Twitter Acquires Cover, an Android Lock Screen App

Image: Mashable, Will Fenstermaker

Twitter has acquired Cover, an Android lock screen app, the two companies announced Monday. Terms of the deal were not immediately disclosed.

Cover was founded by former Google employees and launched on an invitation-only basis in October. Cover displays the six apps on the Android lock screen that users are most likely to want to use, based on daily analysis of the user's smartphone habits and the current context (whether you're at home, work or driving somewhere). The app attracted 'hundreds of thousands' of users prior to the acquisition.

Both Twitter and Cover were vague about how the technology will be used by the social network.

'Twitter, like Cover, believes in the incredible potential of Android. 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's founders wrote in a blog post. 'We'll be building upon a lot of what makes Cover great, and we're thrilled to create something even better at Twitter.'

Twitter confirmed the deal in a tweet, but did not provide additional details on the deal.

Welcome to the flock @coverscreen! We're excited too.

- Twitter Mobile (@twittermobile) April 7, 2014

Facebook, one of Twitter's chief competitors, attempted to control the Android lock screen experience with the release of Facebook Home last year, though the app struggled to gain broad adoption. At the very least, the acquisition is evidence that Twitter is focused on continuing to improve the Android experience.

Cover's team says its app will remain available for Android users, at least for now.

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