Twitter has made yet another hard decision. Periscope live streaming will no longer be available as of 31st March 2021.
Well, this announcement was made back in December 2020 by the official authorities. Now, Periscope’s iOS, as well as Android application, will not be available.
Although, Periscope’s website periscope.tv will still be available as a read-only archive of public broadcasts. Here you will not be able to create a new account, broadcast live, or purchase coins.
Additionally, you can no longer link a Periscope account to Twitter. If someone doesn’t have an account, then what? Obviously, create one!
The Reason behind Shutdown
Well, there might be a variety of reasons for periscope shutting down. As per the official statement by Twitter, the primary reason for closing down is that the app has been in an “unsustainable maintenance-mode state” for some time.
It is understood that maintaining an app like this, in the presence of Twitter live, requires effort. As a result, the application faced a decline in usage. The user base was more inclined towards Twitter live than it was towards Periscope.
The team behind periscope explained very articulately, for the past two years that they’ve been experiencing a decline in its usage and the cost of maintenance was rising.
They predicted that the cost will be going up as time passes by. Therefore, a need for a difficult decision was arising. They were actually planning to close it way before this day, but due to lockdown, the priorities of the organization rescheduled.
Being aware of loyal Periscope users, they shared their decision on their official page, so that things remain transparent, as they were till now.
What’s Next? How’s Live Broadcasting Market?
Periscope made its debut in 2015, at that time it gained a lot of traction and was one of the go-to applications for live broadcasting. During the period, a video streaming application Meerkat was also very popular. However, Periscope with all its charm dethroned it and became the leader in the mainstream market.
Soon after, Facebook started to push its live-streaming function, marketing of which was at its peak. An atmosphere of the competition was created, as result, Twitter launched its own in-app ability to live stream. Consequently, the existence of the Periscope felt needless. Slowly and gradually the shutdown was planned.
The Periscope website will remain online with an archive of public broadcasts. Periscope users will still be able to download their data through Twitter.
Talking about the Live Broadcasting market, there are a variety of good options. Not to mention, Facebook live and YouTube live are the most used platforms, especially in the United States. A survey was conducted to find this out.
Apart from this, applications like Twitch, YouNow, and Vimeo are picking up steam. Perhaps, because of the freshness they bring and also a new app has the potential to blow up anytime.
So, this is the end of the ‘Periscope era’ and the team is grateful to all the loyal users who’ve shown such love to this app.
The last tweet of Periscope is, “This is it. Our final goodbye. Today is the last day the Periscope app will be available,” the post reads. “We leave you with our gratitude for all the creators and viewers who brighten the Periscope community. We hope to see you all live on Twitter.”
