Twitter has officially announced that it is shutting down Periscope as a stand-alone service. The announcement was made by an official blog post and a tweet to its followers. It is essentially a confirmation of recent reports that spotted a line within the app’s code that hinted towards an imminent demise of the service.
Periscope will cease to exist as an individual application for Android and iOS starting in March 2021. The team will also release a new update to remove the new account creation option for the time being. It means while existing users can continue using the apps until the deadline, no new users will be allowed to join the platform.
The blog post cites two major reasons behind the decision to kill the service. The first one is a decline in usage that the company says has been evident for the past couple of years. The drop makes the app maintenance cost look like an avoidable expense as it just keeps on increasing with time. The second reason is that Twitter has already integrated Periscope’s live streaming functionality with its main app. This makes it redundant to work on the Periscope app as well as on the connection between the two apps.
All live broadcasts from Periscope that were shared on Twitter will continue to be accessible as replays. It will further allow users to download all the broadcasts and their data as an archive. It goes without saying that anyone who wishes to do so will have to do it before the app shutdown deadline.
For the uninitiated, Periscope was one of the first platforms on the internet to allow anyone to go live from anywhere. It was acquired by Twitter in 2015, soon after it became popular, as it wanted to take on Meerkat. It would not be exaggerating if Periscope was to be credited for playing a crucial role in making live streaming mainstream. As things stand now, Periscope’s legacy will continue to live as Twitter Live.