news feed and join students’ groups, events, and chat rooms focused on college life. It included a guide where users could easily find and add friends to other students on the app. Facebook eventually extended Campus to add 60 schools and colleges.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg
Now it looks like the “Campus” feature will be gone forever. Facebook has told users in an in-app message that they will close the campus down and that all profiles, groups, posts, and other related data will be erased. Users who wish to protect their data will be able to do so by downloading it before March 10th.
The social media company initially launched the campus pilot with 30 US students, back in September 2020 for all college or university students so they would have a community area to put themselves out there and interact with friends or other students. Because the pandemic kept everyone at home, Meta wanted to provide users with a new experience that would remind them of their college days.
As per social media consultant known as Matt Navarra, who shared a screenshot of a message on Twitter about the closure of the social media app, the message says ‘Campus is going away soon and will no longer be available after March 10.’
Meta has a lot of ventures currently, but its foundations follow it back to its starting points, where it offered the social media platform for Facebook to college students and teens back in 2004.
Facebook changed its company name to Meta in October 2021, and since then, the company has changed its concentration from its social networking platform to the multi-tech metaverse.