Five years ago, Periscope burst onto the scene as a live streaming app that would help you broadcast video to your Twitter followers. The app was purchased by Twitter shortly after its launch, but fast-forward five years and it's being shut down.
Twitter revealed today that it will shut down the standalone Periscope apps for Android and iPhone on March 31, 2021. The Periscope website will still be available after that date to act as a read-only archive of past broadcasts.
People who want to broadcast video on Twitter can instead use Twitter Live. You can access this feature in the main Twitter app by composing a new tweet, selecting the in-app camera icon, and then tapping "Live".
Periscope users can connect their account to Twitter by logging in to the Periscope app, going ot the Settings tab, and selecting "Connected Accounts". Twitter says that it plans to let Periscope users request a copy of their data and download their past broadcast and that it'll share more details on how to do that soon.
As for why Periscope is being shut down, Twitter says that the app is "in an unsustainable maintenance-mode state, and has been for a while." Periscope has had "declining usage" in recent years and the cost to support the app will only go up, adds Twitter, so it's made the decision to shut Periscope down and focus on its Twitter Live broadcasting.
Live streaming apps like Meerkat were big back in 2015, which led Twitter to purchase Periscope before it even launched to the public. Over the years since then, we've seen live streaming get built into bigger apps like Twitter did with its Twitter Live feature, making a standalone app like Periscope unnecessary and something most folks may not even know about. Still, Periscope was a big deal when it launched, which is why it's big news that the standalone apps are being discontinued.
Did you ever use Periscope?