8 ms·

Introducing Paper

313 points by coolsank 13y ago

emehrkay 13y ago
I enjoy Mike Matas' work http://www.mikematas.com http://www.mikematas.com
- prezjordan 13y ago
  Wow this guy's done everything!
grey-area 13y ago
Some beautiful design and thoughtful UI in the app here, and this is also a lovely microsite - I love the use of the video full screen. It'd be great to see some of this sort of thoughtful design go into the UI of web browsers on mobile platforms (which are also platforms for reading and sharing stories). Shame it's from Facebook.
- Zolomon 13y ago
  Felt annoyed with the video, couldn't tell for how long it would keep going. But nice resolution in full screen.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- pavs 13y ago
  Why is it shame its from facebook? FB has been at the forefront of awesome UI design concepts for al long time, specifically in mobile.
  - grey-area 13y ago
    Because I don't trust them with my data.
    - xauronx 13y ago
      Also because no one on my feed posts anything I'm actually interested in. If I could get that UI on hacker news, I would be pleased.
      - MarkTee 13y ago
        Would Flipboard work for that? http://flip.it/5pPct http://flip.it/5pPct
  - amaks 13y ago
    >> awesome UI design concepts for al long time, specifically in mobile Hmm, would you give an example of the "awesome design in mobile" from facebook? I hope you're not referring to their "facebook" mobile app.
gagege 13y ago
The video was choppy and froze part way through. Seems to happen to me a lot with these types of websites. On different computers, even.
- rebel 13y ago
  Happened to me as well. Can't understand why huge companies with a wide variety of visitors use techniques that deliver sub-par experiences so often. I'm running the latest version of Firefox with a $2k Macbook Pro.
  - xauronx 13y ago
    Played smoothly on a couple year old dell laptop for me.
- kyriakos 13y ago
  seems ok here and my pc is not that great. (chrome/win8)
- rplnt 13y ago
  I tried three different browsers. Opera was very laggy, Chrome just showed one frame and Firefox was moderately laggy. Resizing the tab helped a bit. Audio was choppy as well. My HW specs are far from low (though it is not a gaming machine either). I couldn't pause the video, fast forward it or even see any indicator of progress. I didn't even expect volume settings. Considering all this, the page is simply horrible. It might look nice (on paper perhaps), but the UX is the worst. Visuals alone don't make good sites.
  - hoektoe 13y ago
    You didn't try IE6 0-o
  - oldstrangers 13y ago
    Use this video then. https://fbcdn-dragon-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/t39.2365/851559_578934018851295_1147417154_n.mp4 https://fbcdn-dragon-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/t39.2365...
sambeau 13y ago
I wonder what 53 will make of Facebook's choice of App name? http://www.fiftythree.com/paper http://www.fiftythree.com/paper
- lerouxb 13y ago
  Or Flipboard about everything else.
- burpee 13y ago
  Although I'm not particularly familiar with the latest in US trademark laws, in most European trademark cases it can be argued that the name "Paper" is too descriptive to be defended. At the same time the fact that both are in the general category of "apps for the curation and creation of content", the confusion in the market is definitely going to be there. Curious to see how this is going to turn out...
  - maroonblazer 13y ago
    "apps for the curation and creation of content" That seems overly broad too and I suspect courts would distinguish between creation vs curation. The 53 app is about the former whereas FB's is the latter. Also think about someone searching for an app to draw and paint. It's unlikely the FB's Paper would show up in the results. Even if it did, would most people confuse it for a drawing/painting app?
  - gorner 13y ago
    Not a lawyer, but I think you're more or less right about North American trademark law as well. Trademarking a common word is fine (so long as it's not inherently descriptive of the actual product – i.e. trademarking "Paper" with respect to reams of paper would never fly), but FiftyThree would still have to show that "Paper" is sufficiently distinctive in the software market that anyone discussing "Paper" in terms of mobile apps instantly thinks of their product, the same as "Apple" being distinctive in the computers / electronics industry. As big as their app is already, as others have noted other apps have that name too, so 53 would have difficulty claiming exclusivity on "Paper". Just did a quick USPTO search and it looks like 53 hasn't attempted to register a trademark for "Paper" itself – but they have registered "Paper by FiftyThree", which would more easily pass the bar of distinctiveness: http://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=85622666&caseType=SERIAL_NO&searchType=statusSearch http://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=85622666&caseType=SERIAL_N... Having said that – I do wish Facebook had picked a name that wasn't already associated with such a well-known app. Disclaimer: I have a dev friend who works at FiftyThree but their IP strategy is not something we've discussed. edit: spelling / grammar
danabramov 13y ago
Are we already out of original app names?
- blowski 13y ago
  At least they didn't call it 'Papr'.
  - jffry 13y ago
    ppr.io
quaffapint 13y ago
Does seem like a fluid UXD. Shame android is second class citizen again, and you have to be on facebook to use it. Hopefully if it does pan out as well as the video shows, other apps like flipboard will start incorporating its flow.
- eigenvector 13y ago
  I admit I didn't watch the video (couldn't, it managed to lock up my 6-core workstation), but isn't this basically Home for iOS? https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.facebook.home https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.facebook.h...
kyriakos 13y ago
I hope this runs well on android.. considering how bad their android app
- krcz 13y ago
  Considering there's just AppStore logo at the bottom, I don't think they are releasing Android version together with iOS one.
- joeblau 13y ago
  It's alternating. Android users got Facebook Home last year, this year iPhone users get Facebook Paper. I think that's fair.
  - notthetup 13y ago
    Not all Android phones got Facebook Home. I think like only 2/3 models.
  - kyriakos 13y ago
    Paper will eventually come out for Android. Facebook Home obviously is not something that can run on iOS due to its limitations.
JungleNavigator 13y ago
On the first time, I wondered how the Paper creators manage to create a Facebook page without the Facebook branding, then realized it is Facebook's thing :-)
mayankkumar 13y ago
Take that, Princeton report!
- hoektoe 13y ago
  if it's on paper, it ARE true
erikb 13y ago
this looks like an idea that was tried so many times and people just don't care. I think about smart tags in GMail here, or circles. Most people simply don't micromanage their data flows according to topics. Maybe I simply don't get the difference here, but if I am right, then I am deeply disappointed and frustrated to see people spend money and smart developers' time into ideas that already failed years ago.
- lambada 13y ago
  I think the difference here is that Facebook will categorise all the content. in effect they will manage what goes into the Tech or news or Creativity buckets. You just say which you want to see by default.
  - icoder 13y ago
    I understood that part as if there will be content especially for Paper, categorised (by creator) and readable for everyone. If they actually think they can categorise the stuff that is now my Facebook experience and get anything close to what is seen in the video, I'd be pleasantly surprised.
- madoublet 13y ago
  This. I already look at it as a chore to check Facebook, I don't want to manage it.
RyanZAG 13y ago
I'm impressed by how much CPU this website is able to use. It pegged all 8 cores at 100% while I had the website open on firefox/win7
- blowski 13y ago
  Doesn't work at all without JavaScript - just a black screen. And I don't have a Facebook account, so couldn't look at the mobile version.
  - deckar01 13y ago
    The mobile version is unusable. The sideways scroll nav gets stuck between slides. The videos are corrupted or over compressed. The transitions lag and are so janky they only get about 3 frames rendered in time. The page doesn't even contain very much useful information about what Paper does.
- thejosh 13y ago
  Same here with Chrome/arch.
- Cthulhu_ 13y ago
  And yet, pages / applications like this using a lot of CPU should be plenty of incentive and test cases for both web developers and browser developers to optimize their respective applications. Like how 3DMark and high-end video games like (at the time) Crysis push the GPU manufacturers and driver programmers to achieve more performance in those respective applications for its PR value. '50% less CPU usage on the Facebook Paper page' is a nice line in a browser's changelog.
- teamonkey 13y ago
  On a 4S you can literally see the battery meter run down before your eyes.
- ulfw 13y ago
  Wrong browser/OS then. On Safari/Mac it runs on an aging dual-core i7 Macbook Air with around 20% CPU
kyro 13y ago
I'm excited to give this a spin, and that's saying a lot considering I haven't touched FB in a few years now. It's nice to see them innovating with new ideas and products, instead of iterating on their existing main platform. What's interesting is that their mobile strategy involves grabbing as much of your screen real estate as possible, with the FB app, FB Messenger, Instagram, and now Paper. I guess that was obvious when they tried the whole Facebook phone thing.
- taude 13y ago
  I think the direction Facebook is going with splitting the services in to apps that solve different use cases is a good thing. Let the user use their social graph in the specific ways they want/need to. Personally, I mostly use FB for private messages from family members, some private groups, and their group event planning. I don't use it for the feed consumption.
  - amaks 13y ago
    I agree, it seems that new facebook strategy is to spread the use of their platform using mobile apps. This will increase their mobile ad presence. But, I'm curious if this is an indication of the weakness in their mobile ad exchange because other mobile apps which use facebook platform doesn't seem to satisfy them.
