Twitter has set out to gain lost ground in the streaming race with rival companies and to do so has integrated Periscope into its proprietary mobile app.
The move comes as a (rather late) response to Facebook's push for on the spot live video, which can be easily enabled through the streaming tab found in the mobile Facebook app.
Twitter announced that a pilot program is running where select users of Twitter for Android will get access to "Go Live," a button in the main app that allows them to instantly start streaming via Periscope.
Should you have the Periscope app installed, clicking "Go Live" in the Twitter app will lead you to the streaming app. Users who do not have Periscope will be redirected to the Google Play Store, where they can download the live-streaming app.
"Over time, all users will have the ability to start a Periscope broadcast from Twitter," the company said.
Twitter purchased Periscope in 2015 and followed its long-standing policy of giving its apps a great degree of independence from the parent platform. This also applies to Vine and other apps the microblogging company bought and manages from a safe distance.
However, seeing how video content is gaining great traction in social media, and looking at Facebook's success in wielding it, Twitter needs to make a bold move. Integration with Periscope might be such an action.
Facebook leads the social media platoon in terms of number of users, counting more than 1.65 billion active accounts. The platform might see new challenges by implementing live videos, as this type of content is larger and more pretentious than mere status updates and posts featuring cat pictures or selfies.
Twitter's footprint is smaller, reaching more than 310 million users, but this brings extra flexibility to the table.
Redirecting users to another app is generally frowned upon by developers, as any extra step lowers the users' engagement. That is why Twitter might want to consider a seamless integration of Periscope's features in its main app.
Facebook already provides embedded live video from its main mobile app, so Twitter can take a page out of Mark Zuckerberg's approach.
No official information exists about an upcoming Twitter for iOS with Periscope integration, but we will keep you posted if anything comes up.
