Twitter Acquires Squad: Social Screen Sharing App

Twitter has recently announced the acquisition of Squad, with the entire team from the screen-sharing social application set to integrate into Twitter’s organization. According to Twitter, Squad’s co-founders – CEO Esther Crawford and CTO Ethan Sutin – along with the rest of their team, will be joining Twitter’s design, engineering, and product divisions. Crawford has indicated she will be taking a leadership role within a product area focused on conversations.

However, the Squad application itself will not be continuing. The app, which enabled users to simultaneously share their screens and engage in video conversations on both mobile and desktop platforms, is scheduled to cease operations tomorrow, a development that Twitter confirms. This news is likely to disappoint the app’s user base, which primarily consisted of teenage girls.

Twitter has not disclosed the specific financial details of the acquisition.

The functionality offered by Squad appears to align well with Twitter’s existing services, although the company has not confirmed whether any of the app’s underlying technology will be incorporated. Twitter has previously demonstrated a preference for consolidating applications within its core platform, as evidenced by the shutdown of Vine, a decision that proved unpopular with users and potentially benefited competitor TikTok. Similarly, Periscope is currently facing an uncertain future, with recent code discoveries suggesting an impending closure.

Squad had established a strong partnership with Snap, utilizing many of the company’s Snap Kit developer tools. The extensive reliance on Snap’s tools may have presented challenges in transferring the technology to Twitter’s infrastructure, particularly given the close integration of Snap Kit applications with the Snapchat user network.

Throughout its operation, Squad secured $7.2 million in venture funding from investors including First Round, Y Combinator, betaworks, Halogen Ventures, Dream Machine (led by former TechCrunch editor Alexia Bonatsos), and others. The company experienced a significant surge in usage in early 2020, coinciding with the onset of the pandemic, with CEO Esther Crawford reporting a 1,100% increase in app activity.

Crawford has frequently discussed the difficulties of expanding a contemporary social application while mitigating the potential for negativity that often accompanies growth. In a prior interview with TechCrunch, she stated her team was focused on “learning from the successes of others while eliminating the drawbacks.”

Following the acquisition, Crawford utilized a Medium post to advocate for increased investment in diverse founders.

“I am hopeful that this exit will encourage investors to allocate capital to more diverse teams, as each success serves as evidence that historically underfunded and underestimated founders represent a worthwhile investment,” Crawford stated in her Medium post. “Investing in women and people of color is a financially sound strategy.”