Twitter makes it official, Periscope is shutting down

Twitter announces that it is shutting down Periscope (Reuters representational image)

A few days after rumours of the live broadcasting app, Periscope getting an early retirement surfaced, Twitter announced on December 15 that it is shutting it down as a service citing “declining usage”. Twitter will discontinue the Periscope applications by March 2021, more than five years after acquiring it. The live streaming feature on the social media platform will stay as an integrated feature on the main app.

“The Periscope app is in an unsustainable maintenance-mode state, and has been for a while,” the company said in a blog post. “Over the past couple of years, we’ve seen declining usage and know that the cost to support the app will only continue to go up over time.”

With few months to go to Periscope getting completely shut down, the company has blocked new signups with the latest update of the app which has already been rolled out. The existing users also have a few months’ time to download an archive of their videos and data before the app goes obsolete. However, the Periscope website will not go down and will act as a “read-only archive of public broadcasts”.

Ahead of the shutdown, Periscope will also be relaxing its requirements to become ‘Super Broadcasters’. These broadcasters will be able to cash out their tips till April 30th, 2021.

In 2015, Twitter acquired Periscope even before a stable version of the app was launched to compete against Meerkat, a live-streaming tool for Twitter and Facebook accounts. However, with more social media platforms promoting live content instead of doing it via standalone apps, the downfall for Periscope started. The company also said that it would have retired the app earlier if it wasn’t for the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

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