Powered by Periscope, Twitter now allows broadcasting live straight from the app.
Periscope had been ruling the scene of broadcasting live videos but ever since Facebook rolled out its Live feature, it spread to the mainstream crowd. Considering Facebook’s global popularity, its ‘Live’ video feature is a major credit to the broadcasting live phenomenon on social media. Joining the league of live videos is Twitter, as it has now integrated Periscope directly on its app. Periscope is owned by Twitter and the integration of the app makes live broadcasting even easier now.
Before, if one had to post a live video on Twitter, it had to be done through the Periscope app. One could embed live videos from Periscope on their Twitter account. Announcing the feature on Twitter, Kavyon Beykpour, CEO of Periscope says, “We started Periscope because we wanted to give people the superpower to share live video with an audience. Bringing this capability directly into the Twitter app is an important step because it brings that superpower to the hundreds of millions of people who use Twitter. Twitter’s already the place where people go to see what’s happening. With this update, anyone can now broadcast what’s happening live.”
The feature is rolled out via an update to the Twitter app, which is available for both Android and iOS users. After updating the app, one can simply tap on the Tweet option and the icon to go live via Periscope will be seen just below the text box. On clicking the live video option, a layout appears wherein you can give a title to your live video on what the broadcast is about. Just below the title box, there are three icons of options to give access to your current location, allow either only your followers to comment on the live broadcast or allow everyone to do so. The third option is to allow whether to post on Periscope via your Twitter handle, or to not have your Twitter handle mentioned at all with the live video.
Above the text box, there is an option to change the audience as well for Periscope users. The default option is saved for ‘Public’ to view your broadcast but you can customize it by creating a group of people to choose from who can view your live broadcast. Bear in mind that the live video broadcast is not independent of Twitter, and is still linked to your Periscope account. Even as you’re broadcasting live, the same will be going on Periscope as well. And users from Periscope will be able to view the broadcast as well. ALSO READ: Periscope’s latest update brings tweet embeds, live autoplay and replay highlights
When broadcasting live, Periscope users can post hearts (similar to Facebook Live), whereas Twitter users can only view and like the tweet. Sliding down the screen will show you the option to stop broadcasting and switch between the selfie and the rear camera by tapping on the camera icon. After the video is complete, you can view the live video and see how many people viewed it and also how many replayed the live video. Twitter unlike Facebook, does not send out notifications if any of your followers or accounts being followed go live on Twitter. Even though the live broadcast feature is still through Periscope, it still does end the hassle of going to the app to broadcast live.