- probablyfiction 13y ago
  I see this as more an iteration than true innovation. It looks as though they're taking your existing Facebook content and putting it in a different wrapper. A pretty wrapper, to be sure, but in the end I think it will still be filled with things like "pg said If I get 50 million likes I can be on the front page of HN."
- mattlutze 13y ago
  It looks like a different interface on the concept that Flipboard is built around, using Facebook content instead of select news sources. It's a neat interface, and I hope it's light enough on the hardware that it'll be as fluid as in the video (on my iPhone 4 and One S the standard Facebook app has become slow and laggy). But, it looks like an interface that distances the user from the content, enforcing a more consumption-focused model of interaction than producer, which seems a little antithetical.
hrktb 13y ago
It's funny they choose to tease it, instead of aving an 'get it now' call to action from day one [edit: I would have tried it now as I see it for the first time, I'm not sure I'll care for another content feed app in 3 days, especially as it will have discussed to death in meantime]. And I don't get the link between the name and the app. Is it paper as in newspaper ?
mertd 13y ago
Kind of funny that the page is broken on iPad (Safari).
tremendo 13y ago
Pretty. I like the UI innovative touches for flipping through content, panning pictures, etc. The video does a good job of selling it. Alas, not for me. It seems to me a type of app better suited perhaps to the tablet format. Personally I'm over consuming content like this on my phone. In most cases I may skim something quickly and if it really catches my attention then I'll wait until I'm on a bigger screen to explore it further. The Share section tries to make the point of "the most important stories… your own" and it's a good one, well presented. From my own personal experience though I believe that most of the people I follow online, whether prolific or not, will not dedicate a lot of time to "production" work as in selecting headlines, backgrounds for those headers, more than a couple of beautiful pictures (they never really come out as good as presented), etc. to create a flip-book like these. This will be a good medium for… commercial producers? as shown, the CNNs, Time magazines, of course the Verge, Engadgenet, etc, and that's what I'd end up consuming only to finally uninstall. But I know, that's just me, and my 2 cents.
dudus 13y ago
I don't see a lot of difference from Google Play Newsstand or Flipboard.
jamesmoss 13y ago
Anybody know how they kept the phone so still in those videos? The hand holding it doesn't move. Is there a pole underneath attaching it to a surface we can't see?
- Jakob 13y ago
  It looks like most of it is an image, with an animation put inside: https://fbcdn-dragon-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/t39.2365/851578_399356030210669_1142938113_n.webm https://fbcdn-dragon-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/t39.2365...
leoplct 13y ago
Flipboard should be very excited about it :) #sarcasm
sleepyK 13y ago
I might have used that if it was made by a company like Twitter.... which advertises, but doesn't meddle with the content. But seeing that it's Facebook, most of the stories we see will be targeted towards our 'Likes' and the rest will be targeted ads.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
terhechte 13y ago
I'm getting weird video display issues on iPhone 5S: https://posts.app.net/21220141 https://posts.app.net/21220141
blueskin_ 13y ago
Worst info site ever. I can't even tell what it is. An app? a model of phone? a website? a new facebook feature?
- Dirlewanger 13y ago
  It's a fancy new UI, that's it. Doesn't look like there will be much content change, just how it's laid out. Boring.
- romanovcode 13y ago
  I couldn't even watch the whole video.
1angryhacker 13y ago
because what we need right now is another way to view our facebook feed
andyjohnson0 13y ago
Is this a native app or a web app running in a browser? I watched the video (at work, so without sound) and I can't tell. If its browser based then I'm extremely impressed.
- stillmotion 13y ago
  It's native. Zuckerberg has self-proclaimed Facebook to be "a mobile company."
  - blueblob 13y ago
    My girlfriend found it frustrating that she can attach a picture to a facebook post in the browser (even on mobile) but can't in the app.
    - ceejayoz 13y ago
      I can do that in the app (iOS) just fine... and not just on posts, comments too.
- CrosseyeJack 13y ago
  At the end of the video it shows a Apple app store graphic. So I would say its a native app.
- khc 13y ago
  At the end it says you can get it on Apple app store.
- kayoone 13y ago
  those kind of animations wouldn't be so smooth on mobile devices, especially older ones.
- sp332 13y ago
  It's a native app. I haven't even heard of plans to make a web version.
danielbraun 13y ago
Great! Yet another innovative way to view cat pictures and selfies. It's funny how the users in the video aren't even reading their stories.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
plg 13y ago
The underlying assumption at FB seems to be that people are interested in (something like a) magazine but one curated not by professional journalists, designers and advertisers but rather curated by uncle joe, grandma bessie, etc. I know which magazine I'd rather read.
jccalhoun 13y ago
When did "beautiful storytelling" become code for "a big picture near the top and then plain text on a white background?"
- InclinedPlane 13y ago
  You've got to understand things in context. The world of web design and of app design has typically been a cluttered and ugly mess where typography and clean design have been pushed to the wayside in favor of trying to cram more stuff into user's eyes (often in service to advertising dollars). In that world boring design that has little going for it other than cleanliness and good lines becomes "beautiful".
  - pessimizer 13y ago
    Or, rather, usability, generic sans-serif, and having everything above the fold was valued more than typography and clean design.
- brown9-2 13y ago
  It is a law of modern advertising that every visual product must be described as "beautiful", along with words like "curated" or "handcrafted".
zyb09 13y ago
Man, that video, typical marketing bullshit. First scene shows a guy writing on a typewriter, next scene shows someone hanging up Polaroid pictures. Seriously? Show me why this app is useful and why I need it, instead of trying to lull me into a world that doesn't exist.
- taude 13y ago
  All tech companies/startups are starting to look the same. Maybe the same marketing/ad company has a contract with the entire valley? Edit: Changed "Silicon Valley" to tech...since this common feel is more about the latest trends, than geographical boundaries. Though the joke no longer makes sense.
  - prawks 13y ago
    > All tech companies/startups are starting to look the same. I think it's more that they are just starting to advertise the same way that all other companies do. More and more they're evoking emotional responses from the ads' viewers, rather than listing technical features and productivity measures. Apple was probably one of the first, really. Look at the early Macintosh ads: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCL1c8JCepg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCL1c8JCepg I, for one, thought the video was pretty well done. If I had a Facebook account that I frequented, I would certainly be interested. Hell, it makes me a little envious of people who have genuinely interesting things pop up on their Walls (do such people exist?).
    - taude 13y ago
      Yes. Agree with this. At some point, though, I feel the same about everything... Queue up someone commenting that their feed doesn't look anything like the polish of a feed in a Facebook ad. :)
      - loganu 13y ago
        Right here. Couldn't help but think it as I watched. It seems like facebook has tweaked sharing algorithms, and I'm getting a lot more memes from pages my friends "liked" and updates from people I don't know, interacting with my friends. Not to mention pictures of food, dogs, and other stuff that I should be a little more active in culling. If they have smart integration with news sources / blogs (they showed BBC and the Atlantic I think) that could show me news that matches my interest but isn't spammy, this could be a reversal for them; I might not go to Facebook for friends, and Twitter for news/ more intellectual stuff.
rubyfan 13y ago
Meh
cycojesus 13y ago
Is it just me or the perspective of that image looks very wrong?
narfz 13y ago
it's nice to see mike matas' again. i really felt in love with his UI skills (http://mikematas.com http://mikematas.com)
- nfoz 13y ago
  I clicked that link and my web browser gave me a type of popup I didn't think it could, declaring: "This is a next generation website that is best viewed in an advanced web browser such as Apple's Safari. You will be able to view the site using this browser but the performance may be poor." Then my browser nearly died before I could close the tab.
  - scholia 13y ago
    Got the same message with Firefox 26, but the site worked fine. However, it did make me think the guy was a dick....
- RandallBrown 13y ago
  wow, that guy has designed some groundbreaking stuff. Never heard of him before either.
meshko 13y ago
I watched the video. I don't understand what paper is. Actually, the only reason I watched it was because I somehow confused myself into thinking this was Amazon. When I was done with the video, I finally realized this is Facebook and it all made sense. I still don't know what "paper" is of course. Now I need my coffee.
- giarc 13y ago
  One feature I think was not as prominent as could be was the addition of non-Facebook stories in the app. You could see they guy add "Headlines" into his feed. I think it pulls from some news agency. I think this is Facebook's response to Flipboard (Flipbook?).
whizzkid 13y ago
I am happy that their next thing is totally useless since my facebook usage is really really rare for last 6 months!
hasanatkazmi 13y ago
