Facebook to soon launch Paper, a Flipboard-like news-reading app: Report

Facebook will reportedly soon be coming out with a Flipboard-like news reader app called 'Paper', to engage more people looking to catch up on news.

According to a report by re/code, Facebook is readying to launch a news reading service built for mobile devices in the coming weeks. The website cites an unnamed source for the information regarding the app. The app will apparently be known as 'Paper' and can be similar to Flipboard.

"Paper and Flipboard share a number of similarities", the source is said to have told the website.

As per the source, it's not clear that the app will be a standalone mobile application or a web experience suited for mobile devices. As for the launch date, the re/code source says that the launch time can change, but for now it is expected to come before the end of January.

"We do not comment on rumours and speculation" Facebook spokeswoman Jessie Baker said when contacted by the website.

The alleged Paper app, apart from news, will reportedly also feature status updates from Facebook users, acting as aggregator of rich media content. It is said to display a mix of news stories from different publications.

The report says that the entire project is known as Project Reader, and is headed by Chris Cox, Facebook's VP of product, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg also directly involved in the development. Apparently, the project was originally to develop a feature for the News Feed, but was abandoned.

Recently the search giant Google had also combined its Currents app and Play Magazines app into one, named it Google Play Newsstand. Now the Google Play Newsstand app is the single destination through which users can purchase newspaper and magazine subscriptions as well as read content from online publications, blogs and news feeds.