Google has acquired iOS and Mac email client Sparrow, with the team behind the popular app heading to Google to work with the Gmail team.

“We care a lot about how people communicate, and we did our best to provide you with the most intuitive and pleasurable mailing experience,” Dom Leca, CEO of Sparrow, said in a statement on the company’s website. “Now we’re joining the Gmail team to accomplish a bigger vision — one that we think we can better achieve with Google.”

In the note on Sparrow’s site, Leca also thanked the app’s users who have provided support and feedback and said, “While we’ll be working on new things at Google, we will continue to make Sparrow available and provide support for our users.”

A Google spokesperson told Mashable, ““The Sparrow team has always put their users first by focusing on building a seamlessly simple and intuitive interface for their email client. We look forward to bringing them aboard the Gmail team, where they’ll be working on new projects.”

Working on new projects will mean not a lot of time for the team to work on the existing iOS and Mac apps. While Sparrow indicated that they will continue to make the app available and provide support for it, no new versions of the app are likely to be released.

Sparrow is a minimalist mail application for Mac that simplifies and streamlines your traditional mail experience. Originally started as a side project rather than a full-on business, when it launched in 2010, the app was downloaded 42,000 times in just five days -– indicating that there was a huge market for a new simplistic email client.

Google has struggled with its Gmail app for iOS. The company likely brought the Sparrow team in to help improve its Gmail experience on iOS and Mac, as well as potentially Android and PCs.

 

July 20, 2012