Facebook is trying get in the market of successful concepts like Flipboard and Pulse. Why wouldn't Facebook like to mine what people (and their 'Friends') 'like' and show them relevant news when Flipboard and Pulse connect to your Facebook, churn what you shared in the past and show you news which you might like.
Bahamut 13y ago
This website really is not desktop friendly - it was annoying to browse through it.
robodale 13y ago
The same pompous shit that come from these companies. Holy fuck I don't care.
Nate630 13y ago
Yet another way to view text, images, and video. For me, really comes down to the content. Does the content interest me? - I can't tell by the site.
- kayoone 13y ago
  Well the content is created by your facebook friends.
  - marknutter 13y ago
    So, then.. no?
jere 13y ago
>Explore and share stories from friends and the world around you. Stories...? Or memes and ads?
- duiker101 13y ago
  Or pictures of food and selfies at the club?
  - Fuzzwah 13y ago
    Get new friends?
maaarghk 13y ago
When the girl in the bath came on screen I remembered I was watching a video of a bunch of people who are addicted to their f'ing iPhones. And then I felt like I was watching an episode of Black Mirror.
urs2102 13y ago
As a new frontend programmer, what kind of libraries did Facebook use to create a page like this with full screen video/the "explore" page which has thumb moving on it? Was it a type of JS? Was it Flash? Just wondering...
- cs02rm0 13y ago
  The video and the moving thumb (also a video) use the HTMl5 video tag and some CSS to make it fullscreen.
nelmaven 13y ago
Do the adds also come in fullscreen?
GeorgeMac 13y ago
Is it me, or is it just facebook with news feeds and a nice big handful of gestures. Their must be a massive increase in RSI due to hundreds of apps/interfaces with different gesture controls. I don't know if my muscle memory has anymore room for this app. Im going to end up loosing important things, like konami codes...
Multiplayer 13y ago
Did anyone else laugh out loud when they panned to a naked woman in a bath tub? I was like, woah, starting to get a little weird here.
dmarusic16 13y ago
My favorite thing about the demo video is how its completely bereft of ads. That probably won't be the case in practice—at least not for long.
- oesmith 13y ago
  Exactly my first thought too!
revetkn 13y ago
The product is probably not for me but it looks like FB employs some talented iOS engineers
krelian 13y ago
I can't wait for the next trend in app/services marketing. I'm tired of: Introducing %word% , bla bla bla beautiful bla bla bla Share. Coupled with short sentences over a huge iOS/ OS X images. It feels as if this has been here forever.
- ianstormtaylor 13y ago
  Is it really all that different from some of the iconic ads[1] from the 1950s? Seems like it's mostly the same story-telling technique but slightly tweaked to take advantage of video and interaction. I wonder if it won't really change (apart from new tech which makes it just routing similarly-structured stories directly into your brain or something) because the kinds of stores we react two isn't really evolving that quickly either. [1]: http://media.fontsinuse.com/static/use-media-items/7/6475/full-800x1015/502fea1b/thinksmall.jpeg http://media.fontsinuse.com/static/use-media-items/7/6475/fu...
brandonmcane 13y ago
So, for one, I had to watch the video twice to try to figure out what the app actually does. Though, I suppose maybe that's just my own ineptitude. Because I'm still not sure what it does. Secondly, what is the market for this? I can already make my own "paper" type thing with Flipboard or the myriad other options on the market. Considering this seems like something I need to not only download, but take time to customize, does Facebook expect people to switch right on over to them? Why can't I just go on Facebook or Twitter and see what stories my friends are sharing? That's the point, isn't it? I don't get it.
cs02rm0 13y ago
Looks like Facebook without adverts. An improvement but...
yanivt 13y ago
Does anyone know how they do the full bleed animation? (show the user flicking through scenes)?
adaam2 13y ago
Style over substance
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
- icoder 13y ago
  Funny, my feed is becoming a mini-reddit with mostly memes and I was thinking "if the news for this app comes from my friends, I may need other friends". But I think news from friends is not the entire purpose of Paper, so there's hope for me. Then again, I have an Android and apparently even the biggest company's do not there do double-launch.
yanivt 13y ago
What a bunch of grumpy old men. I bet everybody sitting here taking shots at this app 1) have never created anything nearly as cool 2) would not have understood Apple in its hayday 3) spend too much time reading and taking shots at other people's work. I'm all for being cynical and questioning what's out there but you have to let the good stuff through. The design here is first class. The Facebook guys have outdone themselves. Yes, it's a culmination of a large body of work that's come before with a few novel improvements. That's how art works. Quit bitching and do something useful. /rantoff
- camillomiller 13y ago
  This is the stupidest anti-critique point ever; it's flawed, because it takes for granted that everyone talking hasn't made anything important (therefore they wouldn't be sittin' here masturbatin', no?) and gives to the simple act of "making somthing big" a value per se. And yet, it ALWAYS pops out in situations like this. It's like the Godwin law but with the make-something-cool-before-you-talk cliché in place of Hitler.
- stef25 13y ago
  To me it does look cool, it's just that FB is nothing but social spam nowadays and this is probably just a new way of wrapping it up in.
  - yanivt 13y ago
    I agree, I hardly use Facebook anymore. But I'm still open minded enough not to disparage everything the company does on some kind of misguided principle.
    - icoder 13y ago
      Based on what they present, the concept highly depends on the content. This poses an issue that is not touched upon at all in their presentation. So mentioning / discussing it on HN is in my opinion relevant.
bovermyer 13y ago
What happens if I think the concept is interesting, if only because a sound plays when you tap the Like button?
eyeareque 13y ago
On my phone I saw: Please use portrait mode... Play video. Plays landscape format video.
phwd 13y ago
Instead of pulling information from the marketing page, why not just read the PR release instead http://newsroom.fb.com/News/793/Introducing-Paper-Stories-from-Facebook http://newsroom.fb.com/News/793/Introducing-Paper-Stories-fr...
- icoder 13y ago
  From that article: "Paper is the first product from Facebook Creative Labs, where we’re crafting new apps to support the diverse ways people want to connect and share." -> Put things a bit in perspective for me.
nlp 13y ago
Very buggy on my iPad.
rrggrr 13y ago
This reminds me of drop.io - a company Facebook purchased several years ago. I suspect Lessin, one of the founders and a writer played a role in this very polished storytelling metaphor for what amounts to content integration and sharing utility. If they carryover the phone, chat and other mediums from drop.io they may have something.
nathanbarry 13y ago
This looks like the work of Mike Matas and the rest of the team from Push Pop Press. Nice to see them be able to work on a full experience like this after being acquired by Facebook.
- nakedgremlin 13y ago
  Agreed. A lot of the interactions shown matches previous Push Pop work (some almost exactly -- page to image to full screen). But I do find it odd that it'll take them close to four years (from acquisition) to get this to market.
donniezazen 13y ago
So mobile is winning.
matthuggins 13y ago
Curious to see what this is since the video left me fucking clueless!
S_A_P 13y ago
Regardless of the FB hate that seems to be spreading in this forum the app itself has a lot to appreciate. Im not a facebook user, and I'm not sure how much of this will really get used by the average facebook user. However, this iOS app appears to be very well done, and if it behaves as well as the demo shows is a nice benchmark for mobile app UX. It actually makes me want to start digging into the new iOS 7 APIs.
stef25 13y ago
First thing I thought of was Storify, I guess it's a different kind of story telling.
aseem 13y ago
I think this is another prime example of building a vitamin instead of building a medicine. Do I really need this? How is this different from FlipBoard?
garypezza 13y ago
I'm sorry, but haven't we moved past the phase of things like tilting the phone to view the full photo?
mathattack 13y ago
I noticed that Facebook now has a trending feature. It seems like another move to fight Twitter.
cheshire137 13y ago
Why announce now if it's not available till February? I suppose if the news sites inundate me with more articles about this app, I'll remember to try it out.
jackmaney 13y ago
Garbage like this actually has an effect on me that's the exact opposite of what's intended: I will, under no circumstances whatsoever, ever use any product from Facebook with the name "paper" in it. http://theoatmeal.com/comics/sell_generation http://theoatmeal.com/comics/sell_generation
vkb 13y ago
I've been blogging for over five years. I'm also an avid Facebook user in that I try to post statuses that are interesting and relevant to my audience instead of just the usual "I ate a grilled cheese for lunch and now I feel feelings about it". I also, as of recently, ironically own a typewriter and I am working on a novel. Basically, I love creating content. Theoretically, I am the target market for this product because it's supposed to lure me into divulging more longform-ish content to Facebook and creating narratives about it. I was completely repelled by the ad, not only because I still don't see how this product differentiates from Facebook_regular, but because of the vast array of hipsters doing things that have nothing to do with actual Facebook. If you like photography and animation and writing in the Real World, why would you want to move that content to Facebook? If you create content digitally, why would you want to do it on anything except for a platform you own? Moreover, I was horrified to see that woman not only Facebooking ("Papering?") in the bathtub, but sharing pictures of her fetus, which could then be enlarged by anyone who cares enough. 2014. What a world.
- sp332 13y ago
