• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, July 3, 2018

Upsetting Facebook’s efforts to retain younger users, the social giant says its shuttering tbh less than a year after buying the teen-focused app.

Short for “To Be Honest,” tbh rose to semi-fame by encouraging young users to anonymously share more supportive messages. Along with its young audience, the app appealed to Facebook because it served as a counterweight to all the nastiness and hatred filling social-media channels.

The big innovation behind tbh was that it provided users with ready-made prompts to various questions and conversation topics. That took text responses out of the equation, which made it harder for haters to highjack what could otherwise be constructive exchanges.

Yet, less than a year after the deal, tbh is suffering what Facebook calls “low usage” -- so low that it’s apparently not worth further investment.

Facebook shared it needs to prioritize its investments to avoid spreading itself too thin. “And, it’s only by trial and error that we’ll create great social experiences for people,” the company stated.

Due to poor traction among users, Facebook says it’s also killing Moves -- a fitness tracking app it bought year later -- and Hello, which it launched in 2015 for people using Android in the U.S., Brazil and Nigeria.

Essentially, Hello let users combine information from Facebook with contact information on their phones.

Trying to avoid any fresh privacy mishaps, Facebook is promising to delete all user data from the three fated apps within 90 days.

More than Moves or Hello, Facebook’s failure to turn tbh into a success should be cause for concern. That’s because the company can’t seem to hold onto young consumers.

Indeed, only half of teens ages 13-17 say they presently use Facebook, while only one in 10 characterize it as the social-media platform they use “most often,” according to recent findings from the Pew Research Center.