GOOGLE ACQUIRES DIRECTR, EMU APPS

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NEW DELHI (TIP): Google has acquired movie making app Directr and intelligent messaging app Emu. The Directr app targets businesses and enables to them to conceptualise, create, edit and publish short, marketing or promotional videos. The financial details of the transaction was not disclosed.

According to Google, Directr employees will join YouTube’s video-ads team. The iOS-only app was previously priced between $25 and $400 per month, differing with features and usage, across five plans. Google has said it will now offer the app for free. The move was also confirmed by Directr via a blog post. “For now, everything you love about Directr is staying the same and we’ll continue to focus on helping businesses create great video quickly and easily.

One immediate bonus: Directr will soon be all free, all the time. Thanks, YouTube,” the post said. Google has also acquired Emu, a mobile messaging app that also integrates a Siri or Google Now-like virtual assistant. The app’s artificial intelligence engine looks for keywords in messages and returns contextual information.

It lets users perform tasks like fixing appointments or reserve restaurant tables, among others from within the app. The app’s co-founder Gummi Hafsteinsson was part of teams responsible for Google Maps and even Siri. The free app started out on Android but the company discontinued it and switched completely to iOS. Announcing the news on its home page, Emu also clarified that the app will be shut down on August 25 and won’t be available for download on the App Store.

Existing users won’t be able to send, receive, or download messages. It’s likely that Google will integrate Emu’s features into its Hangouts app to make it more intelligent.

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