- Twitter has acquired photo and video-editing startup Chroma Labs.
- Chroma Labs is a seven-person startup founded in 2018 by Instagram and Facebook alumni, and specializes in editing images for people's Stories on Instagram, Snapchat, and more.
- Twitter has not commented on whether this means it's working on its own Stories feature.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Twitter could be working on its very own "Stories" feature.
Twitter's head of product Kayvon Beykpour announced Tuesday the social media giant had acquired Chroma Labs, a seven-person startup founded in 2018 by former Instagram and Facebook employees. Josh Barnett, inventor of the Instagram's Boomerang video effects app, numbers among them
Chroma's app allows users to edit pictures and videos specifically for sharing on Stories features found on Instagram, Snapchat, and more. CTO and cofounder Alex Li was previously an engineering manager Instagram Stories.
The concept of "Stories" was first made popular by Snapchat in 2013, and allows users to post images or videos which only remain viewable temporarily, as opposed to the images posted permanently to your main feed. In 2016 Instagram copied the feature, and Facebook's original app followed suit in 2017.
Twitter confirmed to TechCrunch that this constitutes a full acquisition rather than just a acqui-hire, and Chroma announced it was shutting down its app. It will still work for users who have already downloaded the app, but won't receive any updates.
"When we founded Chroma Labs in 2018, we set out to build a company to inspire creativity and help people tell their visual stories. During the past year, we've enabled creators and businesses around the world to create millions of stories with the Chroma Stories app. We're proud of this work, and look forward to continuing our mission at a larger scale - with one of the most important services in the world," Chroma said in a statement on its website.
Thus far Twitter hasn't commented on whether it's going to start working on its own Stories feature, but told TechCrunch the Chroma staff would be joining its "Conversations Division."
Thrilled to welcome the amazing @Chroma_Labs team including @picturejohn, @alexli, @joshuacharris to @Twitter.
They'll join our product, design, and eng teams working to give people more creative ways to express themselves on Twitter 🎨💬
- Kayvon Beykpour (@kayvz) February 18, 2020