• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, December 5, 2014

Adding to its mobile measurement offerings, Twitter just launched Answers — a free mobile tracking tool — to keep tabs on promoted and organic app installs.

While the service could compete with third-party mobile measurement companies, Twitter says it will continue to recommend their services to marketer and publishing partners.  

Third-party measurement services are still preferable for “advertisers who want to track conversions across multiple channels and measure lifetime value,” Deepak Rao, a product manager at Twitter, explained in a blog post.

Answers ties into “Fabric,” the developer platform that Twitter debuted in October, which provides a suite of tools to make it easier for programmers to build and distribute apps.

By providing a “foundation” for developer initiatives, CEO Dick Costolo recently said Fabric, in unison with its MoPub ad-serving platform, presented “enormous” monetization opportunities for Twitter.

Answers also follows the launch of Twitter’s mobile app promotion service, earlier this year, which was then positioned as a way for advertisers to drive cost-effective mobile app installs.

More recently, marketing partners have expressed a need for a simple way to measure app installs, according to Rao.

Twitter’s self-serve ad products now serve marketers in 20 countries that in aggregate, account for more than 45% of its global monthly active user base, the company during its most recent earnings announcement.