  Lots of people put ultrasound pics of their future kids on Facebook. It's not even that weird, considering the emotional intensity that picture must have for the poster.
  - vkb 13y ago
    I agree that lots of people do it, and they do it to foster an emotional reaction, and that sharing ultrasounds with people close to you is a very positive experience. But I feel uneasy that we're encouraging this kind of privacy invasion from the very beginning, that leads to things like this[1]. The piece is, of course, reductio ad absurdum, but not completely out of the realm of the ordinary. [1] http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/a-mommy-bloggers-lament http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/a-mommy-bloggers-lament
    - wmeredith 13y ago
      Uh, your source for "where this all leads" is satirical fiction.
ajays 13y ago
It's all about advertising. Being able to deliver rich, full-screen stories to you implies being able to deliver rich, full-screen video ads to you. And that's where the money is.
austenallred 13y ago
I'm not sure why so many are describing this as a "news" app - it's pretty obviously a refresh of the Facebook design, and a much-needed one at that. At the given time 25% of Facebook is taken up by various buttons and controls; there's a lot you can do and a lot of places you can navigate to from Facebook's homepage. It was obviously designed for desktop, and then ported over to mobile. After a couple refreshes the app was usable, but not exactly an enjoyable experience. So "Paper" is how Facebook would look if it were driven by designers and mobile first (if you need any more evidence that this was very design-driven, look at the marketing video. Typewriters, polaroids, naked woman in bathtub, lens flares and blur... it is, in a word, "hipster.") They also seem to have knocked off Flipboard a little bit and let you see collections of other stories. We'll see how well that takes off, but my assumption is that since it was barely mentioned it will be a minor factor in the new app, and I can't see myself using it. The big move is from a lot of buttons and toggles on a screen to a more "swipe-friendly" UI/UX. That makes sense for mobile, but it's a big change. Something like that has to be intuitive, or it's a nightmare to use. It's important to note that in Facebook's earnings call yesterday it revealed that mobile revenue surpassed desktop revenue for the first time ever. This new app has stories big, beautiful, and in-your-face. That means that ads will be the same way, and will likely drive a premium price. Brilliant in terms of monetization from the Facebook team.
- cliveowen 13y ago
  I have to agree, in fact I wonder why would they even bother marketing it as a way to share and collect stories instead of proposing it as a more visual alternative to the main app. I have the feeling that at Facebook they tend to half-ass things, like Home or the redesigned Newsfeed. They release an half-baked product and then let it rot for months with sporadic under-the-hood updates (I actually wonder why the hell every single day the main app needs a 10MB update to do what yesterday could do without problems, but that's for another time).
  - amaks 13y ago
    >> I have the feeling that at Facebook they tend to half-ass things, like Home or the redesigned Newsfeed. That's their motto, is it not? "Move fast and break things". It's hard to expect anything well designed with an engineering attitude like this.
k-mcgrady 13y ago
According to The Verge not only is this iPhone only - it's US ONLY! Seriously a news reader app limited by location. Can anyone come up with a half sane reason they are doing that?
- lotso 13y ago
  They have news sources in the app that are US-centric.
iAinsley 13y ago
inside.com does this!
CSDude 13y ago
Why name it Paper since it is just another UI for a subset of Facebook's features? You can comment, like, view posts, and only the new thing is categories. It is almost everything you do on Facebook, once you can upload something, it can be called a new UI for Facebook, replacing the old one. Why confuse with Paper? Now I have two apps for Facebook, one for reading one for writing, great.
icoder 13y ago
Wonder how much the experience would degrade with a lesser internet connection. Even WiFi probably won't keep up with that, but perhaps enough. But 3G?
fjabre 13y ago
So this is what they're doing with all that cash? Color me unimpressed.
dublinben 13y ago
Here's the source video on Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/85421325 http://vimeo.com/85421325 For some reason I was redirected there in IE11, after both Firefox and Chrome crashed.
SeanKilleen 13y ago
Quick suggestion: a reminder that this app is coming. Rather than tell me to share it, remember that February 3 is days away and I'm not really inspired to put it on my calendar. would have been great to see a request to get notified on launch via my choice of social network / e-mail.
zacharyz 13y ago
It looks beautiful - which is what I have come to expect from the designers over there at facebook. I love how Mike and Sharon's trips are used in their marketing materials, it is a nice personal touch. The facebook timeline is starting to feel extremely stale - if facebook can make it so its users can tell better stories then I am all for it.
cushychicken 13y ago
Does it still read my text messages? Yes? Then it won't be on my phone, just like the original shitty app.
ecesena 13y ago
Reading the (few) details, it seems pretty poor at algorithmic level, in the sense of how it choose the stories for you. I wonder what the best strategy is, while in the past we had ugly interfaces with interesting algos (e.g., reddit), now it seems there's just UX/UI... my question is: is this a viable solution? Can you build UX first, and then complete it with better algos?
coreymgilmore 13y ago
Interesting....not sure of the overall usefulness. Let's see how this develops after a few months.
jesalg 13y ago
So if you share something on Paper would it also show up on Facebook? I can't tell if Paper is a new platform/app or just another way of browsing Facebook.
ApacheEcho 13y ago
Another product going directly to the waste bin.
crorella 13y ago
I failed to see the practicality of the app.
fakeanon 13y ago
Prettier Facebook.
miles_matthias 13y ago
I don't understand why this is some big, ground shaking app. This is what the Facebook app itself should be. Instead of improving their terrible news feed, they make this.
- jesbickhart 13y ago
  Facebook will always need a home page if for no other reason than to manage who you friend and what you are reading. They are interested in creating more stand alone apps ala Messenger. Paper is just another stand alone facebook app - and looks to be a very good one to me.
liamgooding 13y ago
Sucks to be Jason Calacanis right now, who JUST launch "Inside" app that basically tries to do this - http://techcrunch.com/2014/01/27/inside-mobile-news-launch/ http://techcrunch.com/2014/01/27/inside-mobile-news-launch/
- yanivt 13y ago
  Yeah, he's actually talked quite a bit about how Facebook constantly takes out startups and you never know when you're going to be next. What tragic luck! Hope he pulls through.
joe_the_user 13y ago
Hmm, Of my 300+ Facebook friends, one guy consistently posts the stereotypical millenial thing described here of "beautiful hike on the coast with Sharon". If someone else started doing that, I'd probably have to cut one of them off. Fewer friends seem to have real pictures of themselves and more have cartoons, cats and memes. This format looks great for presenting what people imagine as a great Facebook post. But I actually think the majority of people don't use Facebook for this - the hippest are already off Facebook and, well, good riddance.
- gfosco 13y ago
  There's so much more to Paper than your existing news feed.
  - joe_the_user 13y ago
    Putting aside the marketing-blather tone of your post, what is this "more"? Who would create this "more"? The nice thing about my existing news feed is that it is created by the people I either know or have a rather specific affinity to. Either way, they create stuff that actually is interesting specifically to me. And only about 5-10 of them are capable of producing video or the equvilent. Most produce essays, quips, collages and cat-pictures - not stuff with huge production values or stuff with a cinematic or whatever tone. Just relevant things. So what would be added? Ipso facto irrelevant stuff.
    - gfosco 13y ago
      When you get to play with it next week, you'll understand. Newsfeed is one section, and you can choose from a variety of others to flip through. They will be curated and high quality. See recent posts like: http://recode.net/2014/01/27/facebook-is-seeking-editors-for-news-app/ http://recode.net/2014/01/27/facebook-is-seeking-editors-for...
      - joe_the_user 13y ago
        Will the curators be as obtusely disconnected from their readers as your replies to my posts have been? I mean, my argument is that there is fundamental difference, a wide gulf, between a feed of friends' posts and a curated stream of news article, even if some friend's posts contain some links. A friend might, say, object to my argument using a counter-argument whereas, for example, a marketing bot would respond with a stream of text all of which is synonymous with "don't worry, it will be great".
Fuzzwah 13y ago
That video was painful for me to watch due to the jerky motions of the camera combined with weird video glitches in my Chrome window.
smrtinsert 13y ago
I was wondering why they chose such an awful keyboard and then I realized I was looking at an ios device, crazy.
mafuba 13y ago
Flipboard FTW!
tdj 13y ago
Does anyone have a good explanation for why the pages uses 1-frame videos for static pictures? Does WebM offer better quality-per-KB than JPEG?
exodust 13y ago
Can't we wait for it to exist and then talk about it? Who knows whether it will be intuitive or not. Can't tell from that video. My phone isn't as still as the one in the video, I don't like too much swiping of little bits and pieces all the time. Tap, swipe, all day long.. just show me the content and stop making a zilion forks in the road. You're making me put my hand in front of the screen every 2 seconds, it looks like hard work to me... all that swiping and endless mashup of random stuff. Is it news? Is it noise? Is it noisy news?
cykho 13y ago
It's now available for download from the link.

