Twitter Buys Android Lock-Screen Start-Up 'Cover'; App That Brings Useful And Frequented Apps to Lock-Screen Automatically

Twitter has announced it has recently acquired "Cover," an Android lockscreen app for an undisclosed amount. Cover helps users by suggesting and locating useful and frequented Android apps on the user's lockscreen.

This app was found by former Google employees and only launched about six months ago. The idea behind Cover was that it displays six apps on the Android lockscreen at any point that users are most likely to use. Cover doesn't make the app selection based on random user clicks. It bases the selection on the daily analysis of the user's smartphone habits and the context based on the environment or location like home, work, etc.

This app uses the handset's sensors to ascertain the context and offers suggestions on the Android apps users would prefer to access straight from their lockscreen. The app enjoyed major success even before acquisition.

Twitter is trying to cover all aspects of Android platform more than Apple's iOS platform.

Also, the company has been experimenting by adding new features on Android OS for testing and understanding people's reaction based on the added feature. New feature additions and the approvals before testing them on users are quite easier in Android rather than iOS, which apparently has to go through levels of Apple approval.

Although Twitter did not divulge much information into the acquisition, the company did confirm the deal in a tweet. But the co-founders of Cover said the following in their blog post, "Twitter, like Cover, believes in the incredible potential of Android."

They also said, "Twitter shares 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."

Here is the official tweet confirming the deal:

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

— Twitter Mobile (@twittermobile) April 7, 2014

History of Cover-like Creations And Acquisitions

1. Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook tried its luck with Android lock screen with the release of "Facebook Home." It was received with only a lukewarm response.

2. At the start of this year, Yahoo took over Aviate, an Android cover screen start-up that makes personalized app and content suggestions based on the context.

What do you think of this acquisition? Is Twitter on the right track?