Facebook Acquires Cellular Data-Compressing iOS App Onavo

Facebook has announced that it has acquired Onavo, a mobile application data company, for an undisclosed sum. Onavo offers a popular iOS application - Onavo Extend - which measures and compresses cellular data consumption on an iPhone handset. The application promises to make users' limited cellular data go further, and earlier this year our hands-on look at the app demonstrated exactly how Onavo Extend can help iPhone owners. Though Apple indeed added a cellular data consumption indicator to the built-in Settings app in iOS 7, mobile data compression is not presently a feature natively offered by the Cupertino, Calif. company, and as such Onavo's app continues to reside on iPhones the world over. Now, however, AllThingsD reports that Facebook has indeed purchased Onavo for an undisclosed sum, and the publication rightly suggests that the company's cellular data compression technology is likely of particular interest to the social network. AllThingsD explains:

Facebook announced on Monday it has acquired Onavo, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based startup focused on intelligence around mobile application data. Facebook will acquire both talent and technology as a result of the acquisition — the terms of which were not disclosed — and will also turn Onavo’s Tel Aviv headquarters into Facebook’s new Israeli office, a first for the social giant.

Rather than bringing Onavo Extend's functionality to its mobile apps, however, Facebook's interest in Onavo seems to gravitate around Internet.org - the campaign spearheaded by Mark Zuckerberg, which aims to bring Internet access to the several billion people worldwide who do not presently have it. Indeed, as Onavo co-founders Guy Rosen and Roi Tiger noted in a company blog post: "Our service helps people save money through more efficient use of data, and also helps developers, large and small, design better experiences for people. We’re excited to join their team, and hope to play a critical role in reaching one of Internet.org’s most significant goals – using data more efficiently, so that more people around the world can connect and share." Facebook told AllThingsD:

Onavo will be an exciting addition to Facebook. We expect Onavo’s data compression technology to play a central role in our mission to connect more people to the internet, and their analytic tools will help us provide better, more efficient mobile products.

Onavo's three iOS applications - Onavo Extend, Onavo Count, and Onavo Protect - can all be downloaded in the App Store. Onavo Extend, in particular, will be of use to those lumbered with a limited cellular data plan. We'll keep you updated with further information on Facebook's acquisition as we receive it. In the meantime, see: Netflix In Talks To Make Its Service Available On U.S. Pay-TV Providers' Set-Top Boxes, BuzzFeed Partners With Duolingo To Crowdsource Translation Of Viral Listicles, and Today's Best Apps: Flipcase And Chemical Name.