Are Twitter Stories coming? The company buys Stories app developer Chroma Labs

Twitter has acquired Chroma Labs, the company behind the Chroma Stories app — a short-form video and photo creation tool that offers Stories templates and filters for creating Stories on various social sites.

Twitter confirmed the Chroma Labs team will join Twitter’s product, design, and engineering teams. “Their expertise in creative tools that help people connect and share completely align with our work to serve the public conversation,” said Twitter VP of Design and Research Dantly Davis in a Tweet.

Why we care

Stories have been around for some time on Instagram, Facebook, and even YouTube, after Snapchat first brought them to life. Initially, Stories content was a big draw for younger users, but that’s no longer the case as Stories have gained broad appeal across platforms like Instagram and Facebook, and become a key advertising unit. Twitter is the one major social platform that lacked any similar ephemeral, storytelling feature — but that is likely to change now that the company has added the Chroma Labs team to its product group.

Twitter says the Chroma Labs team will be, “Working to give people more creative ways to express themselves in conversations on Twitter.” That could mean a Stories feature is coming to Twitter — or, at the very least, more creative tools for posting content. Either way, marketers could reap the benefits of having new creative features to jazz up their Twitter content.

More on the news

• According to the Chroma Labs website, the company is shutting down its business effective immediately, but the Chroma Stories app will continue to work for anyone who has downloaded it until there is a “breaking change” in a future iOS update.
• Chroma Labs co-founder John Barnett also developed the Instagram Boomerang feature.
• Twitter did not disclose any financial details on the acquisition.

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About The Author

Amy Gesenhues

Amy Gesenhues was a senior editor for Third Door Media, covering the latest news and updates for Marketing Land, Search Engine Land and MarTech Today. From 2009 to 2012, she was an award-winning syndicated columnist for a number of daily newspapers from New York to Texas. With more than ten years of marketing management experience, she has contributed to a variety of traditional and online publications, including MarketingProfs, SoftwareCEO, and Sales and Marketing Management Magazine. Read more of Amy's articles.