Facebook Paper arrived on the App store today for all iOS devices and it is beautiful. With its simple interface and great content aggregation, Paper is poised to become the new Facebook.
When you open the app for the first time, Facebook plays its Paper promo video and then prompts you to customize your content. It automatically links up to your Facebook account, so the first section you see is full of information that you would normally have seen in your news feed. You then have the option to add different types of content by section. Each section that you choose will then show up on the front page of the app in the top half of your display.
As you flip through your chosen sections, the bottom half of the app fills with a stream of small rectangles. Each one features a new story from that section. So when the top half of your display is on Facebook, all the posts from your friends, liked pages and so on appear in the bottom half. When you change to the Headlines section, the rectangles in the bottom half of the screen fill with recent news stories from the New York Times and other venerable news organizations.
To read one of the stories, you simply swipe up from the bottom rectangle and it takes up the entire screen. If it's just a Facebook post, you can read it then and there. If it's a news story, you simply tap it to read the full article. Of course, you need an Internet connection to do all of this, but who doesn't have 4G nowadays? Once you finish reading the article, you swipe down from the top of the screen and the article disappears. You're back to where you were.
In addition to being a beautiful content reader, Paper also has all the same capabilities as the Facebook app. When you swipe down from the top of the screen you will see search, create post, edit sections and setting tabs as well as your profile name. If you want to post a status, photo or video on Facebook, you select create post. If you want to see your profile, you tap on your name. It's that simple.
The friend request, notification and messenger buttons are located inconspicuously at the top of your screen, too. Also, as you browse through your friends' posts in the Facebook section, you can like, share and comment on posts just like you normally would. Another awesome thing about Paper is that it makes it very easy to share, like or comment on the articles you read. As soon as you are done reading, you swipe back and voila! There are the like, share and comment buttons ready for use.
Paper is so good in fact, that its designer Mike Matas all but admitted that its the only app he uses now. Product manger Michael Reckhon was slightly more cautious about throwing the original Facebook app under the bus, but essentially he prefers Paper, too. And who wouldn't? It's a less busy, more elegant version of Facebook that also throws news into the mix.
Honestly, the only thing I dislike about Paper is the app icon. It's not nearly as visually appealing as the app itself.
