Facebook shutting down dedicated news app, Paper

Facebook has announced that it plans to shut down its standalone news reading app, Paper.

In a message to the app’s users, Facebook thanks them for using the service but states that the app will be removed from the App store and that existing users will no longer be able log in from July 29. 

The app was introduced in January 2014 and was intended to showcase articles rather than status updates from family and friends. Though Paper was advert free, and featured some novel visual design features, it never quite managed to increase its popularity, perhaps in part due to the fact that it was only available on iOS devices.

Though Facebook never released user numbers for the app, its product design lead Mike Matas tweeted his disappointment that it would be shutting down and thanked the hundred thousand people still using it – a very low number considering Facebook has over one billion users.