Twitter is acquiring OpenBack, a Dublin-based mobile engagement platform, Jay Sullivan, head of consumer products at the social media company, announced on Tuesday. The financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. The OpenBack team will join Twitter’s Bluebird product team and focus on increasing information on social media platforms.
Founded in 2015, OpenBack is a platform aimed at making apps more attractive through push-side device-side controls of push notifications. Unlike traditional push notification SDKs for open-back mobile apps, it makes it easy to process data on the device without having to go through a third-party server. Twitter notes that the company’s push technology puts privacy first and offers a better overall user experience.
“Joining OpenBack and their talented team at Twitter will help us improve our ability to provide accurate information at the right time, in a way that puts people’s privacy first,” Sullivan said in a tweet. ۔ “We are thrilled to be joining their flock and looking forward to seeing their impact.”
David Shackleton Says
A Twitter spokesperson told TechCrunch that the company wants to make sure that what people are informed about on Twitter is relevant, timely, and attractive. The company says it is looking at ways to better personalize the Twitter experience. With this acquisition, Twitter aims to enhance its information experience so that it can connect people to relevant content at the right time.
In a tweet, OpenBack CEO David Shackleton said that OpenBack aims to make push notifications “truly the first user” for billions of people, and the opportunity to work with Twitter serves that purpose. ۔
Twitter says OpenBack will close its business as it brings the team to its platform. The OpenBack website states that the company will close on April 19.
“We’re excited to announce that OpenBack is joining Twitter! We’re very grateful to all of our users and supporters along the way for working to make push notifications a truly first-of-its-kind user.” Reads OpenBack’s homepage. “With the positive impact of Twitter on the world, we are excited to be part of the Twitter team and continue to build the future of information there.”
Twitter has made a series of acquisitions over the last few years to expand its product line. In December, Twitter acquired Quill, a business-based messaging service designed to compete with Slack’s likes and keep people focused. The team joined the Twitter Experience organization to work on messaging tools, specifically Twitter Direct Messages. In November, Twitter acquired Threader, an app that lets people compile Twitter threads and share their likes, making it easier to help people find longer threads on the platform.
In October, Twitter acquired Sphere, which runs a group chat app called. Earlier, the company acquired Revue, a newsletter platform, and Breaker, which founded Twitter Spaces.
