Youth Incorporated Magazine

The Paper news reading app was an alternative to Facebook’s flagship app. The IOS app was launched in 2014. Its layout focused on showing articles and not just Facebook friend’s status updates. It transformed the core Facebook experience into something new and exciting. Users could personalize the app with customizable sections such as photography, sports, food, science and other subjects and featured articles from well known publications and other sources.

The look and feel of the app were orchestrated by Mike Matas. Paper was notable for the animations it used to guide you through the app. The users would tap on a link and it would open up like a letter. It was known for its sleek design and layout. The app was praised by design geeks and people who liked to view Facebook posts without any ads.

Despite the enormous growth of Facebook users this year which has 1.09 billion users daily. The Paper has not been among the 1,500 most downloaded apps since December 2014, according to research firm App Annie. The initiative that Facebook built inside by Creative Labs which built paper and several other experimental apps, was shuttered in December. At this point it was sure that Paper app was on the verge of shutting down.

Facebook says that ideas from paper app have been included in other Facebook apps like Instant Articles. The company said in a message to its users, “Our goal with Paper was to explore new impressive, interactive design elements for reading and interacting with content on Facebook, and we learned how important these elements are in giving people an engaging experience.”

Due it the decrease in popularity, the app which was only available for IOS has been removed from the App store from July 1 and will be shut down on July 29.