Quill, a productivity tool that allows users to message with a team or group, has been acquired by Twitter, and the acquisition could be aimed at changing the way Twitter Direct Messages (DMs) currently work.

A bit of Quill is that it had acquired roughly $16 million from investors such as Sam Altman and Index Ventures before emerging from stealth mode in February of this year. One of its most notable selling points is its ability to build something that can compete with Slack's juggernaut-like growth momentum.

In a thread of tweets about the acquisition, Nick Cadwell, general manager, core tech, Twitter, described Quill as a more deliberate way to communicate.

Quill says that it will no longer be available as an app as part of the transaction. Users will be able to "export your team communication history until 1pm PST, Saturday, December 11th 2021, when we will be turning off our servers and destroying all data”, announced Quill. All active teams are expected to receive reimbursements.

However, the team and its IP are said to be merging with the herd, meaning Quill’s team will be joining Twitter's Experience team to shed light on messaging capabilities, particularly the latter’s direct messages. Ludwig Pettersson will take on the job of product manager, reporting to Oji Udezue's Conversations team.

Quill primarily began with a goal of increasing the quality of human communication, but it believes the tools it uses today are not the best they can be. Hence, together with Twitter, Quill says that it will still pursue its goal to make online communication more thoughtful and more effective for everyone.

In comparison to other messaging systems like Instagram, Facebook Messenger, Discord, and Telegram, where users spend hours chit-chatting, the Twitter DM feature is rather basic.

After the departure of Twitter's former CEO, Jack Dorsey, who was surpassed by Parag Agrawal,this is the company's first major step.

Twitter, according to GSM Arena, could include some form of chat channels to keep in touch with large groups of users. Twitter Blue (Twitter's premium paid-subscription tier) could provide Blue-only messaging options for users with a large number of followers.

“We are bringing their experience and creativity to Twitter as we make messaging tools like DMs a more useful and expressive way for people to have conversations on the service”, tweeted Cadwell.