A couple of months before Periscope first launched, it was acquired by Twitter. Now Twitter is taking advantage of that acquisition with a new feature for its own app.
Periscope broadcasts will soon play directly within Twitter, meaning that where you’d previously see a link to a Periscope broadcast in your Twitter timeline, you’ll now see autoplaying video. It’s also worth noting that you won’t need a Periscope account or the Periscope app to view these broadcasts in the Twitter app. When you see a Periscope stream on Twitter, you can tap the video to make it full-screen, which will let you see comments and hearts.
Periscope broadcasts now come alive within Twitter https://t.co/R346R1lgZb
— Periscope (@periscopeco) January 12, 2016
Periscope videos will start appearing in the Twitter app for iOS over the next few days. The feature will roll out to Twitter for Android and the web as soon as they’re ready.
The move to embed Periscope videos directly into Twitter timelines and the web is a big deal. Twitter says that it has 320 million monthly active users, and it’s likely that a portion of them have never watched a Periscope stream or even know what Periscope is. Soon, though, they’ll start to see Periscope broadcasts in Twitter, without the need for an account. Embedded Periscope streams in Twitter will expose Periscope to a much larger base of users and will help Periscope users to get their broadcasts out to many more viewers. I just hope that there’s a setting to turn off the autoplay part of Periscope embeds.