Introducing Paper

313 points by coolsank 13y ago

emehrkay 13y ago

I enjoy Mike Matas' work http://www.mikematas.com http://www.mikematas.com

prezjordan 13y ago
Wow this guy's done everything!

grey-area 13y ago

Some beautiful design and thoughtful UI in the app here, and this is also a lovely microsite - I love the use of the video full screen. It'd be great to see some of this sort of thoughtful design go into the UI of web browsers on mobile platforms (which are also platforms for reading and sharing stories). Shame it's from Facebook.

Zolomon 13y ago
Felt annoyed with the video, couldn't tell for how long it would keep going. But nice resolution in full screen.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
pavs 13y ago
Why is it shame its from facebook? FB has been at the forefront of awesome UI design concepts for al long time, specifically in mobile.
- grey-area 13y ago
  Because I don't trust them with my data.
  - xauronx 13y ago
    Also because no one on my feed posts anything I'm actually interested in. If I could get that UI on hacker news, I would be pleased.
    - MarkTee 13y ago
      Would Flipboard work for that? http://flip.it/5pPct http://flip.it/5pPct
- amaks 13y ago
  >> awesome UI design concepts for al long time, specifically in mobile Hmm, would you give an example of the "awesome design in mobile" from facebook? I hope you're not referring to their "facebook" mobile app.

gagege 13y ago

The video was choppy and froze part way through. Seems to happen to me a lot with these types of websites. On different computers, even.

rebel 13y ago
Happened to me as well. Can't understand why huge companies with a wide variety of visitors use techniques that deliver sub-par experiences so often. I'm running the latest version of Firefox with a $2k Macbook Pro.
- xauronx 13y ago
  Played smoothly on a couple year old dell laptop for me.
kyriakos 13y ago
seems ok here and my pc is not that great. (chrome/win8)
rplnt 13y ago
I tried three different browsers. Opera was very laggy, Chrome just showed one frame and Firefox was moderately laggy. Resizing the tab helped a bit. Audio was choppy as well. My HW specs are far from low (though it is not a gaming machine either). I couldn't pause the video, fast forward it or even see any indicator of progress. I didn't even expect volume settings. Considering all this, the page is simply horrible. It might look nice (on paper perhaps), but the UX is the worst. Visuals alone don't make good sites.
- hoektoe 13y ago
  You didn't try IE6 0-o
- oldstrangers 13y ago
  Use this video then. https://fbcdn-dragon-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/t39.2365/851559_578934018851295_1147417154_n.mp4 https://fbcdn-dragon-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/t39.2365...

sambeau 13y ago

I wonder what 53 will make of Facebook's choice of App name? http://www.fiftythree.com/paper http://www.fiftythree.com/paper

lerouxb 13y ago
Or Flipboard about everything else.
burpee 13y ago
Although I'm not particularly familiar with the latest in US trademark laws, in most European trademark cases it can be argued that the name "Paper" is too descriptive to be defended. At the same time the fact that both are in the general category of "apps for the curation and creation of content", the confusion in the market is definitely going to be there. Curious to see how this is going to turn out...
- maroonblazer 13y ago
  "apps for the curation and creation of content" That seems overly broad too and I suspect courts would distinguish between creation vs curation. The 53 app is about the former whereas FB's is the latter. Also think about someone searching for an app to draw and paint. It's unlikely the FB's Paper would show up in the results. Even if it did, would most people confuse it for a drawing/painting app?
- gorner 13y ago
  Not a lawyer, but I think you're more or less right about North American trademark law as well. Trademarking a common word is fine (so long as it's not inherently descriptive of the actual product – i.e. trademarking "Paper" with respect to reams of paper would never fly), but FiftyThree would still have to show that "Paper" is sufficiently distinctive in the software market that anyone discussing "Paper" in terms of mobile apps instantly thinks of their product, the same as "Apple" being distinctive in the computers / electronics industry. As big as their app is already, as others have noted other apps have that name too, so 53 would have difficulty claiming exclusivity on "Paper". Just did a quick USPTO search and it looks like 53 hasn't attempted to register a trademark for "Paper" itself – but they have registered "Paper by FiftyThree", which would more easily pass the bar of distinctiveness: http://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=85622666&caseType=SERIAL_NO&searchType=statusSearch http://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=85622666&caseType=SERIAL_N... Having said that – I do wish Facebook had picked a name that wasn't already associated with such a well-known app. Disclaimer: I have a dev friend who works at FiftyThree but their IP strategy is not something we've discussed. edit: spelling / grammar

danabramov 13y ago

Are we already out of original app names?

blowski 13y ago
At least they didn't call it 'Papr'.
- jffry 13y ago
  ppr.io

quaffapint 13y ago

Does seem like a fluid UXD. Shame android is second class citizen again, and you have to be on facebook to use it. Hopefully if it does pan out as well as the video shows, other apps like flipboard will start incorporating its flow.

eigenvector 13y ago
I admit I didn't watch the video (couldn't, it managed to lock up my 6-core workstation), but isn't this basically Home for iOS? https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.facebook.home https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.facebook.h...

kyriakos 13y ago

I hope this runs well on android.. considering how bad their android app

krcz 13y ago
Considering there's just AppStore logo at the bottom, I don't think they are releasing Android version together with iOS one.
joeblau 13y ago
It's alternating. Android users got Facebook Home last year, this year iPhone users get Facebook Paper. I think that's fair.
- notthetup 13y ago
  Not all Android phones got Facebook Home. I think like only 2/3 models.
- kyriakos 13y ago
  Paper will eventually come out for Android. Facebook Home obviously is not something that can run on iOS due to its limitations.

JungleNavigator 13y ago

On the first time, I wondered how the Paper creators manage to create a Facebook page without the Facebook branding, then realized it is Facebook's thing :-)

mayankkumar 13y ago

Take that, Princeton report!

hoektoe 13y ago
if it's on paper, it ARE true

erikb 13y ago

this looks like an idea that was tried so many times and people just don't care. I think about smart tags in GMail here, or circles. Most people simply don't micromanage their data flows according to topics. Maybe I simply don't get the difference here, but if I am right, then I am deeply disappointed and frustrated to see people spend money and smart developers' time into ideas that already failed years ago.

lambada 13y ago
I think the difference here is that Facebook will categorise all the content. in effect they will manage what goes into the Tech or news or Creativity buckets. You just say which you want to see by default.
- icoder 13y ago
  I understood that part as if there will be content especially for Paper, categorised (by creator) and readable for everyone. If they actually think they can categorise the stuff that is now my Facebook experience and get anything close to what is seen in the video, I'd be pleasantly surprised.
madoublet 13y ago
This. I already look at it as a chore to check Facebook, I don't want to manage it.

RyanZAG 13y ago

I'm impressed by how much CPU this website is able to use. It pegged all 8 cores at 100% while I had the website open on firefox/win7

blowski 13y ago
Doesn't work at all without JavaScript - just a black screen. And I don't have a Facebook account, so couldn't look at the mobile version.
- deckar01 13y ago
  The mobile version is unusable. The sideways scroll nav gets stuck between slides. The videos are corrupted or over compressed. The transitions lag and are so janky they only get about 3 frames rendered in time. The page doesn't even contain very much useful information about what Paper does.
thejosh 13y ago
Same here with Chrome/arch.
Cthulhu_ 13y ago
And yet, pages / applications like this using a lot of CPU should be plenty of incentive and test cases for both web developers and browser developers to optimize their respective applications. Like how 3DMark and high-end video games like (at the time) Crysis push the GPU manufacturers and driver programmers to achieve more performance in those respective applications for its PR value. '50% less CPU usage on the Facebook Paper page' is a nice line in a browser's changelog.
teamonkey 13y ago
On a 4S you can literally see the battery meter run down before your eyes.
ulfw 13y ago
Wrong browser/OS then. On Safari/Mac it runs on an aging dual-core i7 Macbook Air with around 20% CPU

kyro 13y ago

I'm excited to give this a spin, and that's saying a lot considering I haven't touched FB in a few years now. It's nice to see them innovating with new ideas and products, instead of iterating on their existing main platform. What's interesting is that their mobile strategy involves grabbing as much of your screen real estate as possible, with the FB app, FB Messenger, Instagram, and now Paper. I guess that was obvious when they tried the whole Facebook phone thing.

