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Periscope Down? New Finding Suggests the Twitter-Owned Live-Streaming App is Headed for Retirement

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periscope down new finding suggests the twitter owned live streaming app is headed for retirement

In news that’s both unsurprising, yet sad in a nostalgic sense, it seems that Twitter may be looking to put its separate live-streaming app Periscope out to pasture, with a line of code indicating that a ‘shut down’ of the platform may be imminent.

The finding comes from reverse engineering expert Jane Manchun Wong who noticed this indicator when cross-checking the latest version of the Twitter app code.

That’s not definitive, of course, and it’s possible that it could refer to something else entirely. But the messaging seems pretty clear (note: the link within the code is currently inactive).

That wouldn’t be a huge surprise. Back in 2016, Twitter announced the integration of its live-streaming functionality into Twitter itself, which pretty much rendered Periscope obsolete.

The announcement meant that users no longer needed to download the separate Periscope app to go live on Twitter, and as we noted at the time:

“While Periscope will continue to operate as a separate entity for now, the merging of the two could suggest that the app’s days are numbered, at least as a standalone platform.”

If anything, it’s surprising that Periscope has lasted as long as it has. There are still some things you can’t do via Twitter live-streams that you can within Periscope (like saving your streams), but even back in 2016, the writing was on the wall.

But Periscope has trudged on, and you still see Periscope streams popping up every now and then.

Periscope screens

But whether that’s because Periscope serves a functional purpose, or due to lingering affection for the app (Periscope founder Kayvon Beykpour is now the Product Lead at Twitter) is hard to say. Looking at the Periscope blog, the app’s last major update (go live with guests) came back in February 2019, so it’s seemingly been neglected for a bit.

Really, the app’s closure seems inevitable, but again, it’s seemed that way for some time. What may have changed at Twitter’s end is impossible for an outsider to determine, but providing separate support for the app doesn’t really make a lot of sense.

It could simply be that Twitter’s working on new alternatives to announce along with the closure, like saved streams on your Twitter profile, or the integration of Twitter live streams with Fleets. That’ll be the next step to help maximize Twitter stream viewership, but having your past videos available in a dedicated section on your profile would also be handy, as opposed to storing them on Periscope.

Maybe Twitter’s been working to develop that option, which is why Periscope has had a stay of execution. But again, it’s no surprise to see that Twitter’s likely moving towards shutting it down.

But it is a reminder of the initial excitement around the live-stream boom back in 2015.

At South-by-Southwest in 2015, live-streaming app Meerkat was the app of the moment, with every other tech guru and social media influencer jumping on board the next big thing, and broadcasting themselves, living out their dreams of hosting their own live TV show.

Meerkat

Periscope came just weeks later, with Twitter quickly moving to purchase the live-streaming app. The growth of Periscope slowed Meerkat’s momentum, with the two platforms competing for a time, before Facebook Live came in and blunted both significantly. 

Most of those live-streams sucked, but for a moment, it was fun, social media had a new means of engagement, and it was exciting to see what people would come up with, and to hear and see these people who you’d connected with over time, and even communicate with them during their streams.

It was like that initial period following the launch of Pokemon Go, where people were out in the streets running into others who were excitedly chasing Pokemon on their phone screens. There was a buzz about live-streaming, a real community to it, and for a moment, social media felt imminently social again, not just faceless profiles competing for likes by coming up with witty retorts and jibes.

Periscope was part of that, and in this sense, it’ll be sad to see it go, if this is, indeed, the end of the road for the app.

Functionally, it won’t make a heap of difference, as there are plenty of ways to go live, on Twitter itself and in other apps. But emotionally, it’ll be a little sad. 

Maybe that’s why Periscope is still going, still carrying on despite subsequent industry shifts. But it seems inevitable that it will, at some stage, come to an end.

Twitter hasn’t confirmed the pending closure, and we’ll keep you updated on any official news. 

Socialmediatoday.com

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Musk regrets controversial post but won’t bow to advertiser ‘blackmail’

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Elon Musk's comments at the New York Times' Dealbook conference drew a shocked silence

Elon Musk’s comments at the New York Times’ Dealbook conference drew a shocked silence – Copyright GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP Slaven Vlasic

Elon Musk apologized Wednesday for endorsing a social media post widely seen as anti-Semitic, but accused advertisers who are turning away from his social media platform X of “blackmail” and said anyone who does so can “go fuck yourself.”

The remark before corporate executives at the New York Times’ Dealbook conference drew a shocked silence.

Earlier, Musk had apologized for what he called “literally the worst and dumbest post that I’ve ever done.”

In a comment on X, formerly Twitter, Musk on November 15 called a post “the actual truth” that said Jewish communities advocated a “dialectical hatred against whites,” which was criticized as echoing longtime conspiracy theory among White supremacists.

The statement prompted a flood of departures from X of major advertisers, including Apple, Disney, Comcast and IBM who criticized Musk for anti-semitism.

“I’m sorry for that tweet or post,” Musk said Wednesday. “It was foolish of me.”

He told interviewer Andrew Ross Sorkin that his post had been misinterpreted and that he had sought to clarify the remark in subsequent posts to the thread.

But Musk also said he wouldn’t be beholden to pressure from advertisers.

“If somebody’s gonna try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money?” Musk said. “Go fuck yourself.”

But the billionaire acknowledged that there were business implications to the advertiser actions.

“If the company fails… it will fail because of an advertiser boycott” Musk said. “And that will be what will bankrupt the company.”

Musk, who met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a visit to Israel earlier this week, insisted in the interview that he holds no discrimination against Jews, calling himself “philo-Semitic,” or an admirer of Judaism.

During the interview, Musk wore a necklace given to him by a parent of an Israeli hostage taken in the Hamas attack on October 7. The necklace reads, “Bring Them Home.”

Musk told Sorkin that the Israel trip had been planned earlier and was not an “apology tour” related to the controversial tweet.

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TikTok Encourages Creators To Make Longer Videos, With Focus On Ad Revenue 11/30/2023

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TikTok Encourages Creators To Make Longer Videos, With Focus On Ad Revenue 11/30/2023

With a need to expand its advertising business, TikTok is now fully focused on the output of long-form videos.

A new report by The Information shows the company’s recent efforts to convince
creators to put out longer videos in order to provide more room for ad placements.

According to the …



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X Adds Option To Embed Videos in Isolation From Posts

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X Adds Option To Embed Videos in Isolation From Posts

Next time you go to embed an X post, you may notice a new step:

Now, X will enable you to choose whether you want to embed the video element in isolation, or the whole post, as normal.

And if you do choose to embed just the video (or GIF), it’ll look like this:

Which could be a helpful way to present X-originated video on third-party websites, and add context to, say, your blog post, without the clutter of the full X framing.

But it could also reduce brand exposure for X, which is likely why Twitter didn’t enable this before, though it did once provide an “embedded video widget” which essentially served the same purpose.

X embeds

Twitter gradually seemed to phase that out as the platform evolved, and there’s no specific reason that I can find as to why it removed it as an option. But either way, now, it’s back, so you have more options for using X-originated content, and putting more focus on video elements specifically.

Though I don’t know why they didn’t also take the opportunity to remove the ‘Tweet’ reference. Since the re-brand to X, the platform seems to have gone to little effort to weed out all the tweet and bird terminology, but then again, with 80% fewer staff, that’s probably understandable as well.



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