Twitter buys Android lockscreen player Cover for undisclosed sum

7 Apr 2014

Social media giant Twitter has acquired lockscreen app maker Cover for an undisclosed sum. The move casts an interesting dimension on Twitter and its plans to integrate with devices.

Cover is an Android-only company founded just a year ago by ex-Google product manager Todd Jackson and a number of software experts from Google, Yahoo! and Square.

Their app Cover learns when and where you use different apps and puts them on your lockscreen for easy access.

The app has been downloaded hundreds of thousands of times from the Google Play store and Jackson says the app will remain in the Google Play store for the foreseeable future.

“Twitter, like Cover, believes in the incredible potential of Android,” Jackson said. “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. We’ll be building upon a lot of what makes Cover great, and we’re thrilled to create something even better at Twitter.

“So what does this mean for the Cover app? For now, Cover will remain available in the Play Store while we focus our attention on our work at Twitter,” Jackson said.

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John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com