taude 13y ago
I think the direction Facebook is going with splitting the services in to apps that solve different use cases is a good thing. Let the user use their social graph in the specific ways they want/need to. Personally, I mostly use FB for private messages from family members, some private groups, and their group event planning. I don't use it for the feed consumption.
- amaks 13y ago
  I agree, it seems that new facebook strategy is to spread the use of their platform using mobile apps. This will increase their mobile ad presence. But, I'm curious if this is an indication of the weakness in their mobile ad exchange because other mobile apps which use facebook platform doesn't seem to satisfy them.
probablyfiction 13y ago
I see this as more an iteration than true innovation. It looks as though they're taking your existing Facebook content and putting it in a different wrapper. A pretty wrapper, to be sure, but in the end I think it will still be filled with things like "pg said If I get 50 million likes I can be on the front page of HN."
mattlutze 13y ago
It looks like a different interface on the concept that Flipboard is built around, using Facebook content instead of select news sources. It's a neat interface, and I hope it's light enough on the hardware that it'll be as fluid as in the video (on my iPhone 4 and One S the standard Facebook app has become slow and laggy). But, it looks like an interface that distances the user from the content, enforcing a more consumption-focused model of interaction than producer, which seems a little antithetical.

hrktb 13y ago

It's funny they choose to tease it, instead of aving an 'get it now' call to action from day one [edit: I would have tried it now as I see it for the first time, I'm not sure I'll care for another content feed app in 3 days, especially as it will have discussed to death in meantime]. And I don't get the link between the name and the app. Is it paper as in newspaper ?

mertd 13y ago

Kind of funny that the page is broken on iPad (Safari).

tremendo 13y ago

Pretty. I like the UI innovative touches for flipping through content, panning pictures, etc. The video does a good job of selling it. Alas, not for me. It seems to me a type of app better suited perhaps to the tablet format. Personally I'm over consuming content like this on my phone. In most cases I may skim something quickly and if it really catches my attention then I'll wait until I'm on a bigger screen to explore it further. The Share section tries to make the point of "the most important stories… your own" and it's a good one, well presented. From my own personal experience though I believe that most of the people I follow online, whether prolific or not, will not dedicate a lot of time to "production" work as in selecting headlines, backgrounds for those headers, more than a couple of beautiful pictures (they never really come out as good as presented), etc. to create a flip-book like these. This will be a good medium for… commercial producers? as shown, the CNNs, Time magazines, of course the Verge, Engadgenet, etc, and that's what I'd end up consuming only to finally uninstall. But I know, that's just me, and my 2 cents.

dudus 13y ago

I don't see a lot of difference from Google Play Newsstand or Flipboard.

jamesmoss 13y ago

Anybody know how they kept the phone so still in those videos? The hand holding it doesn't move. Is there a pole underneath attaching it to a surface we can't see?

Jakob 13y ago
It looks like most of it is an image, with an animation put inside: https://fbcdn-dragon-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/t39.2365/851578_399356030210669_1142938113_n.webm https://fbcdn-dragon-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/t39.2365...

leoplct 13y ago

Flipboard should be very excited about it :) #sarcasm

sleepyK 13y ago

I might have used that if it was made by a company like Twitter.... which advertises, but doesn't meddle with the content. But seeing that it's Facebook, most of the stories we see will be targeted towards our 'Likes' and the rest will be targeted ads.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

terhechte 13y ago

I'm getting weird video display issues on iPhone 5S: https://posts.app.net/21220141 https://posts.app.net/21220141

blueskin_ 13y ago

Worst info site ever. I can't even tell what it is. An app? a model of phone? a website? a new facebook feature?

Dirlewanger 13y ago
It's a fancy new UI, that's it. Doesn't look like there will be much content change, just how it's laid out. Boring.
romanovcode 13y ago
I couldn't even watch the whole video.

1angryhacker 13y ago

because what we need right now is another way to view our facebook feed

andyjohnson0 13y ago

Is this a native app or a web app running in a browser? I watched the video (at work, so without sound) and I can't tell. If its browser based then I'm extremely impressed.

stillmotion 13y ago
It's native. Zuckerberg has self-proclaimed Facebook to be "a mobile company."
- blueblob 13y ago
  My girlfriend found it frustrating that she can attach a picture to a facebook post in the browser (even on mobile) but can't in the app.
  - ceejayoz 13y ago
    I can do that in the app (iOS) just fine... and not just on posts, comments too.
CrosseyeJack 13y ago
At the end of the video it shows a Apple app store graphic. So I would say its a native app.
khc 13y ago
At the end it says you can get it on Apple app store.
kayoone 13y ago
those kind of animations wouldn't be so smooth on mobile devices, especially older ones.
sp332 13y ago
It's a native app. I haven't even heard of plans to make a web version.

danielbraun 13y ago

Great! Yet another innovative way to view cat pictures and selfies. It's funny how the users in the video aren't even reading their stories.

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]

plg 13y ago

The underlying assumption at FB seems to be that people are interested in (something like a) magazine but one curated not by professional journalists, designers and advertisers but rather curated by uncle joe, grandma bessie, etc. I know which magazine I'd rather read.

jccalhoun 13y ago

When did "beautiful storytelling" become code for "a big picture near the top and then plain text on a white background?"

InclinedPlane 13y ago
You've got to understand things in context. The world of web design and of app design has typically been a cluttered and ugly mess where typography and clean design have been pushed to the wayside in favor of trying to cram more stuff into user's eyes (often in service to advertising dollars). In that world boring design that has little going for it other than cleanliness and good lines becomes "beautiful".
- pessimizer 13y ago
  Or, rather, usability, generic sans-serif, and having everything above the fold was valued more than typography and clean design.
brown9-2 13y ago
It is a law of modern advertising that every visual product must be described as "beautiful", along with words like "curated" or "handcrafted".

zyb09 13y ago

Man, that video, typical marketing bullshit. First scene shows a guy writing on a typewriter, next scene shows someone hanging up Polaroid pictures. Seriously? Show me why this app is useful and why I need it, instead of trying to lull me into a world that doesn't exist.

taude 13y ago
All tech companies/startups are starting to look the same. Maybe the same marketing/ad company has a contract with the entire valley? Edit: Changed "Silicon Valley" to tech...since this common feel is more about the latest trends, than geographical boundaries. Though the joke no longer makes sense.
- prawks 13y ago
  > All tech companies/startups are starting to look the same. I think it's more that they are just starting to advertise the same way that all other companies do. More and more they're evoking emotional responses from the ads' viewers, rather than listing technical features and productivity measures. Apple was probably one of the first, really. Look at the early Macintosh ads: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCL1c8JCepg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCL1c8JCepg I, for one, thought the video was pretty well done. If I had a Facebook account that I frequented, I would certainly be interested. Hell, it makes me a little envious of people who have genuinely interesting things pop up on their Walls (do such people exist?).
  - taude 13y ago
    Yes. Agree with this. At some point, though, I feel the same about everything... Queue up someone commenting that their feed doesn't look anything like the polish of a feed in a Facebook ad. :)
    - loganu 13y ago
      Right here. Couldn't help but think it as I watched. It seems like facebook has tweaked sharing algorithms, and I'm getting a lot more memes from pages my friends "liked" and updates from people I don't know, interacting with my friends. Not to mention pictures of food, dogs, and other stuff that I should be a little more active in culling. If they have smart integration with news sources / blogs (they showed BBC and the Atlantic I think) that could show me news that matches my interest but isn't spammy, this could be a reversal for them; I might not go to Facebook for friends, and Twitter for news/ more intellectual stuff.

rubyfan 13y ago

Meh

cycojesus 13y ago

Is it just me or the perspective of that image looks very wrong?

narfz 13y ago

it's nice to see mike matas' again. i really felt in love with his UI skills (http://mikematas.com http://mikematas.com)

nfoz 13y ago
I clicked that link and my web browser gave me a type of popup I didn't think it could, declaring: "This is a next generation website that is best viewed in an advanced web browser such as Apple's Safari. You will be able to view the site using this browser but the performance may be poor." Then my browser nearly died before I could close the tab.
- scholia 13y ago
  Got the same message with Firefox 26, but the site worked fine. However, it did make me think the guy was a dick....
RandallBrown 13y ago
wow, that guy has designed some groundbreaking stuff. Never heard of him before either.

meshko 13y ago

I watched the video. I don't understand what paper is. Actually, the only reason I watched it was because I somehow confused myself into thinking this was Amazon. When I was done with the video, I finally realized this is Facebook and it all made sense. I still don't know what "paper" is of course. Now I need my coffee.

giarc 13y ago
One feature I think was not as prominent as could be was the addition of non-Facebook stories in the app. You could see they guy add "Headlines" into his feed. I think it pulls from some news agency. I think this is Facebook's response to Flipboard (Flipbook?).

whizzkid 13y ago

I am happy that their next thing is totally useless since my facebook usage is really really rare for last 6 months!

hasanatkazmi 13y ago

Facebook is trying get in the market of successful concepts like Flipboard and Pulse. Why wouldn't Facebook like to mine what people (and their 'Friends') 'like' and show them relevant news when Flipboard and Pulse connect to your Facebook, churn what you shared in the past and show you news which you might like.

