Updated: Sparrow Mail Has Been Acquired By Google

In an announcement on Sparrow’s blog, and Twitter, just moments ago, the mail company has revealed they have been acquired by Google.

We're excited to announce that Sparrow has been acquired by Google! Read more here: sprw.me

— SparrowMail (@sparrow) July 20, 2012

Email being sent to Sparrow users from CEO Dom Leca:

Hello, We're excited to let you know that Sparrow has been acquired by Google! You can view our public announcement here, but I wanted to reach out directly to make sure you were aware of the news. We will continue to make available our existing products, and we will provide support and critical updates to our users. However, as we’ll be busy with new projects at Google, we do not plan to release new features for the Sparrow apps. It’s been an honor and a pleasure to build products for all of our wonderful users who have supported us over the years. We can't thank you enough. We look forward to working on some new and exciting projects at Google!

Cool. Sounds like, although Sparrow won't be pulled, it won't be updated either. So much for native push notifications and an iPad app. And AppAdvice also received this statement from a Google spokesperson:

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.

Update: We were told by a Google spokesperson that, although the Sparrow team will still support their apps and provide needed updates, they don't plan to release any major features or updates. So, there you have it. I'm wondering if Google decided to just devour the competition — well, the competition it could do anything about, that is. I honestly can't imagine Sparrow and Gmail coexisting. I guess we may finally get a decent Gmail app out of this deal, but then what happens to Sparrow? It will just be kept alive on "life support," I guess. Google ruins everything.

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