Twitter buys Android lock-screen startup Cover

A young startup specialising in Android smartphone lock screens that anticipate what "app" a user might want at any given moment said today it has been bought by Twitter.

The acquisition comes about a year after the launch of Cover, which said its free application, that hit the virtual shelves of Google Play's online shop in October, has reached hundreds of thousands of users.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The Cover team has joined San Francisco-based Twitter, according to the startup.

"We built a replacement for Android's default lock-screen that makes our phones easier to use by adapting to our context - providing fast access to the right apps at the right time," Cover said in a blog post.

"Twitter, like Cover, believes in the incredible potential of Android."

The take-over indicates that Twitter is keen to make its popular one-to-many messaging service ever more enticing to people with smartphones powered by Google-backed Android software.

An IDC survey released in February found Android had a 78.1% share of global smartphone shipments in the final three months of last year, bolstered by a 40% jump in the number of handsets delivered.

For the full year, Android's market share was 78.6% to 15.2% for Apple's iOS, 3.3% for Windows Phone and 1.9% for BlackBerry, IDC said.