The microblogging site, Twitter, has acquired group chat app Sphere in order to broaden its product offerings.

"We're thrilled to announce that Sphere has been purchased by Twitter!" "We've partnered to advance our aim of bringing people closer together via community," Sphere wrote on its site.

“It’s been a long and exciting journey to this point. Like many startups, Sphere started with a very different mission — to help anyone find and share knowledge instantly through the creation of a “global brain”. We originally built a marketplace of paid experts from all around the world, connecting them through group chat. What we realised is that some of the most helpful and knowledgeable conversations came from groups where members felt a strong sense of belonging to one another. In other words, at the heart of our challenge was helping every single person find their community,” it added.

The platform said that all groups have the potential to become genuine communities. “But most groups suffer from problems in online communication that prevent community-building — things like awkward silences, conversations going off-topic, and vitriol. However, we learned over the past two years that a group can transform into a community if its members feel their participation is welcomed.”

Sphere said that its feed automatically clears out old or irrelevant chats to prevent groups from feeling chaotic. “Our chats call out essential messages (like polls, events, and announcements) and make it more likely for people to respond. Our custom appreciations encourage people to express genuine gratitude. By welcoming participation, we learned groups can become more productive, vibrant, purposeful, and close.”