Meerkat may be planning to pivot away from mobile live streaming, but it may be replaced by another live streaming option from a major company.
Google is planning to build a live streaming app called YouTube Connect, reports VentureBeat. The app is expected to be available on Android and iOS and will reportedly offer many of the same features that are available from Periscope and Facebook Live, including chat, a feed of clips from your friends and people you follow on YouTube, and the ability to save broadcasts within the app for replaying later.
There’s no word on when YouTube Connect might launch, but it’s suggested that a debut at or before Google I/O in May.
YouTube is known as a go-to source for video on the web, so it makes sense that Google would use the YouTube branding for its live streaming app. And while Meerkat wasn’t able to compete against Twitter’s YouTube and Facebook Live, Google is a much larger, more well-known company that seems to stand a better chance at becoming a serious competitor in the live streaming game. Whether or not it’s able to do so remains to be seen.