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Facebook to Shut Down 'Paper' News Creation and Curation App

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Facebook is shutting down news creation and curation app Paper, reports The Verge. Paper, which debuted in 2014, was the first product to come out of Facebook Creative Labs, which has since been dismantled.

Paper, a Flipboard competitor, consisted of a news reader that pulled content from a user's Facebook News Feed and a variety of well-known online publications, organizing it all into a magazine-style layout with sections ranging from technology to animals. A team of editors curated the most popular online content for users and for a time, it was a popular replacement for the traditional Facebook News Feed.

paper.jpg

Though it received positive reviews and was one of Facebook's most downloaded apps, it was not able to attract and maintain a large audience, leading to Facebook's decision to shut it down. Paper has been defunct for a while, going without an update since March of 2015.

According to Facebook, many of the concepts introduced in Paper, like Instant Articles, have since been added to its other apps and services. Instant Articles is a platform designed to speed up the loading times of articles and news stories and it adopted much of its design language from Paper.

Paper has been removed from the App Store as of today and existing app users will no longer be able to use the app after July 29.

Article Link: Facebook to Shut Down 'Paper' News Creation and Curation App
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2016/06/30/facebook-shuts-down-paper-app/
There's a message for Paper users when they open the app that it's finally going lights out. Sad! It had such a beautiful way of presenting both news and posts from unexpected sources - I learned so much more on this app than Facebook proper because it was an app that almost demanded that you sit down and read. Going to miss it a lot.
 
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Ya, sad to see it go this way. It was my primary way to interact with Facebook for the past 2 years. I thought it was one of the most beautifully designed app on the AppStore. I love the way it brought up interesting stuff to read, with no clutter, no ads, let me chat, create posts, leave comments, basically made Facebook more bearable.... But I can't say the writing wasn't on the wall for a year now.
 
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Well, another reason to use Facebook less. So frustrating. I hate the idea of having to install Messenger, too. The mobile website just doesn't cut it. Paper was just so... elegant. We should've known it wouldn't last.

(Completely recognizing this is a first-world problem if there ever was one.)
 
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Omg... I'm so sad about this... It's the best app ever used! I'm not willing to switch back to the old fb app...
 
Nooo, I loved the app! I refuse to download Messenger.

Hopefully this means we can still use Paper, but don't expect any more updates? Just like we haven't had one in a year.
 
The Mad Mule said:
Nooo, I loved the app! I refuse to download Messenger.

Hopefully this means we can still use Paper, but don't expect any more updates? Just like we haven't had one in a year.
Click to expand...

It will stop working on the 29th. I'm sad too for similar reasons--I never downloaded Messenger.
 
it was not able to attract and maintain a large audience
Click to expand...

What a surprise, being a US only app totally cemented that.

Note to developers, if what you wanted is a large audience, don't limit it from the start and keep it limited.
 
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The Mad Mule said:
Nooo, I loved the app! I refuse to download Messenger.

Hopefully this means we can still use Paper, but don't expect any more updates? Just like we haven't had one in a year.
Click to expand...

My feed stopped updating today in Paper. So I deleted the app. So sad. My Facebook feed now doesn't even look familiar. I guess the sorting algorithm is different on the app. Gross. I don't see nearly as many personal posts, they're all from brands I have followed/liked.
 
CopyChief said:
My feed stopped updating today in Paper. So I deleted the app. So sad. My Facebook feed now doesn't even look familiar. I guess the sorting algorithm is different on the app. Gross. I don't see nearly as many personal posts, they're all from brands I have followed/liked.
Click to expand...

They recently announced that they're tweaking the algorithm to prioritize friends, so hopefully it'll improve in the near future.
 
I used Paper for a while, but even that lost its appeal. Facebook is terrible in many ways, even the website itself is one of the worst I've ever seen, clunky and unintuitive. I use it to stay in touch with certain people/groups, but the ground is ripe for a competitor that cuts out all of the evil chaff. I think Apple is the only company that could really make it happen by opening up iMessages to Android users and creating a social element to the service. I hope Facebook goes bankrupt and ceases to exist.
 
lampwins said:
Sad... Paper did Facebook better than Facebook did Facebook. Will be missed, I guess I will have to get used to Apple News as an aggregate.
Click to expand...
Try Flipboard or Newsify (I use both, depending on what kind of news and RSS subscriptions I want to add/consume.)

Newsify is for staying on top of all particular feeds, for example there's a blog you don't want to miss any items of. (really anything that's RSS or Atom or quite frankly, anything you convert to it using a third-party service)

Flipboard is... well Flipboard! It's like a digital newspaper, but also lets you create magazines and share them, if you want, with friends who can add articles they find to that magazine.
I use magazines to keep collections of the most important articles of the year for different kinds of politics.
If I want to find the most important news of 2015 in politics, gaming or tech, I have the magazines for those.

Both are absolutely amazing and I suggest you give Flipboard a try for typical news consumption. Newsify I treat more like an aggregator of news tidbits that still matter months later if I forgot to check them. It's all up to the setting though and you can make Newsify work for similar puroposes, except for saving articles I think. (not sure)

Glassed Silver:mac
 
They really never tried to get a large audience. Hasn't been updated for at least year, didn't add many of the new FB features (new reactions, for example), not available outside the US, never promoted.... but such a good app. Became my go-to for all things Facebook AND news because if its silky-smooth interface. Will miss it; they've already stopped the Facebook feed, so been searching for alternatives. Been a while since I used it, but the native Facebook app is horrible - looks so cramped and messy. Quite liking Flipboard, but still not a patch on Paper; I really liked being able to directly save stories to the reading list from the app without even opening the story. Any suggestions for good Paper alternatives?
 
The BIG picture is even more telling ...

Paper is just another sign that the iOS App Store is quickly disintegrating ... Apple may claim 2M apps on it's iOS App Store, but in reality, MANY have been abandoned, and the rate is accelerating.

If Apple says 2M apps, our best guess is the number of actively-developed apps is really closer to 10% of that.

Just look at the version history of each app promoted by Apple. Many are just a month or two old. That says Apple's choices are EXTREMELY limited.

Most older apps simply aren't being updated.

Apple has a HUGE problem on it's hand, and we're 100% sure they know it.

What is puzzling is just how little attention this issue gets by the press.

If Facebook couldn't make Paper viable, that doesn't bode well for the rest of us.
 
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