World's First Teenage-Positive App Is Changing How Kids Consume Content

Two words we never thought would find acceptance in the digital landscape together are "teenage" and "app." In the mistrust-heavy environment against tech companies that have largely ignored the needs of teenagers and kids, "Uable" is a breath of fresh air aimed at equipping kids with skills and tools required to foster a teenage-positive environment.

Being marketed as the world's "first teen super app," Uable was created by Saurabh Saxena and Vasavi Kandula. The children-specific app is designed keeping in mind the varied age-group between 13-19. According to Saxena, the app can help kids in multiple ways as opposed to traditional social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, who described it as a "safe environment" where moderators deal with grievances of teenagers in real-time and with help from automated tools to filter out inappropriate and spam content.

Saurabh Saxena and Vasavi Kandula

Describing the development of Uable as a "journey of evolution," Saurabh Saxena, the co-creator of Uable told Indiatimes that he's worked with kids for 15 years. "Their interest areas are diverse," he told us.

Uable appears as a do-it-all app for kids that provides opportunities to create & consume content, to explore & build on interests, and to even meet like-minded teenagers through micro-communities called Clubs. Representing a varied palette of app features that cater to gamers, fashion enthusiasts, sports lovers, to engineers and entrepreneurs in-the-making, Uable wants to become a "singular destination where teens can become self-reliant while networking, exploring, and having fun."

Launched in September 2021, the app has clocked in 500,000+ downloads so far with an ambitious goal to onboard 10 million teenagers by the end of 2023.

In the backdrop of kids leaving apps like Instagram and Facebook, Saxena described the development of Uable as a "journey of evolution". Is the app safe? How are kids protected on the app? What lessons has Uable learned from Facebook? We discuss these pressing concerns with Saxena below.

Saurabh Saxena

How does Uable work?

Uable is a place where teenagers can explore their interests through clubs and also meet "like-minded teenagers" which Saxena feels is a modern teenager's biggest need.

The app claims to cater to a wide range of age-groups, from kids aged 13 to 19 years. Naturally, they consume different content differently. Instead of providing an age-specific experience, Uable learns what its users want, akin to how Facebook and Twitter operate. "We don't have separate communities as such, but we are soon launching community clubs," Saxena said while adding that they're rolling out a private community feature soon where kids would be able to join based on interests instead of age. "We don't want to act like an authority."

Screen grab from Uable

What about safety?

Besides the regular threats of addiction and scams, a teen-only app could invite adults with predatory intentions. Saxena claims while "100% age restriction is impossible to implement... for that you have to do KYC." That's not off the table either, for the app is planning to introduce e-commerce capabilities soon, which would require Know-Your-Customer (KYC) verification.

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To ensure the app onboards kids, Uable depends on Facebook and Google's age accuracy mechanisms, which Saxena claims are about 80% accurate. Even then, there could be fake users on the app as new users can join via e-mail. "That is where our security mechanisms kick in... If anybody engages in inappropriate activity with a teenager, that teenager can block you and report you instantly."

On public forums, Uable's "100+ moderators can report this content." For deeper content moderation, Uable depends on artificial intelligence and machine learning engines. For other types of content, Uable depends on manual moderation. "You will never find inappropriate content on our feed at all," Saxena confidently told us.

Any piece of content that receives three or four reports is automatically removed from the app. Saurabh Saxena is quite optimistic about today's teenagers. "Teenagers handle these issues pretty well... as we've seen as adults," Saxena said while explaining that adults can join the app only as creators and mentors with verified accounts. "Very few issues get reported and blocked." In fact, Uable hasn't had to take action against objectionable content manually at all since the app's inception.

Screen grab from Uable

Learning from failures of Facebook and Instagram

Uable is all about giving power to teenagers. Even Uable's community guidelines were written by teenagers themselves, who wrote, compiled, and published the guidelines on Uable themselves. "What prevents Facebook and Twitter from acting on issues [that affect kids] is due to their business model that feeds on controversies because they have to show ads at the end of the day and get revenue from their brand partners."

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"We're very specific about what kind of content and conversations will happen [on the social front]," Saxena said while highlighting how over 80% of moderation happens through tech that they're improving every day. "We were in a closed beta for six months and we were learning things from other social networks that have gone wrong and how we can set it right... even at the cost of slow growth [in the beginning]."

Screen grab from Uable

What makes Uable different?

"We want to ensure teenagers spend time on consuming good content, engaging in nice conversations, and attending events that are valuable for them." Right now, teenagers spend 18-20 minutes on Uable on average. Saxena claims that Uable facilitates in-app conversations to keep kids off the app for longer periods.

Also read: Instagram Kids Version Put On Hold, After Public Outcry Against Facebook

There is no parental supervision on Uable. Why, you wonder? In Saxena's words, there are two things teenagers hate the most - "authority, and companies feeding them ads." To this end, Uable wants to set teens "free from authority, give them space to figure out who they are, what their interests are."

"Every teen is made for more" is Uable's tagline, Saxena reminded us while explaining the rationale behind naming it Uable - "[it] means you are capable of doing anything - you are independent here." The app is free-to-download and is available on both iOS' App Store and Google Play Store.

Do you think an exclusive app for teens is a good idea? Let us know in the comments below. For more in the world of technology and science, keep reading Indiatimes.com.