Facebook acquires always-on fitness tracking app Moves

Justin Kahn

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Facebook has made a number high profile acquisitions including WhatsApp for $16 billion and Oculus VR for $2 billion, but today we get official confirmation that the company has purchased Finnish start-up ProtoGeo and its fitness tracking app Moves.

Moves is an always-on service that automatically tracks your movements throughout the day including during exercise, commuting, and time spent in important places. Many of the activities that are trackable in the app will do so automatically while your carrying your device in your pocket or bag.

Moves announced the acquisition on its site today saying, "we’re joining Facebook’s talented team to work on building and improving their products and services with a shared mission of supporting simple, efficient tools for more than a billion people."

We know that Moves for iOS and Android will continue to run as a standalone app and there or no plans to "commingle" data with Facebook at this point. Which, as some have mentioned, is very similar to the way Facebook currently runs both Instagram and WhatsApp. Zuckerberg and friends recently outlined the upcoming app strategy for the company with The New York Times saying Facebook is building a number of new experiences, some of which would not carry its branding.

While the fitness and health software markets have gotten off to a slow start, many still feel that with possible looming Apple and Google hardware, this is Facebook's shot to jump in fairly early and at the software level. Moves has been downloaded four million times since it launched in January 2013, and according to reports its API for third party developers will remain open under the new ownership. No financial details were disclosed for the deal.

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I used this app when it was first released. It eats up your battery like crazy. I really hope FB doesnt implement their tracking technology because it seems to eat up a ton of power.
 
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