Periscope is Twitters foray into live broadcasting from your mobile or tablet. Install the app, see which of your Twitter contacts are already at the party and you can are ready to start streaming.
24 hours in and Periscope is coming for Meerkats live video streaming crown has already won the battle against live video streaming app Meerkat. Smashed it. Crushed it. Absolutely ruthlessly. Sometimes the early adopted tech wins regardless of whether a better one comes along. Not in this case, we call game over for Meerkat.
Periscope takes live broadcasting and gives it that little extra polish and ease of use that could (and in all probability will) take live broadcasting to the masses.
We’ve been using the app over the last 24 hours to both watch, and try our hands at broadcasting. From the home screen you’re right in the thick of it, with featured live streams at the top of the screen. As well as seeing who’s live at any one moment, you can also access recordings of finished streams of the people you follow.
Here’s our journey in screen grabs over the last 24 hours
First, rather predictably to jump on the Periscope bandwagon were the creative industries and television studios. This led to a number of behind the scenes broadcasts from studios such as ESPN, CBS and CNBC, each ‘Scoper’ taking the time to answer questions sent in by the watching audience (which peaked on any broadcast at about 50).
Watching people waiting to broadcast live… on a live broadcast.
There was also an ‘incident’ in New York as the title of one broadcast noted. The Nextweb had already hinted that perhaps Periscope would take off when it had it’s ‘Hudson river moment’ (some say the catalyst for massive Twitter user base growth), perhaps it has already happened. Are we all April Oneill now?
In the UK (and on a completely different timezone of course) we are treated to a look inside the ITV offices courtesy of their Head of Digital. It was interesting (if a little candid) to hear his take on the technology while explaining how it works to a co-worker.
Next we’re off to Croatia and a walk around the Game of Thrones set courtesy of a tourist. Questions about the show were met mostly with the soundbite, “ I don’t know, I’m just a tourist”… We won’t post a picture of that so as not to ruin the magic of the show (and the tourist in question had very shaky hands). Dubious camera skills, cats, and people in offices seem to be the name of the game in these early days – so it fits right in with the rest of the social media universe perfectly there!
We also caught a look inside Twitter HQ and sit in on a few questions asked to the bug testing team who seemed pretty pleased with their work.
Twitter seem pleased with themselves…
But these were not our favorite broadcasts. That honor went to:
This guy who decided to film himself cook bacon. That was it. We watched it. We have no idea why.
Do we love bacon a little too much?
This dude, who broadcast his haircut and small talk with the hairdresser.
23 people watching. 23 people hoping that she makes a wrong move
Not forgetting the guy who set up his phone pointed at a turntable and treated us to some classic tunes.
A new app. A whole new kind of piracy.
Then this morning we tried a little broadcast ourselves. People seemed to like it (all 18 of them).
Double tap the screen to switch to the front camera.
Lessons from Periscope (if you are going to have a go):
- Don’t point your phone at any sensitive info on computer screens or talk about sensitive info!
- Do answer questions from your audience
- Do set up a regular time slot for your broadcasts if you are going to be using it regularly.
Periscope can be downloaded for free from the App Store now