Yahoo! shuts second-screen service IntoNow

Yahoo! is closing down its second-screen TV app IntoNow, less than three years after buying the service, as part of “ongoing efforts to sharpen our focus.”

Yahoo! said in a statement that the social TV service will no longer be downloadable as an app from the iTunes and Google Play stores, and that the iOS and Android apps will cease to operate as of March 31.

“The core IntoNow technology will live on through other products and apps, like Yahoo Smart TV and the new Loops feature in the Yahoo Sports iOS7 app,” said Yahoo!.

IntoNow first launched in January 2011 and was designed to deepen connections between audiences, television content and advertisers based on the real-time indexing of TV shows.

Yahoo! bought the service in In April 2011 for a reported US$20 million (€14.7 million) to US$30 million in a bid to boost its “social engagement across the Yahoo! network and on all screens.”