Google Acquires Fly Labs, A Photo And Video Editing Startup

Fly Labs, a video and photo editing startup, has announced that it has been acquired by Google. Says the startup team, they will be joining Google — in particular, Google Photos — in the company's Mountain View, California headquarters. Exactly what the team will be doing for Google isn't stated, though they did drop a couple hints, saying among other things, "Google Photos is ... a perfect match for what we built at Fly Labs."

Fly Labs says it has had the goal of helping people "make the most of their photos and videos," doing so with editing apps that give users creative control over their personal media. According to the startup, its video editing apps were downloaded in excess of 3 million times in the last year and half across 150 countries.

The team said in a statement:

We're excited to continue on our mission by joining Google and the Google Photos team in Mountain View, California. Google Photos is a home for your life's memories, powered by Google's machine learning and computer vision technology. It's a perfect match for what we built at Fly Labs, and we're looking forward to folding our technology into Google Photos. We'll be pouring the same passion into Google Photos that we poured into Clips, Fly, Tempo and Crop on the Fly.

Finally, Fly Labs says that all of its apps are free now, and will remain live in the App Store for three months. However, there will not be any future updates to the apps, and once they're pulled from the App Store, only those who have downloaded will get to use them.

SOURCE: Fly Labs