Mobile Messaging

Twilio has completed a $70 million Series D financing round co-led by Redpoint Ventures and Bessemer Venture Partners, with Draper Fisher Jurvetson also participating.

It's almost certain that OTT apps will continue to grow in the next year or so, but these apps, despite their popularity, do face issues. For one, the space is getting increasingly crowded as larger players introduce their own in-house texting apps. In addition, most of these apps are offered for free, making monetization a tricky endeavor. As competition heats up for these apps, will the current popular services continue to thrive or is there room for a new player to sweep the market?

Google is rolling out Keyboard, a text input application that delivers typing features and tools found in the company's Nexus device line to all smartphones and tablets running Android 4.0 and higher.

BlackBerry is in negotiations with competing manufacturers to offer its signature BlackBerry Messenger chat service as a preinstalled application on their phones.

Contact information services firm WhitePages has acquired Mr. Number, a popular call blocking and spam identification app for Google's Android, with more than 7 million Google Play downloads to date. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Google is rolling out overhauled versions of its Gmail application for Android and Apple's rival iOS, promising users greater organizational control over their inbox.