Nik collection purchased by DxO mark "for the benefit of the photographer community."

Just a few months after Google said that it was abandoning Nik and ending development, DxO has announced it has acquired the collection and will continue development “for the benefit of the photographer community.”

Google originally acquired Nik Software and its popular Snapseed app in 2012. The search giant went on to drop the price of the Nik Collection from $500 to $150 in 2013, and then finally from $150 to free in 2016.

 In May this year though, Google announced that it would no longer be developing Nik Collection and it would no longer receive updates — a big letdown for photographers who have come to rely on the plugins that had developed a big following for their ability to quickly make changes to noise, colour, tone and a heap of other creative effects.

Today, Nik Collection has been given new life thanks to French company DxO, known for both it's image processing software as well as camera equipment reviews through its DxOMark brand.

The current Nik Collection is now available for free through the DxO website — just enter your email address and the download links will be sent to your inbox. The current package contains 7 desktop plugins for Photoshop and Lightroom.

DxO has already rebranded its OpticsPro RAW conversion software as DxO PhotoLab, with new features already migrating across, like the U point local adjustment tools.

DxO also says that it’s also planning to release a new version of the Nik Collection sometime next year.