Facebook has long been a multimedia juggernaut – a place where you can receive news, photos from your friends and family, play games and much more. On a laptop or desktop Facebook format has always been relatively easy to navigate, but for most people the mobile app is a little clunky and not at all well liked. There is also the problem of people becoming bored with the look and feel that Facebook has developed for it. The folks at Facebook have come up with a new app however that they feel will change that all that – the new app Paper. So, what is Facebook Paper and why does it matter?
Paper is an app created specifically for iPhones and takes Facebook to a whole other level, a level far above and beyond anything Facebook has ever provided for their users. This mobile app is a browser that links you to your newsfeed, but the navigation is radically new.
There are now no navigation bars or on screen buttons on the new Paper app feed. You simply see your page, your friends’ pages and the pages you follow including posts, pictures and videos one at a time. To play a video just tap the video. To change the page you are looking at, just swipe past them. To choose a post to look at just tap it. The coolest by far is the way in which you choose an article to read. You swipe up to literally open the article. This greatly reduces the amount of information that you are bombarded with at any given time. Taking this approach really gives this app a refined and user friendly look and feel.
The feeds you see with Paper from Facebook are not based solely on what your friends and the pages that you follow. For the first time ever this new app will allow you to choose what you want to see. They do give you suggestions as well however. The images on this app are the cleanest, sharpest and most hi-res photos and videos that we have ever seen from a Facebook app on any mobile platform. You can also use the auto rotate feature on your phone to fully view a photo or article in a panoramic view. This takes your photos and the posts and articles you read and allows you to see the whole picture without losing resolution.
The ultimate goal of this app is to turn Facebook on the iPhone into a reader. This is not only being accomplished by the new look of the app but by offering more higher quality content than ever before. In fact they hope that all of us will take the same advice and start posting more refined content as well.
We are sure here at Posse Social Media that there will be even more adjustments and refining that will be seen with this new app. For example, one of the big issues with Paper is that it is being released for iPhone only – Android users need not apply. This is certainly going to alienate part of their user base, so it will be interesting to see where they head with this app. Never fear though, you can bet we will be watching and waiting with baited breath to see where Facebook Paper goes next.