Ondrej Holzman Meerkat. If you're active on Twitter, then you've surely come across this word in recent weeks. It is a service that allows users to record video and stream it in real time on the Internet very easily, and it has become very popular. But now Twitter itself has started a fight against Meerkat, with the Periscope application.
This is not a quick reaction from Twitter, but a long-planned launch of a service for live video streaming, in which the social network was overtaken by Meerkat. He took Twitter by storm earlier this month at the South by Southwest festival, but now he's facing a strong opponent.
Twitter holds the trump cards
Periscope has all the makings to become a major streaming app. In January, he bought the original Twitter application for an alleged 100 million dollars and now presented (so far only for iOS) a new version, directly connected to the social network. And here comes the problem for Meerkat - Twitter has started blocking it.
Meerkatu Twitter has disabled the link to friends lists, so it is not possible to automatically follow the same people on Meerkatu as on this social network. Of course, this is not a problem in Periscope. The principle of both services - live streaming of what you're filming with your iPhone - is the same, but the details differ.
Meerkat works on the same basis as Snapchat, where the video is immediately deleted after the stream is turned off and cannot be saved or replayed anywhere. In contrast, Periscope allows videos to be left free to play for up to 24 hours.
Videos can be commented on or sent hearts while watching, which adds points to the user who broadcasts and moves up the ranking of the most popular content. In this, Meerkat and Periscope work practically identically. But with the latter application, conversations are strictly kept inside the stream and are not sent to Twitter.
Streaming the video itself is then very easy. First, you give Periscope access to your camera, microphone, and location, and then you're ready to broadcast. Of course, you don't have to publish your location, and you can also choose who will have access to your transmission.
The future of communication
Various methods of communication have already proven themselves on Twitter. Classic text posts are often supplemented with images and videos (via Vine, for example), and Twitter appears to be a particularly powerful means of communication during various events, where information from the scene is the first to arrive on this "140-character" social network. And it spreads like lightning.
Photos and short videos are invaluable at various events, whether it is a demonstration or a football match, and they speak for a thousand words. Now it seems that live video streaming could be the next new way to communicate on Twitter. And that Periscope can play an important role in flash crime scene reporting if we stick to "citizen journalism."
Starting a stream is literally a matter of seconds, just as it is instantly accessible from Twitter to millions of users worldwide. It remains to be seen whether the current wave of live video streaming will fade over time, or whether it will join the ranks of text messages and images as the next stable way we communicate. But Periscope (and Meerkat, if it lasts) definitely has the potential to be more than just a toy.
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Look, and why did you find the differences in the video? As for quality, how is it with landscape mode and how does this or that app look on a desktop computer? I think Meerkat can record in landscape mode, which seems to me to be a very important difference...or am I wrong?