Twitter has announced that it will shut down Periscope as a service, and the company will shut down Periscope applications by March 2021. However, Twitter will continue to offer live video streaming through the integrated Twitter Live feature in the main Twitter app. .
“The Periscope app is in an unsustainable maintenance mode, and it has been for a while,” the company explains in a blog post. “In recent years, we have seen a decline in usage and know that the cost of supporting the app will only increase over time.”
Although Periscope will not be fully shut down until March, the company is already blocking new account sign-ins as of the last update of the apps, rolling out today. Users will have the chance to download an archive of both their Periscope videos and their data before the app shuts down next year. In addition, the Periscope website remains active to serve as a ‘read-only archive of public broadcasts’.
Periscope will also “relax our requirements” so that users can request to “Super broadcasters, ”The company’s term for selected users who are given the opportunity to exchange tips given to them by followers. Broadcasters have until April 30, 2021 to redeem their tips.
Twitter bought Periscope way back in March 2015 before the service even launched, in its heyday of live broadcasts (perhaps started by Meerkat, a once-viral streaming service that has since moved on to the development of Houseparty). Periscope was set to launch later that month, with all the power of Twitter’s significant social presence behind it. But despite Periscope’s popularity at the time, it wasn’t lasting, like other live streaming services – like Twitch’s juggernaut – would become.
Twitter would integrate live video into the main Twitter app in December 2016, in a feature described as “ powered by Periscope. ” According to Twitter, the company has since moved “most of Periscope’s core capabilities” to Twitter Live, with Periscope’s shuttering as a separate service, allowing it to focus more on expanding that live streaming functionality in the future.