Twitter Acquires Messaging App Sphere

Twitter has acquired Sphere, a group chat app founded in 2016 that aims to make conversations more interactive and organized, the latest in a series of recent moves from the social network as it looks to aggressively broaden and improve its product offerings. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Sphere’s website describes the app as a place that “transforms groups into vibrant communities.”

Sphere was founded by Tomas Halgas and Nick D’Aloisio (a British computer programmer turned serial entrepreneur) who previously founded news summary app Summly, which he famously sold to Yahoo at the age of 17 for a reported $30 million — did not disclose the financial details of the deal. The startup had reportedly raised at least $30 million including $11.8 million in the first two rounds.

Initially, Sphere was an app for real-time questions and answers but later evolved into a hub for group chats. During Sphere’s standalone existence, it aimed to bring organization to group conversations on mobile. As shown on Sphere’s website, some of its features included self-clearing feeds, auto-archiving, and call-outs for important messages. It also lets users hold interactive conversations categorized by specific interests.

All employees on Sphere’s small 20-member team will be joining Twitter, according to Sphere’s blog post. Nick Caldwell, Twitter’s vice president of engineering, tweeted that Sphere will be helping Twitter tackle Communities, DMS, and Creators roadmaps.

The move comes as Twitter has visibly become more aggressive to expand its product offerings in recent quarters. The firm, which attempted to acquire Clubhouse, introduced a similar feature this year and more recently has taken several steps to curb unruly discourse on its platform. Hopefully, with Sphere under its umbrella, the social giant will do something about the state of personal and group messages on its platform.