Facebook serves up Paper, a Flipboard

The social networking giant continues to push the mobile strategy with yet another app.

(Credit: Facebook)

Facebook on Thursday unveiled Paper, a Flipboard-like reader app, as it continues to broaden its mobile offerings.

Paper is made up of stories and themed section, tying together your News Feed with other themes and topics ranging from sports to food, with stories from publication. It will be available in the US on Feb. 3.

Paper is just the latest step in Facebook's strategy to push more into the mobile world. Beyond its core Facebook app and Instagram, it has steadily launched mobile products such as its Messenger app. During its earnings conference call on Wednesday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company was working on more standalone mobile apps.

It marks a reversal of its ill-fated Facebook Home strategy, which essentially took over an Android phone with its own custom user interface. As it turns out, people like Facebook, but not that much.

Still, Facebook's mobile push seem to be paying off, with the company generating more than half of its advertising revenue from that area.

Paper, meanwhile, like Flipboard, can be navigated by thumbing through the stories. You can tilt your phone to pan through panoramic photos from corner to corner, and see important details like faces. For better or worse, there are full-screen auto-play videos. Stories, meanwhile, get attractive full-screen covers.

Facebook users can also create their own stories, and preview how their post will look before sharing it.

The company said Paper is the first product from its Facebook Creative Labs, formed to create new apps on your phone.