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Google acquires UK sound tech startup Redux

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Google has secretly snapped up UK startup Redux, a small team focused on delivering sound and touch feedback via mobile displays, Bloomberg reports.

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Redux was founded in 2013 out of Cambridge, and built technology that uses vibrations to turn surfaces of phones or tablets into speakers or provide haptic feedback. According to UK regulatory filings, Google took control of the startup back in August and then subsequently shut down the company's website.

Redux's website is now dead, but a cached version of the site shows it was working on "panel audio" which removes the need for a speaker in a device. It also creates solutions to create so-called haptic feedback, which allows users to carry out different tasks on current smartphones by applying different pressure to the screen.

By eliminating the need for smartphone speakers, Google may be able free up more space for batteries and other important components inside future smartphones.

Google has been upping its hardware game in the past few months. The company bought HTC's Pixel team for $1.1 billion, designed its own imaging chip for the Pixel 2 and also hired a key Apple chip designer.

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