If you start noticing a lot more live broadcasts, courtesy of Meerkat, in your Facebook news feed, it's all due to Twitter shunning Meerkat in favor of its new live stream love, Periscope, and Meerkat's decision to provide an update for sharing live broadcasts straight to Facebook pages.
At this point, live streams on iOS via Meerkat can be viewed when logged into Facebook and no Twitter account is necessary.
Meerkat is a live video streaming app that caught fire shortly after arrival a few months back as it let users post live video to Twitter in one click for one time viewing. It fast became a favorite of celebrity Internet users such as Ashton Kutcher, as Tech Times reported.
For Facebook, the Meerkat move is clearly a win-win as neither Meerkat nor Periscope had provided such access before Twitter tossed Meerkat aside for Periscope. It's a pretty big deal since Meerkat, which launched just four months ago, established a user rule right off the bat claiming, "everything that happens on Meerkat happens on Twitter."
The lovefest between Twitter and Meerkat started going sour when Twitter cut off Meerkat's connection to the micro blog's social graph. It did so as it was building Periscope, its own 'Meerkat' capability.
Now Meerkat and Facebook are becoming fast friends, with Facebook helping Meerkat provide the posting capability. Some industry reports note it could be the initial steps toward the social network giant potentially acquiring Meerkat instead of possibly looking to create its own live streaming app.
In addition to the update regarding Facebook support to the iOS app, Meerkat is reportedly also updating other features in its pull back from Twitter. One feature is called "mobbing," which lets users find popular streams. The new changes are only available at this point on iOS and there is no official word from Meerkat when or if an Android update is coming or in the works.
Meerkat was birthed by San Francisco-based Life on Air, a startup once known as Yevvo. Its complete reliance on Twitter out of the gate prompted more than a few industry watchers to wonder what would happen if Twitter decided it needed its own proprietary live stream video app. While most proclaimed it would likely kill Meerkat as fast as it ignited user attention, few if any saw the Facebook love connection as a possibility.
