The live-streaming app; Periscope may soon shut down, reveals Twitter's code (Update: Twitter Confirms)

Did you know that Periscope still exists? Twitter has recently introduced new features for video and audio meetings which made all of us think that Periscope has vanished. However, we can still install it from Play Store and use it for watching live videos. Unfortunately; the app might shut down soon - said Jane Manchun Wong, who is a reverse engineer. After deeply looking into Twitter’s app code; she predicted that Periscope will soon come to an end.

Just because code has mentioned in it that the app will be closed that doesn’t mean it will happen within seconds; it might take Twitter time till the beginning of 2021.

Shutting down Periscope would not harm Twitter; rather video meetings will still be conducted. If we talk about 2016; when Twitter made it official the combination of its live-streaming function into the app through the Periscope app. However, users could use the video calling function on Twitter without actually downloading the app.

Indeed, Periscope had its importance. Twitter still doesn’t let you do things; that Pericope allows you to. You can save your streams on Periscope but not on Twitter. Twitter bought Periscope 5 years ago.

Twitter along with shutting down Periscope has simultaneously also announced that it has bought the app named ‘squad’ for a better experience at Twitter.

When Periscope was initially launched in 2015 - many of its competitors tried to introduce its clone features on their platforms. Houseparty was the trendsetter whereas Instagram and Facebook introduced a ‘live’ feature at that time. Coming live on your Instagram or Facebook account was considered a big thing in 2015.

Twitter is discovering new possible ways to have an interactive and interesting chat session for its viewers. Sometimes we may miss out on important Tweets for which Twitter introduced the ‘Fleet’ feature. Just like Instagram allows you to put on a story for 24 hours; the same way Twitter allowed you to start a conversation through a twist. Fleets also get deleted after 24 hours.

After the company tested its feature in Brazil, Italy, India, South Korea; it observed that people felt more comfortable in initiating and joining conversations through Fleets, rather than simply posting a Tweet. People were able to reflect their true opinions, thoughts, claims, and arguments.

Shutting down Periscope may open new ways of success for Twitter. However, Twitter will lose the advantages it used to get.

Update: Periscope team in a Medium blog post confirmed that "we have made the difficult decision to discontinue Periscope as a separate mobile app by March 2021." They further explained that, "The truth is that the Periscope app is in an unsustainable maintenance-mode state, and has been for a while. Over the past couple of years, we’ve seen declining usage and know that the cost to support the app will only continue to go up over time. Leaving it in its current state isn’t doing right by the current and former Periscope community or by Twitter. We still believe in the power of live video to solve impactful problems, which is why we’ve brought most of the core capabilities of Periscope into Twitter."


Credit: Bloomberg via Getty Images

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