(Article originally written December 16, 2020)
Twitter-owned video streaming service Periscope is finally being discontinued, the platform announced yesterday. The app will shut down officially by March 2021.
The platform says the creation of new accounts in-app won’t be possible with the next release. But by March 2021, Periscope will officially wind down and no longer be available in app stores. Periscope web will continue to be available but as a “read-only archive of public broadcasts,” according to support pages.
Twitter’s Periscope team attributes the shutdown to declining usage, and the app has been in an unsustainable maintenance-mode state for a while. As such, the cost of running the app has kept increasing and is projected to continue rising.
The team says they would have made the bold move already if it weren’t for the diverted attention that was caused by the pandemic.
“Leaving it in its current state isn’t doing right by the current and former Periscope community or by Twitter,” the team said in a blog post.
While Periscope is being shut down, core features of the platform have already been integrated into Twitter. Ditching Periscope will also allow the company further to enhance live video capabilities inside its main platform Twitter.
All broadcasts shared from the app on Twitter will continue to be accessible as replays and broadcasters are advised to download their Periscope broadcasts and data before the March 2021 deadline.
The Periscope community is advised to start using Twitter for video live streaming.
Update: April 2021
Periscope is officially dead.
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