Meerkat announced that it has launched a public beta version of its livestreaming app for users on Android.
Previously, Meerkat was only available on iOS, but the app's growing media coverage by the technology press has pushed Ben Rubin's startup to head straight into developing an app for Android.
On Twitter, Meerkat announced that Android users interested in taking Meerkat out for a spin can sign up for the beta testing via a Google Docs form posted by Meerkat.
The company did not say if it will limit the number of beta testers, as most other app developers usually do when asking users to test their apps before pushing them out for an official public release.
Meerkat is a livestreaming app that made its debut at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas last month. The app, which has since been the subject of oftentimes overblown reports by the technology press, is based on Twitter's platform and allows users to stream a live video to their Twitter followers. Currently, a Meerkat livestream allows up to 5,000 viewers.
One of Meerkat's most high-profile users, Internet personality and entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk, says livestreaming over the app has been "very effective" for him.
"Within a few minutes, 500 to 800 people are watching me live, at any given time," Vaynerchuk tells Time. "That is insanity, I am a 39-year-old male who talks about business, so my demo isn't the most native to this."
Although young, Meerkat is not without a major competitor. Shortly after the boom in Meerkat's popularity, Twitter announced its own livestreaming platform that is essentially similar to Meerkat. Named Periscope, Twitter's own platform is considered simpler, more intuitive, and more engaging than Meerkat, as the latter only allows viewing of livestreams at the moment while the former gives broadcasters to record and share their livestreams for users who missed them.
The competition between Meerkat and Periscope has reached new heights when Twitter pulled the plug off Meerkat by cutting its access to the micro-blogging social network's social graph.
Currently, Periscope is only available for iOS, which could give Meerkat a slight leg up as it ventures first into Android, although Twitter has promised to bring its livestreaming app to Google's platform in the future.
