Periscope, Twitter’s live video-streaming app, is set to become a little more ubiquitous with the social media platform’s latest update bringing live video direct to Twitter timelines.
Previously, Periscope videos required folks to leave whatever Twitter client they were within to actually view the video. Now, with the update, users of Twitter’s iOS app will instead see an autoplaying video that they can expand to full-screen with a tap. No more leaving to watch someone baking a cake for all the world to see — it’s all right there natively.
“Imagine scrolling through Twitter, reading about Mitch Oates’ underwater adventures,” Periscope’s blog announcing the integration posits. “You suddenly find yourself peering through a hole in your timeline out into his world, via his live broadcast. This adds a whole new dimension to Twitter.”
That’s the pitch, anyway. Broadcasters will theoretically be able to reach a wider audience, and users will be able to immediately take part in whatever adventures folks decide to stream. It’s only available within the iOS Twitter app for the time being, but there are plans to bring the same kind of timeline integration to both Android and the web. There’s no mention of products like TweetDeck, but, as with most Twitter updates, it’s likely that it will eventually make its way there at a later date.
On one hand, it’s nice that there will be better integration for a service that’s both wanted and clearly useful. There’s nothing quite like watching something newsworthy happening live in front of your face because someone just so happened to keep it together enough to pull out their phone. But the tradeoff here is that autoplaying video will be even more prevalent in users’ timelines, search results, and profiles of anyone that happens to use Periscope. And let us not forget the scourge of Twitter: brands.
Via: Wired
