Periscope App Gets A New Platform, Some New Features

Twitter’s Periscope app just got an overhaul. According to the Washington Post, the video streaming app, Periscope, will now be available on Android devices. The site mentioned some new features to go along with Periscope’s launch on Android: users will now be able to return to the part of a video they were at if they get interrupted by calls or texts, and they’ll also have an option to get notified when their Twitter friends broadcast on Periscope for the first time.

After Facebook announced that it was making Messenger into its own platform for hosting apps, perhaps this is Twitter’s way of trying to win more loyal users for both itself and its subsidiaries. Apps that can stream live video have been on the rise in popularity for a while now, part of which is due to Twitter’s app, Vine, which takes 6-second videos and loops them on endless repeat until stopped. Facebook even offered to plunk down a cool $3 billion US to acquire Snapchat, which now offers video recordings in addition to its original screenshot capabilities. Twitter is lucky enough to own an app like Periscope, even if it is facing some heated competition.

Periscope marks the latest addition to that trend, and there’s no telling where Twitter will take it next. Techcrunch added that Periscope’s rival, MeerKat, has been available on Android for a while already, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it will hurt Periscope’s numbers — often times, the apps that wait to make an entrance have better thought-out and more stable features.

Of course, with any app (especially ones that access your camera), there are concerns about privacy and abuses of its power alongside those cool new features, and Periscope is no exception. The Inquisitr reported that Periscope was recently used to stream the UFC championship battle between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather (which was supposed to be pay-per-view only). All controversy aside, Twitter seems to be pretty excited about launching Periscope for Android.

Periscope on Android is LIVE! Read more here: https://t.co/yugGKIDmBI

— Periscope (@periscopeco) May 26, 2015

Even foregoing the legal and moral questionability of helping people commit piracy, the fact that apps can now peer into your private moments and broadcast them to the world is very unsettling to a lot of people. Furthermore, streaming apps like Periscope sometimes have special caveats with them, given that they can broadcast pretty much anything live with no time for it to be censored (think the Library Girl incident at OSU on a much larger scale).

If you’re still interested in downloading Periscope on your Android device, Techcrunch mentions that you’ll need to be running Android 4.4 (KitKat) or higher to do so. Luckily, any fairly new Android from about a year ago or less should do the trick, so hop onto the Google Play Store, search for Periscope, and broadcast away.

Not interested in Periscope? There are plenty of video streaming and recording apps out there that will likely work just as well, if not better. As our cameras get more advanced, Periscope will have a lot of demand to keep up with it, but also a lot of potential to expand its offerings and innovative features. What do you think of Periscope so far? Would you suggest any changes or additional security features?

[Image Credit: Tech Times]