Bahamut 13y ago

This website really is not desktop friendly - it was annoying to browse through it.

robodale 13y ago

The same pompous shit that come from these companies. Holy fuck I don't care.

Nate630 13y ago

Yet another way to view text, images, and video. For me, really comes down to the content. Does the content interest me? - I can't tell by the site.

kayoone 13y ago
Well the content is created by your facebook friends.
- marknutter 13y ago
  So, then.. no?

jere 13y ago

>Explore and share stories from friends and the world around you. Stories...? Or memes and ads?

duiker101 13y ago
Or pictures of food and selfies at the club?
- Fuzzwah 13y ago
  Get new friends?

maaarghk 13y ago

When the girl in the bath came on screen I remembered I was watching a video of a bunch of people who are addicted to their f'ing iPhones. And then I felt like I was watching an episode of Black Mirror.

urs2102 13y ago

As a new frontend programmer, what kind of libraries did Facebook use to create a page like this with full screen video/the "explore" page which has thumb moving on it? Was it a type of JS? Was it Flash? Just wondering...

cs02rm0 13y ago
The video and the moving thumb (also a video) use the HTMl5 video tag and some CSS to make it fullscreen.

nelmaven 13y ago

Do the adds also come in fullscreen?

GeorgeMac 13y ago

Is it me, or is it just facebook with news feeds and a nice big handful of gestures. Their must be a massive increase in RSI due to hundreds of apps/interfaces with different gesture controls. I don't know if my muscle memory has anymore room for this app. Im going to end up loosing important things, like konami codes...

Multiplayer 13y ago

Did anyone else laugh out loud when they panned to a naked woman in a bath tub? I was like, woah, starting to get a little weird here.

dmarusic16 13y ago

My favorite thing about the demo video is how its completely bereft of ads. That probably won't be the case in practice—at least not for long.

oesmith 13y ago
Exactly my first thought too!

revetkn 13y ago

The product is probably not for me but it looks like FB employs some talented iOS engineers

krelian 13y ago

I can't wait for the next trend in app/services marketing. I'm tired of: Introducing %word% , bla bla bla beautiful bla bla bla Share. Coupled with short sentences over a huge iOS/ OS X images. It feels as if this has been here forever.

ianstormtaylor 13y ago
Is it really all that different from some of the iconic ads[1] from the 1950s? Seems like it's mostly the same story-telling technique but slightly tweaked to take advantage of video and interaction. I wonder if it won't really change (apart from new tech which makes it just routing similarly-structured stories directly into your brain or something) because the kinds of stores we react two isn't really evolving that quickly either. [1]: http://media.fontsinuse.com/static/use-media-items/7/6475/full-800x1015/502fea1b/thinksmall.jpeg http://media.fontsinuse.com/static/use-media-items/7/6475/fu...

brandonmcane 13y ago

So, for one, I had to watch the video twice to try to figure out what the app actually does. Though, I suppose maybe that's just my own ineptitude. Because I'm still not sure what it does. Secondly, what is the market for this? I can already make my own "paper" type thing with Flipboard or the myriad other options on the market. Considering this seems like something I need to not only download, but take time to customize, does Facebook expect people to switch right on over to them? Why can't I just go on Facebook or Twitter and see what stories my friends are sharing? That's the point, isn't it? I don't get it.

cs02rm0 13y ago

Looks like Facebook without adverts. An improvement but...

yanivt 13y ago

Does anyone know how they do the full bleed animation? (show the user flicking through scenes)?

adaam2 13y ago

Style over substance

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

icoder 13y ago
Funny, my feed is becoming a mini-reddit with mostly memes and I was thinking "if the news for this app comes from my friends, I may need other friends". But I think news from friends is not the entire purpose of Paper, so there's hope for me. Then again, I have an Android and apparently even the biggest company's do not there do double-launch.

yanivt 13y ago

What a bunch of grumpy old men. I bet everybody sitting here taking shots at this app 1) have never created anything nearly as cool 2) would not have understood Apple in its hayday 3) spend too much time reading and taking shots at other people's work. I'm all for being cynical and questioning what's out there but you have to let the good stuff through. The design here is first class. The Facebook guys have outdone themselves. Yes, it's a culmination of a large body of work that's come before with a few novel improvements. That's how art works. Quit bitching and do something useful. /rantoff

camillomiller 13y ago
This is the stupidest anti-critique point ever; it's flawed, because it takes for granted that everyone talking hasn't made anything important (therefore they wouldn't be sittin' here masturbatin', no?) and gives to the simple act of "making somthing big" a value per se. And yet, it ALWAYS pops out in situations like this. It's like the Godwin law but with the make-something-cool-before-you-talk cliché in place of Hitler.
stef25 13y ago
To me it does look cool, it's just that FB is nothing but social spam nowadays and this is probably just a new way of wrapping it up in.
- yanivt 13y ago
  I agree, I hardly use Facebook anymore. But I'm still open minded enough not to disparage everything the company does on some kind of misguided principle.
  - icoder 13y ago
    Based on what they present, the concept highly depends on the content. This poses an issue that is not touched upon at all in their presentation. So mentioning / discussing it on HN is in my opinion relevant.

bovermyer 13y ago

What happens if I think the concept is interesting, if only because a sound plays when you tap the Like button?

eyeareque 13y ago

On my phone I saw: Please use portrait mode... Play video. Plays landscape format video.

phwd 13y ago

Instead of pulling information from the marketing page, why not just read the PR release instead http://newsroom.fb.com/News/793/Introducing-Paper-Stories-from-Facebook http://newsroom.fb.com/News/793/Introducing-Paper-Stories-fr...

icoder 13y ago
From that article: "Paper is the first product from Facebook Creative Labs, where we’re crafting new apps to support the diverse ways people want to connect and share." -> Put things a bit in perspective for me.

nlp 13y ago

Very buggy on my iPad.

rrggrr 13y ago

This reminds me of drop.io - a company Facebook purchased several years ago. I suspect Lessin, one of the founders and a writer played a role in this very polished storytelling metaphor for what amounts to content integration and sharing utility. If they carryover the phone, chat and other mediums from drop.io they may have something.

nathanbarry 13y ago

This looks like the work of Mike Matas and the rest of the team from Push Pop Press. Nice to see them be able to work on a full experience like this after being acquired by Facebook.

nakedgremlin 13y ago
Agreed. A lot of the interactions shown matches previous Push Pop work (some almost exactly -- page to image to full screen). But I do find it odd that it'll take them close to four years (from acquisition) to get this to market.

donniezazen 13y ago

So mobile is winning.

matthuggins 13y ago

Curious to see what this is since the video left me fucking clueless!

S_A_P 13y ago

Regardless of the FB hate that seems to be spreading in this forum the app itself has a lot to appreciate. Im not a facebook user, and I'm not sure how much of this will really get used by the average facebook user. However, this iOS app appears to be very well done, and if it behaves as well as the demo shows is a nice benchmark for mobile app UX. It actually makes me want to start digging into the new iOS 7 APIs.

stef25 13y ago

First thing I thought of was Storify, I guess it's a different kind of story telling.

aseem 13y ago

I think this is another prime example of building a vitamin instead of building a medicine. Do I really need this? How is this different from FlipBoard?

garypezza 13y ago

I'm sorry, but haven't we moved past the phase of things like tilting the phone to view the full photo?

mathattack 13y ago

I noticed that Facebook now has a trending feature. It seems like another move to fight Twitter.

cheshire137 13y ago

Why announce now if it's not available till February? I suppose if the news sites inundate me with more articles about this app, I'll remember to try it out.

jackmaney 13y ago

Garbage like this actually has an effect on me that's the exact opposite of what's intended: I will, under no circumstances whatsoever, ever use any product from Facebook with the name "paper" in it. http://theoatmeal.com/comics/sell_generation http://theoatmeal.com/comics/sell_generation

vkb 13y ago

I've been blogging for over five years. I'm also an avid Facebook user in that I try to post statuses that are interesting and relevant to my audience instead of just the usual "I ate a grilled cheese for lunch and now I feel feelings about it". I also, as of recently, ironically own a typewriter and I am working on a novel. Basically, I love creating content. Theoretically, I am the target market for this product because it's supposed to lure me into divulging more longform-ish content to Facebook and creating narratives about it. I was completely repelled by the ad, not only because I still don't see how this product differentiates from Facebook_regular, but because of the vast array of hipsters doing things that have nothing to do with actual Facebook. If you like photography and animation and writing in the Real World, why would you want to move that content to Facebook? If you create content digitally, why would you want to do it on anything except for a platform you own? Moreover, I was horrified to see that woman not only Facebooking ("Papering?") in the bathtub, but sharing pictures of her fetus, which could then be enlarged by anyone who cares enough. 2014. What a world.

