Niantic buys gameplay recording app Lowkey to improve its in-game social experience

Niantic has acquired another company to help build out its augmented reality platforms. The company has announced that it's acquiring the team behind Lowkey, an app you can use to easily capture and share gameplay moments. While you can use any screen capture application — or even your phone's built-in feature — to record your games, Lowkey was designed with casual gamers or those who don't want to spend time editing their videos in mind.

The app can capture videos on your computer, for instance, and sync them with your phone where you can use its simple editing tools to create short clips optimized for mobile viewing. You're also able to share those clips with friends within the app Snapchat-style or publish it for public viewing like TikTok. Niantic didn't reveal what the Lowkey team will be doing for its AR games and experiences exactly, but it said the team's "leadership in this space will accelerate the social experiences [it's] building in [its] products." The company added: "We share a common vision for building community around shared experiences, and enabling new ways to connect and play for our explorers."

The Pokémon Go creator purchased other companies in the past in its quest to build more tools and features for its augmented reality products. In 2017, it purchased social animation startup Evertoon to build a social network for its games. Last year, it bought 3D mapping startup 6D.ai to develop "planet-scale" augmented reality, and just this August, it acquired LiDAR scanning app Scaniverse to create a 3D map of the world.