Yahoo acquires intelligent home screen service Aviate

Yahoo has just announced that it has acquired Aviate, the makers of an intelligent home screen service for Android smartphones. The move is geared towards helping the company create a more “contextual knowledge” search.

First revealed by Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer at the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show, the move will see Aviate play an important part in the company’s overall Android experience. It’s said that Yahoo’s vision is to make home screens smarter, more personalized, and aware of a user’s content.

If you’re an existing Aviate users, don’t worry about the service ending — the founders say that it’s not going anywhere.

So why did Aviate sell to Yahoo?

When we met with Yahoo, it was obvious how aligned our visions are. Yahoo, like us, is all about simplifying and streamlining users’ daily habits through intelligent and beautiful products. We see endless opportunities for how the two of us can work together. We can’t wait to take this next step.

Aviate is a graduate of the StartX accelerator, and is the third such startup to get acquired by Mayer’s company.

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There are more than 400 million monthly active users accessing Yahoo content on their mobile device, half of the 800 million MAUs overall. Yahoo has been making various app updates over the past year, including with Mail, Weather, and Finance. Mayer has said in the past that the top priority of the company is to create a “focused coherent mobile strategy”. This means that your smartphone should have an organized experience where you can find the information you want quickly to help you get through your daily life.

While this brings some innovation to Yahoo, not many people may have heard about Aviate. In fact, it’s not available to the public — it’s still in private beta. However, the company says that the first 25,000 people who use the code “YAHOO” when signing up will gain access.

Here’s the complete statement from Aviate on the news:

It’s been quite the past few months for Aviate. Since launching the product last fall, we’ve been amazed and encouraged by the incredibly positive response we’ve seen from the Android community. Today, we are absolutely thrilled to announce that Aviate is being acquired by Yahoo. Don’t worry, Aviate isn’t going anywhere.

We founded Aviate with a mission to make our phones smarter and organize themselves around us, instead of vice versa. In short, make our phones simpler. We’re thrilled you love the product and want you to know that we are committed to continued innovation of Aviate. The technology and product will remain the same — it’s simply going to get better, faster.

When we met with Yahoo, it was obvious how aligned our visions are. Yahoo, like us, is all about simplifying and streamlining users’ daily habits through intelligent and beautiful products. We see endless opportunities for how the two of us can work together. We can’t wait to take this next step.

Thanks for all your support, excitement, and faith in our product. We could never have made it to this place without you, and can’t wait to continue to simplify your lives. If you haven’t had a chance to try Aviate, for a short time we’re offering the code “YAHOO” as a way to celebrate this announcement.

Here’s a link to Yahoo’s post and Marissa’s CES keynote announcing the deal, in case you’re interested.

Stick around, Aviate’s just getting started.

Thanks,
Mark, Paul, and Will

➤ Aviate Beta for Android

Photo credit: David Paul Morris/Getty Images