If you’re an iPhone user you can soon get your hands on the latest application from Facebook. Paper has been rumoured for a while and will now officially launch on iPhone devices February 3.
The application uses a user's Facebook News Feed and other news sources to create a customizable reading experience based on what the person might want to read. There are different sections within the app which can be customized. Facebook said the app offers “inspiring new designs for photos, videos and longer written posts” and there will soon be more than 12 more sections.
Paper will compete directly with the original Facebook app as it acts entirely separately. Each section includes a variety of sharing features but its not clear just yet if you can add in your own favourite sites.
The app also brings with it auto-play videos, perfect for those auto-play adverts.
Facebook has currently not announced any plans to make the application available on iPad or Android devices.
We previously heard rumours of the application in early January from web-based news source recode.net, which cited an unnamed source “familiar with the matter.”
Paper has allegedly gone through an extended period of “experimentations, cancellations and redesigns,” spanning several years, but the end design was said to be either a dedicated mobile app or a web-based setup tailored to mobile use.
The team working on the application is the same group which developed Facebook’s existing News Feed features, led by Facebook’s vice president of products, Chris Cox, and including interface designer Mike Matas.
It’s worth noting that Matas joined Facebook when his startup company, Push Pop Press, was acquired in 2011 – the startup created digital book publishing software which Facebook has allegedly planned to make use of for some time. Recode cites five unnamed sources which say the Paper project is internally known as “Project Reader”.
It’s claimed that initially Project Reader began as a News Feed overhaul, but this original project direction splintered into co-developments of new News Feed features and what became Paper as an independent initiative.
No comments:
Post a Comment