Live streaming app Periscope, loved by far-right conspiracy theorists and child predators will be delivered from its misery by the end of next March, Twitter announced on Tuesday.
Closing the app was apparently a no-brainer that took a long time to come. According to Twitter, that purchased Periscope in 2015, the app was a huge mess, code-wise, “and it has been for a while”. Keeping it patched and running smoothly was just more expensive and tricky than it was worth, Twitter said. Few people use the service, the live streaming feature has been leached and added the main Twitter app years ago.
“We probably would have made this decision earlier if we had not reprioritized all projects due to the 2020 events,” said Twitter. “We share our decision with you now because we want to be transparent and honest about where we are and what’s next.”
The Periscope app will be pulled from Apple’s and Google Play’s App Store on March 31, but from today, users cannot create new accounts or buy new coins to tip streamers. But all is not lost: “Broadcasts shared on Twitter will continue to exist as reruns and all broadcasters will be able to download an archive of their Periscope broadcasts and data before removing the app,” Twitter said.
Periscope’s impending death comes as no surprise: blogger and software engineer Jane Manchun Wong, who specializes in finding bits of news hidden in apps, found it a URL that hinted at Periscope’s death last week.
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Twitter says it “believes live video still has the potential to see an even larger audience within the Twitter product,” but we all know deep down that anyone serious about livestreaming is already on Twitch. or TikTok or Reddit or YouTube or some apps that allow you to do the exact same thing.