Facebook Paper
Facebook's most elegant mobile app turned the News Feed into a gesture-driven magazine, won design praise and disappeared without ever reaching Android or most countries.
Quick facts
- Existence state
- Officially Gone
- Peak stage
- general availability
- Research confidence
- high
- Last verified
What it was
A formally released iPhone application by Facebook Creative Labs for reading stories and the social feed.
Paper combined full-screen cards, curated topic sections and fluid tilt-and-swipe navigation in a distinct alternative to the main Facebook app.
Existence timeline
Facebook Creative Labs presents a new social reader.
The iPhone app reaches normal public availability.
Updates add sharing and reading features but no Android version.
Facebook stops expanding the experimental programme.
The company sets a July end date.
Paper is removed and ceases functioning as a service.
Why it ended
Facebook removed Paper from the App Store and ended support on 29 July 2016 as Creative Labs projects were consolidated.
Last confirmed trace
Launch videos, interface recordings, design case studies and installed but disconnected copies preserve its interactions.
What it left behind
Many of Paper's visual ideas entered later Facebook interfaces, while the original app remains a benchmark for focused social-product design.
How we classified it
The archive unit reached normal public release or operation and is no longer obtainable in its original public form.
Verified normal public availability maps to 100 under Arrival Score V1.
Sources & verification
Last reviewed 2026-08-01. Sources are linked so readers can inspect the evidence directly.