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Here ’s a tidbit of startup history that may not be wide known outside of the tech firms themselves : The first translation of pop Android apps , like Twitter , were built by Google itself . That revelation came about viaa new podcastwith Twitter ’s former senior director of production management , Sara Beykpour , now the co - founder of the AI word startup Particle .
In a podcast hosted by Lightspeed partner Michael Mignano , Beykpour reminisces about her function in Twitter ’s chronicle . She explains how she commence work at Twitter in 2009 , ab initio as a tools engineer , when the party employed only around 75 people . later on , Beykpour move to work on Mobile River at Twitter around the metre when other third - party apps were growing in popularity on other chopine , like BlackBerry and iOS . One of those , Loren Brichter’sTweetie , was even larn by Twitter to form the basis of its first official iOS app .
As for Twitter ’s Android app , that hail from Google , Beykpour said .
TheTwitter for Android clientwas “ a demonstration app that Google had created and gave to us , ” she said on the podcast . “ They did that with all the popular social apps at the fourth dimension : Foursquare … Twitter … they all look the same in those other days because Google wrote them all . ”
Mignano interjected , “ Wait , so back up ; excuse this . So Google wanted companies to assume Android , so they build up you apps ? ”
“ Yes , exactly , ” Beykpour responded .
Twitter then look at the Android app that Google built and continued to rise it . Beykpour was the second Android engine driver at the company , she said .
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In fact , Google had detailed its work on the Android Twitter clientin a 2010 web log post , but much of the presscoverageat thetimedidn’t credit the app to Google ’s oeuvre , making this a bury spot of net history . In Google ’s situation , the company explain how they put through early Android better praxis within the Twitter app . Beykpour told TechCrunch that the post ’s author , Virgil Dobjanschi , was the main software system engineer .
“ If we had questions , we were supposed to ask him , ” she recall .
Beykpour shared other stories about Twitter ’s early days , too . For example , she worked on Twitter ’s video app , Vine , ( after returning to Twitter from a stint atSecret ) , and had been under pressure to launch Vine on Android before Instagram launched its video ware . She met that deadline by set up Vine just about two weeks before Instagram Video , she said .
The latter “ importantly ” affected Vine ’s numbers , and , in Beykpour ’s public opinion , was what moderate to the popular app ’s demise .
“ That was the day the writing was on the bulwark , ” she said , even though it took years to finally close Vine down .
At Twitter , Beykpour lead the closure of Vine ’s product — an app still so well - liked that even new Twitter / X proprietor Elon Muskkeepsteasingabout work it back . But Beykpour thinks Twitter made the right-hand conclusion with Vine , note the app was n’t get and was expensive to guide . She admit that others may see it differently , perhaps arguing that Vine was under - resourced or did n’t have leaders ’s backing . But ultimately , the closure came down to Vine ’s impact on Twitter ’s bottom line .
Beykpour also shared an interesting anecdote about make for on Periscope . She get together the startup right as it wasacquired by Twitter , and after leaving Secret . She remembers having to formally rejoin Twitter under a bogus name to keep the acquisition under wrap for a clip .
At Twitter , she also talked about the difficulty in getting resource to develop product and features for power user , like journalist .
“ Twitter really struggled to define its user , ” she said , because it “ used a lot of traditional OKRs and metric . ” But the fact was that “ only a fraction of people twirp , ” and “ of the fraction of the the great unwashed that are tweeting , a subset of those are creditworthy for the content that everyone in reality wants to see , ” was something that Beykpour say was difficult to mensurate .
Nowat Particle , her experience building Twitter is informing scheme for the AI news app , which has the goal of connecting people with the word they manage about that is decease on around them .
“ Particle is a re - imagination of how you intake your daily news , ” Beykpour says on the podcast . The app aims to allow for a multi - perspective view of news while also providing accession to high-pitched - caliber news media . The startup is looking to find another style to monetise reportage beyond advertizing , subscriptions or micropayments . However , the specifics of how Particle will do this are still in word . The startup is presently babble out with potential publisher mate on how to compensate them for their workplace .
