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Cover
Twitter has acquired Cover, the Android-based app that allows users to create customizable lockscreens for their devices.
Cover, which was co-founded by Gmail product leader Todd Jackson, along with Edward Ho and Gordon Luk, announced the news on its blog on Monday, saying that the fit seemed right with Twitter.
“Twitter, like Cover, believes in the incredible potential of Android,” the Cover team wrote on its blog. “They share our vision that smartphones can be a lot smarter — more useful and more contextual — and together we’re going to make that happen.”
Cover only launched in October, but quickly made a splash in the Android space, attracting hundreds of thousands of users. The app allows users to create customizable lockscreens, based on their most-used apps. More importantly, the app uses contextual awareness to populate lockscreens with different apps. If a person is in the car, for example, Pandora and the phone app might be shown. At work, quick access to Evernote or Dropbox might find its way to the lockscreen.
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The idea was a compelling one to venture capitalists. Although it was founded just last year, by the time the service launched, it was able to attract $1.7 million in seed funding from a wide range of VCs, including First Round Capital and PayPal co-founder Max Levchin.
In its announcement, Cover said that the app will remain in the Google Play store for now. The team also plans to “create something even better at Twitter.” Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
What Twitter, a company focused on social networking, might want with Cover is unknown at this point. Twitter shareholders have been calling on the company to expand its mobile presence, and this could be a step in that direction. Like Cover, however, a Twitter spokeswoman remained tight-lipped on any plans for its new purchase, saying that the company doesn’t “have anything to share beyond the [Cover] blog post.”
Cover is also letting its blog post speak for itself. But it seems clear that the company is working on something new for Twitter centered on mobile.
Twitter’s shares were up 0.4 percent to $43.33 following the Cover acquisition announcement.
