Facebook To Shred 'Paper' News-Reading App On July 29th

An anonymous reader writes from a report via The Verge: Facebook's Paper app for iOS is scheduled to shut down on July 29th. While the app impressed critics, it failed to impress the general public. The Verge reports: "The app transformed the core Facebook experience into a kind of newsreader, with customizable sections for politics, technology, food, and other subjects. When it was introduced in January 2014, Paper signaled the beginning of a design renaissance at Facebook. The look and feel of the app were orchestrated by Mike Matas, whose design firm Push Pop Press was acquired by Facebook in 2011. Paper was notable for the novel animations it used to guide you through the app -- tap on a link and it would unfold like a letter; pull down on the story and it would fold back up, returning you to the feed. But despite the enormous growth of Facebook, which surged to 1.09 billion daily users this year, Paper has not been among the 1,500 most-downloaded apps since December 2014, according to research firm App Annie. It never came to Android, and the iOS version was last updated in March 2015. Facebook says that ideas from Paper have made their way into other Facebook apps, most notably Instant Articles, the fast-loading story format that the company introduced last year. Instant Articles borrowed several design elements from Paper, including full-bleed images and custom designs for individual publishers' articles."

Really?

[John Smith]

"Never came to Android" explains a lot.

Re:

[SuperKendall]

It explains more about Android than it does anything much about the success of the app, or lack thereof.

1.09 billion?

[Nunya666]

1.09 billion daily users? Or registered users?

Their marketing team probably says "daily users" but reality probably says "registered users." Like a deleted AC post already said, the first I hear about this feature is when they pull the plug. Such lousy marketing is one reason so many "daily users" are becoming merely "registered users."

Re:

[sittingnut]

since facebook, google, etc are nothing more than ad pushers, and size of ad audience is what matters, its time they allow standard ways to measure their regular daily users that can be independently verified. meanwhile media should stop unquestioningly parroting the worthless garbage numbers(like this "1.09 billion daily users") they spout out.

Re:

[John Bokma]

Facebook, not the Paper App.

novel animations

[tomhath]

novel animations it used to guide you through the app -- tap on a link and it would unfold like a letter; pull down on the story and it would fold back up, returning you to the feed.

Maybe a little animated paper clip would have made it more successful. Or maybe users just don't want crap like that wasting their time.

Re:

[Hognoxious]

Sounds like the kind of shallow pointless shit that hipsters love.

You should do better yourself...

[bogaboga]

...meanwhile media should stop unquestioningly parroting the worthless garbage numbers(like this "1.09 billion daily users") they spout out...

While I [largely] agree with your statement, let me say the following: -

Perhaps it would be better if you provided some authoritative figure(s) you think Facebook's daily users are. How about that?

Its all about the ads

[montygreen]

As one of those 1.09 billion users (not daily, but I do not use the Facebook app), I think the real reason behind the killing of the product was that they clearly could not monetize it. Paper has no ads. All I get are posts from my friends and family that I can easily swipe between. I oftentimes forgot there was a News/Headlines section. It was a brilliant way of reading Facebook without all the adds, in line videos, sidebar crap that populates the website now (and I use adblockers). Oh well, it was fun w