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Facebook social readers appear to be taking a nose dive

Back in September 2011, social readers were introduced onto the Facebook platform, and ever since then it’s pretty much been non-stop app after app, road block after road block on Facebook; and in order to read an article or watch a video, you need to install a social reader app.

If you’re like me, you probably click ‘cancel’ every time the app comes up. Recently, one person was so annoyed with the social readers they created the Unsocial Reader Chrome extension, as an alternative. Now, Buzzfeed shows that social readers have taken a huge nose dive in usage. Is it a sign that they won’t last much longer, or something else?

Using the public data from App Data to figure out the Monthly Active Users, Forbes was able to point out that the Washington Post social reader usage has almost completely dropped off.



Gaurdian is not much better, with a big drop and now somewhat steady usage, but still declining.



Have we seen the last of these annoying reader apps? Probably not quite yet, but if this keeps up, then maybe it was just a short lived trend.