Facebook has just celebrated its 10th birthday on Feb. 3, and to celebrate this milestone with all its users, the social media site released a new Facebook Paper app. On the app, Facebook created an e-newspaper of sorts, adorned with the top stories and statuses of each user’s personal feed.
Product designer Mike Matas told The Verge about the reasons for the reimagination.
“You really want people to spend a little bit of time with it and appreciate that content,” he said in the article. “Almost like when you go to a museum and you spend a little bit of time with each thing.”
This new app, currently exclusive to Apple users, allows members to view their news feeds in a whole new aesthetic. Features like viewing other people’s profiles, messenger and notifications are all included and revamped to fit a journalistic theme. The information, though presented in a more sophisticated and attractive way, is all essentially the same thing.
The other half of this app is actual news stories that are organized based on interest. If the user is a food enthusiast, they may want to add “Flavor” to their interests, or sports enthusiasts can add “Score” to their interests. General headlines are also available so the user can stay up on news outside of their personal feeds. To navigate through these, the user simply taps on the topic of interest and slides the stories along until they find something of interest and taps on it in order to bring the story full screen. At this point, the user slides their finger up to flip through the story, mimicking the Flipboard app and imitating a newspaper feel. If it sounds confusing, it’s because it is. It’s similar to the frustration people have with Windows 8; it has all the same features from Windows 7 and a few new ones as well, but everything is in a different place, so people are forced to go on a scavenger hunt to find what they wanted. So, why fix something that isn’t broken?
Lizz Brown, a junior marine science and biology major, had a different opinion on the app.
“Honestly, I love it,” Brown said. “It’s a great updated version of Facebook that’s way more effective because now it’s showing you things you want to see rather than just everything everyone is posting. You don’t have to sort through it all.”
However, as a user of Flipboard, I don’t really see how Facebook can expand into Android successfully without fully committing to its new app as its only app. Flipboard’s navigation is simpler, easier to use and just as aesthetically pleasing as Facebook’s paper app. With Flipboard’s ability to connect to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, it’s hard to figure out why anyone would bother with Paper.
Also, the app is currently fighting with the original Facebook app that everyone already knows how to use, which seems counterintuitive. And if the app is eventually released to Android, it will not only be competing with the original but with other news apps like Flipboard.
Facebook product manager Michael Reckhow addressed the issue of having two official Facebook apps now on the market.
“We felt you shouldn’t have to choose between one or the other,” he said in the article from The Verge.
I think Paper is off to a decent start for a new app but will only really prove to be worthwhile if it eventually replaces the original Facebook app. However, if Facebook’s intention is to simply offer it as a secondary application, I’m not sure it will take off on its own. As it is, Paper doesn’t seem to stand a chance.
Kaela Bernardino can be reached at kaela.bernardino@spartans.ut.edu