Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) said on Tuesday it acquired Slack competitor Quill to help the social networking company improve its own messaging tools. The acquisition comes as Twitter recently named a new chief executive Parag Agrawal to replace co-founder Jack Dorsey, who stepped down from the top role last week. Agrawal, who had served as chief technology officer, is expected to bring a greater focus on engineering to the company. read more Slack, owned by Salesforce (CRM.N), has become a common online workplace messaging tool used by many companies. Quill emerged as a possible competitor for the messaging app this year. The Quill team will help Twitter improve its direct messaging tool and make it a "more useful & expressive way people can have conversations on the service," said Nick Caldwell, Twitter"s general manager for core technology, in a tweet on Tuesday. Quill said in a blog post that its service will shut down as the team integrates into Twitter. Reporting by Sheila Dang in Dallas; Editing by Aurora Ellis Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.