Twitter buying other companies is nothing new. Its latest acquisition, Highly, bodes well for improving its own platform's conversation features.
The move is rather straightforward from Twitter's point of view. Highly is being acquired in order to tap into its talented staff members, first and foremost. As a result, many changes to the start-up's operations are now about to occur.
According to Andrew Courter, CEO of Highly, he and his team will be joining Twitter to help serve the public conversation. He assured current users that their highlights will be safe from deletion and that these will be saved under a user's collections.
He also mentioned that some of Highly's apps will be free, while a few will be discontinued. That is as much that can be said about the matter at the moment. However, he also talks about other things in his announcement, which was posted on Medium.
Courter also spent some time highlighting what exactly Highly's purpose is in as few words as possible.
Highly's Role In Enriching Online Conversation
"Social highlights can make sharing stories online feel personal, efficient and alive - like retelling a story to a friend, over coffee," Courter said. "They give people shared context and spark meaningful conversations."
Now that Highly is acquired by Twitter, there is some speculation as to what might happen in the coming months or years because of it. Engadget suggests that it will likely be related to Twitter's goal of improving the conversation features of its own platform.
Highly's current users are able to choose between two different ways of using it. The first one is through a browser plug-in and the second one is through a dedicated iOS app.
Currently, Highly can be used to highlight quotes from an article to share later through e-mail, text, social media, and Slack. Due to Twitter's acquisition of the company and its properties, however, some of these will no longer be possible.
Changes From The Acquisition
The Highly iOS app will be shut down as part of the buyout, as will its integration with Slack. The browser plug-ins, however, will continue to be available and functional for users of Chrome, Firefox, and Safari.
Meanwhile, Highly's paid products will now be available for free. What's unclear for now is up to when exactly that will be.
Highly users can now spend the next few hours or days to get accustomed to the changes that are going to happen because of the buyout. For those who already use Twitter religiously, some new features that involve Highly's key selling points are likely on their way.
