The winds of change are blowing through Twitter as it continues its quest for more functionalities on its 10-year-old social network platform.
The San Francisco-headquartered firm announced Wednesday that the autoplay function for video content of live-streaming social media network Periscope is now available on Twitter timelines.
An image of a Twitter feed autoplaying a Periscope stream. (Twitter)
“Both Twitter and Periscope show you what’s going on in the world, right now ― whether that’s outside your window or across the globe,” Periscope chief executive officer Kayvon Beykpour said in a Twitter blog post.
“Today, we’re making it easier to see what’s happening by bringing Periscope broadcasts ― both live and replays ― directly into tweets.”
The new autoplay feature is currently compatible with Twitter’s iOS app and will be fitted on its website and Android app, according to the company.
Twitter acquired the live broadcasting service for around $100 million before the Periscope app was released in March last year. Since the launch, users have created around 100 million live broadcasts through the live-streaming app, which was dubbed the best iOS app of 2015.
The combination of some features on the flagship Twitter and video-oriented apps Periscope and Vine was anticipated as the text-based Twitter with its 140-character limit has been considered outdated compared to emerging photo or video apps, such as Instagram.
Some market watchers even forecast the full integration of Twitter and the other two, but Jeff Seibert, Twitter’s consumer product chief who is widely regarded as the firm’s rising star, denied the rumors of a new, single social media platform combining the three.
“They (Periscope and Vine) all play back on Twitter. So you can go tweet a link to Periscope or tweet your Vines,” Seibert said in an interview last September, adding there is no “need to combine those apps otherwise.”
The U.S. firm has also hinted at its commitment to bringing a breath of fresh air into the Twitter service by lifting the 140-word limit. Some media outlets reported the number of characters allowed per post could increase up to 10,000. Facebook allows 63,206 characters per post.
By Kim Young-won (
wone0102@heraldcorp.com)