Broadcast your life

Periscope is a live streaming app created by Twitter that lets you share what you’re doing and also see what others are doing. Live streaming has been around forever but no one really nailed it on mobile. Meerkat was successful until Twitter came out with Periscope. Let’s see how Twitter nailed mobile live streaming.

Peer around the world

Periscope’s interface is easy to use because Twitter kept it simple. When you log into the app using your Twitter account, you’re greeted with a simple walkthrough of the app’s features. Once you’re done with the welcome screen, you’ll see a constantly refreshing feed of Periscope streams from around the world. A lot of content will be in foreign languages but that makes it interesting too. 

Unfortunately, there’s no way to browse for specific types of streams about specific topics. You can’t even browse streams by location, something that would be super useful if you’re visiting a new city. You do get a section at the bottom for broadcasts of people you’re following on Twitter. I’d like to see a curated section of interesting feeds as well. 

Enable permissions and start shooting

To start broadcasting your own live stream, you’ll have to give Periscope permission to access your camera, microphone, and location. Once that’s done, you can write a short description about what your viewers will be seeing. You can turn your stream private by tapping on the lock icon. There’s also an option to tweet that you’re live streaming on Periscope.

As a broadcaster, you can view live messages and switch cameras. Once you’re done, you can save your video to your Camera Roll or just view the analytics of your stream. That’s all there is to start broadcasting. I like Periscope for its simplicity. 

Simplest way to live stream from your phone

Periscope is a simple app, which is both good and bad. Its user experience is great since everything is so simple and intuitive. However, it’s also annoying not to be able to browse streams by content type, leaving you hunting for interesting things to see. 

It’s still early days for Periscope and I’m sure Twitter will be updating it frequently. If you want to see snippets of people’s lives around the world, Periscope is worth the download.