sp332 13y ago
Lots of people put ultrasound pics of their future kids on Facebook. It's not even that weird, considering the emotional intensity that picture must have for the poster.
- vkb 13y ago
  I agree that lots of people do it, and they do it to foster an emotional reaction, and that sharing ultrasounds with people close to you is a very positive experience. But I feel uneasy that we're encouraging this kind of privacy invasion from the very beginning, that leads to things like this[1]. The piece is, of course, reductio ad absurdum, but not completely out of the realm of the ordinary. [1] http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/a-mommy-bloggers-lament http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/a-mommy-bloggers-lament
  - wmeredith 13y ago
    Uh, your source for "where this all leads" is satirical fiction.

ajays 13y ago

It's all about advertising. Being able to deliver rich, full-screen stories to you implies being able to deliver rich, full-screen video ads to you. And that's where the money is.

austenallred 13y ago

I'm not sure why so many are describing this as a "news" app - it's pretty obviously a refresh of the Facebook design, and a much-needed one at that. At the given time 25% of Facebook is taken up by various buttons and controls; there's a lot you can do and a lot of places you can navigate to from Facebook's homepage. It was obviously designed for desktop, and then ported over to mobile. After a couple refreshes the app was usable, but not exactly an enjoyable experience. So "Paper" is how Facebook would look if it were driven by designers and mobile first (if you need any more evidence that this was very design-driven, look at the marketing video. Typewriters, polaroids, naked woman in bathtub, lens flares and blur... it is, in a word, "hipster.") They also seem to have knocked off Flipboard a little bit and let you see collections of other stories. We'll see how well that takes off, but my assumption is that since it was barely mentioned it will be a minor factor in the new app, and I can't see myself using it. The big move is from a lot of buttons and toggles on a screen to a more "swipe-friendly" UI/UX. That makes sense for mobile, but it's a big change. Something like that has to be intuitive, or it's a nightmare to use. It's important to note that in Facebook's earnings call yesterday it revealed that mobile revenue surpassed desktop revenue for the first time ever. This new app has stories big, beautiful, and in-your-face. That means that ads will be the same way, and will likely drive a premium price. Brilliant in terms of monetization from the Facebook team.

cliveowen 13y ago
I have to agree, in fact I wonder why would they even bother marketing it as a way to share and collect stories instead of proposing it as a more visual alternative to the main app. I have the feeling that at Facebook they tend to half-ass things, like Home or the redesigned Newsfeed. They release an half-baked product and then let it rot for months with sporadic under-the-hood updates (I actually wonder why the hell every single day the main app needs a 10MB update to do what yesterday could do without problems, but that's for another time).
- amaks 13y ago
  >> I have the feeling that at Facebook they tend to half-ass things, like Home or the redesigned Newsfeed. That's their motto, is it not? "Move fast and break things". It's hard to expect anything well designed with an engineering attitude like this.

k-mcgrady 13y ago

According to The Verge not only is this iPhone only - it's US ONLY! Seriously a news reader app limited by location. Can anyone come up with a half sane reason they are doing that?

lotso 13y ago
They have news sources in the app that are US-centric.

iAinsley 13y ago

inside.com does this!

CSDude 13y ago

Why name it Paper since it is just another UI for a subset of Facebook's features? You can comment, like, view posts, and only the new thing is categories. It is almost everything you do on Facebook, once you can upload something, it can be called a new UI for Facebook, replacing the old one. Why confuse with Paper? Now I have two apps for Facebook, one for reading one for writing, great.

icoder 13y ago

Wonder how much the experience would degrade with a lesser internet connection. Even WiFi probably won't keep up with that, but perhaps enough. But 3G?

fjabre 13y ago

So this is what they're doing with all that cash? Color me unimpressed.

dublinben 13y ago

Here's the source video on Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/85421325 http://vimeo.com/85421325 For some reason I was redirected there in IE11, after both Firefox and Chrome crashed.

SeanKilleen 13y ago

Quick suggestion: a reminder that this app is coming. Rather than tell me to share it, remember that February 3 is days away and I'm not really inspired to put it on my calendar. would have been great to see a request to get notified on launch via my choice of social network / e-mail.

zacharyz 13y ago

It looks beautiful - which is what I have come to expect from the designers over there at facebook. I love how Mike and Sharon's trips are used in their marketing materials, it is a nice personal touch. The facebook timeline is starting to feel extremely stale - if facebook can make it so its users can tell better stories then I am all for it.

cushychicken 13y ago

Does it still read my text messages? Yes? Then it won't be on my phone, just like the original shitty app.

ecesena 13y ago

Reading the (few) details, it seems pretty poor at algorithmic level, in the sense of how it choose the stories for you. I wonder what the best strategy is, while in the past we had ugly interfaces with interesting algos (e.g., reddit), now it seems there's just UX/UI... my question is: is this a viable solution? Can you build UX first, and then complete it with better algos?

coreymgilmore 13y ago

Interesting....not sure of the overall usefulness. Let's see how this develops after a few months.

jesalg 13y ago

So if you share something on Paper would it also show up on Facebook? I can't tell if Paper is a new platform/app or just another way of browsing Facebook.

ApacheEcho 13y ago

Another product going directly to the waste bin.

crorella 13y ago

I failed to see the practicality of the app.

fakeanon 13y ago

Prettier Facebook.

miles_matthias 13y ago

I don't understand why this is some big, ground shaking app. This is what the Facebook app itself should be. Instead of improving their terrible news feed, they make this.

jesbickhart 13y ago
Facebook will always need a home page if for no other reason than to manage who you friend and what you are reading. They are interested in creating more stand alone apps ala Messenger. Paper is just another stand alone facebook app - and looks to be a very good one to me.

liamgooding 13y ago

Sucks to be Jason Calacanis right now, who JUST launch "Inside" app that basically tries to do this - http://techcrunch.com/2014/01/27/inside-mobile-news-launch/ http://techcrunch.com/2014/01/27/inside-mobile-news-launch/

yanivt 13y ago
Yeah, he's actually talked quite a bit about how Facebook constantly takes out startups and you never know when you're going to be next. What tragic luck! Hope he pulls through.

joe_the_user 13y ago

Hmm, Of my 300+ Facebook friends, one guy consistently posts the stereotypical millenial thing described here of "beautiful hike on the coast with Sharon". If someone else started doing that, I'd probably have to cut one of them off. Fewer friends seem to have real pictures of themselves and more have cartoons, cats and memes. This format looks great for presenting what people imagine as a great Facebook post. But I actually think the majority of people don't use Facebook for this - the hippest are already off Facebook and, well, good riddance.

gfosco 13y ago
There's so much more to Paper than your existing news feed.
- joe_the_user 13y ago
  Putting aside the marketing-blather tone of your post, what is this "more"? Who would create this "more"? The nice thing about my existing news feed is that it is created by the people I either know or have a rather specific affinity to. Either way, they create stuff that actually is interesting specifically to me. And only about 5-10 of them are capable of producing video or the equvilent. Most produce essays, quips, collages and cat-pictures - not stuff with huge production values or stuff with a cinematic or whatever tone. Just relevant things. So what would be added? Ipso facto irrelevant stuff.
  - gfosco 13y ago
    When you get to play with it next week, you'll understand. Newsfeed is one section, and you can choose from a variety of others to flip through. They will be curated and high quality. See recent posts like: http://recode.net/2014/01/27/facebook-is-seeking-editors-for-news-app/ http://recode.net/2014/01/27/facebook-is-seeking-editors-for...
    - joe_the_user 13y ago
      Will the curators be as obtusely disconnected from their readers as your replies to my posts have been? I mean, my argument is that there is fundamental difference, a wide gulf, between a feed of friends' posts and a curated stream of news article, even if some friend's posts contain some links. A friend might, say, object to my argument using a counter-argument whereas, for example, a marketing bot would respond with a stream of text all of which is synonymous with "don't worry, it will be great".

Fuzzwah 13y ago

That video was painful for me to watch due to the jerky motions of the camera combined with weird video glitches in my Chrome window.

smrtinsert 13y ago

I was wondering why they chose such an awful keyboard and then I realized I was looking at an ios device, crazy.

mafuba 13y ago

Flipboard FTW!

tdj 13y ago

Does anyone have a good explanation for why the pages uses 1-frame videos for static pictures? Does WebM offer better quality-per-KB than JPEG?

exodust 13y ago

Can't we wait for it to exist and then talk about it? Who knows whether it will be intuitive or not. Can't tell from that video. My phone isn't as still as the one in the video, I don't like too much swiping of little bits and pieces all the time. Tap, swipe, all day long.. just show me the content and stop making a zilion forks in the road. You're making me put my hand in front of the screen every 2 seconds, it looks like hard work to me... all that swiping and endless mashup of random stuff. Is it news? Is it noise? Is it noisy news?

cykho 13y ago

It's now available for download from the link.