Livestream and Ustream never really took off; Meerkat did; and now, there’s Periscope.
Early this morning, Twitter released its much-anticipated competitor to Meerkat, and the reviews so far are overwhelmingly positive:
Twitter’s Periscope is the best livestreaming video app yet http://t.co/TWhLFu6mcE pic.twitter.com/z6Znr7G2c9
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— Engadget (@engadget) March 26, 2015
I’ll say it: Periscope is a better product than Meerkat — and it’s now available http://t.co/pll6d65LTspic.twitter.com/PmjPAbsueh
— Casey Newton (@CaseyNewton) March 26, 2015
My first impression of the app is that the UI easily tops Meerkat. Whether Twitter was developing certain features before Meerkat’s release – or during – they clearly ‘listened’ to the complaints and bugs that plague Meerkat.
More, Twitter – like Facebook – is fighting for mobile screen space. For iPhone 6 users, Twitter, Periscope, and Vine, can now account for 1/6th of the homepage screen.
With the popularity of Meerkat, and the anticipation for Periscope, we have officially entered the livestreaming era. The implications for TV and for video are tremendous, and we will be following up with stories on this in the coming weeks. The company that’s the next most logical choice to throw its hat in the livestream ring is not Facebook, as other have mentioned, but Snapchat. Snapchat has the infrastructure in place already, and making this feature available will give it an early upper hand (in terms of user numbers).
More to follow, but below, a description of Periscope from the app store:
Periscope lets you broadcast live video to the world. Going live will instantly notify your followers who can join, comment and send you hearts in real time. The more hearts you get, the higher they flutter on the screen.
Other features:
[+] REPLAY: When your broadcast is over, you can make it available for replay so viewers can watch later. Viewers can replay your broadcast with comments and hearts to relive the full experience. Replays currently last 24 hours. You can delete your replay at any time.
[+] PRIVATE: If you want to broadcast to specific people, press the lock icon before going live and choose who you want to invite to your broadcast.
[+] TWITTER: You can choose to share your Periscope broadcasts on Twitter by tapping the bird icon before you start broadcasting. When you go live, you’ll tweet a link so that your Twitter followers can watch on the web (or in the app)
[+] MANAGE NOTIFICATIONS: Periscope will suggest people for you to follow based on your Twitter network. You can always follow new people, or unfollow them if you don’t want to be notified when they go live. You can also adjust notification preferences in Periscope Settings (in Profile)
[+] HEARTS: Periscope keeps track of how many hearts you get from your viewers. The more hearts, the higher you get in the “Most Loved” list.
