Users are also encouraged to create their own public content with a focus on a clean, minimalist and beautiful appearance – oh, like Twitter co-founders Evan Williams’ and Biz Stone’s Medium publishing platform. There are categories listing themes and interests users can dip in and out of and use to customise their experience, and they can look deeper into content from other sites by ‘flipping’ upwards – like Fllpboard. The content focuses on updates that are publicly shared across Facebook’s vast network of users – much like Twitter. While Cox is reportedly in charge of Paper, sources say CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been directly involved with the project and has final oversight over it (and all Facebook products, for that matter).įacebook spokesperson Jessie Baker declined to comment on the matter, saying the company doesn't comment on rumors and speculation.Years in the making, Facebook Paper will launch on iOS in the US on 3 February, introducing a new public face for the social network, focused on delivering high-quality content and encouraging users to create their own.įacebook’s new mobile app is at once distinct and familiar. Its functionality will be similar to Flipboard in that it'll be a content aggregator that includes news snippets from publications like the New York Times or the Washington Post alongside traditional Facebook status updates. True to its name, the service will present content in a 'paper-like' manner as a throwback to the pre-digital era.

The first part came to fruition as the News Feed refresh last March while the second has morphed into Paper.īuilt by the same team behind Facebook's News Feed and being led by VP of product Chris Cox, Paper will either be a standalone mobile app or a web experience designed for mobile devices according to a source familiar with the subject. The project was initially intended to be a redesign of the News Feed but after multiple delays and refreshes, it was split into two parts.

Tentatively known as Paper, the app could drop as early as the end of this month following years of experimentation, cancellations and redesigns according to a new report from Re/code.

Facebook is reportedly finalizing a mobile news reader service that will compete directly with Flipboard.

Paper flipboard