Goodbye, Facebook Paper, we hardly knew ye
Paper is no more.
In Pocket-lint's review of Paper from way back in 2014, we praised the newsreader app and wondered at the time if it was Facebook's best mobile product ever, but we also questioned if it would succeed like Facebook Messenger or crash like Facebook Poke. We now know the answer.
Facebook has announced it is shutting down the two-year-old iOS app. Users of Paper have begun getting a notice that warns the app will no longer work after 29 July, and according to The Verge, Paper will be pulled from the Apple App Store sometime Thursday. There is no Android app.
"Our goal with Paper was to explore new immersive, 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," Facebook explained in its notice to users.
It's not too surprising to learn that Paper will be killed, especially considering Creative Labs, the Facebook division that built Paper and other experimental apps, was shuttered late last year as well. Also, many critically-praised features from Paper have recently been ported to other apps, such as Instant Articles, which took design cues from Paper, including giving publishers the ability to create custom layouts for their articles.
According to app research site App Annie, Facebook Paper was the 1,500-most download app in the App Store. In other words: no one was using the short-lived app. That said, it did have a 4.5 out of 5-star rating.
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