Periscope is a medium through which users can broadcast their videos live on the web over the mobile. Normally, the periscope is used by celebrities to interact with their fans worldwide at a specific point in time.
Periscope
Initially, Periscope was developed as a live streaming app for iOS by Kayvon Beykpour and Joe Bernstein. However, the start-up was purchased by Twitter for a sum of $100 million in March 2015. As of writing this, Periscope is also available for Android.
Periscope’s ambitions were initially based on the real life experience of Beykpour and Bernstein. When Beykpour was in Istanbul during the protests in Taksim Square, he quickly searched on Twitter. Although he found news about the incidents, he could not view them live. Thus, the idea of Periscope was born.
In August 2015, Periscope surpassed 10 million accounts within a short span of four months. However, the company disclosed that the amount of video reached a threshold level of “40 years per day“.
Named as the best iOS app of the year by Apple, the company recently released an update which enables users to stream live from GoPro.
Live Video
While Periscope is created to stream live videos, Facebook Live doesn’t necessarily mean live. With the help of Facebook Live, media companies and video producers will be able to stream pre-recorded content as well in addition to Live streams. Moreover, users will be able to view comments on a real-time basis.
Recently, NowThis, a news company that publishes content on social platforms, streamed a 38-minute byte of its popular viral videos via Facebook Live. With over 20,000 views, the particular Facebook Live received over 500 comments. According to Athan Stephanopoulos, president at NowThis, his company is planning to stream over dozen viral videos to run them live on Facebook.
Commenting on the developments, a Facebook spokesperson disclosed that even though the streamed video via Facebook Live need not have to be live, the company doesn’t recommend it. This is because the main attraction of Facebook Live is the ability for on-camera hosts to interact with users live over the platform. Broadcasting pre-recorded content defeats this main purpose and will render the platform not intended for the desired purpose.
According to analysts, media companies are making advantage of Facebook live over the last few weeks. Facebook also introduced an Application Programming Interface (API), which enable companies to active Facebook Live in several ways. Moreover, Facebook Live allows commentators to keep themselves engaged with a real-time event.
By the end of this week, Mic will interact with Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren to discuss politics and upcoming US presidential elections in such a way to provide real cable news-like effect.
To tackle competition from Facebook Live, Periscope will be updated with a facility with which all videos will be saved by default. Previously, videos used to expire after 24 hours.
The Twitter-owned company, meanwhile, has also added a feature to search for broadcasts by title, topic including support for drone broadcasting, which enables users with DJI drones to stream live videos.
The above features will be available in a phased manner and will take few days for it to be reflected on your location.