Only a couple of days after it was reported that Twitter may pull the plug on its live video broadcasting app Periscope, an official announcement from Periscope has confirmed that the app will be discontinued by March 2021. The move to shut down Periscope comes as micro blogging platform Twitter is focusing more on Twitter Lives and other multimedia options within Twitter like the recently-launched Fleets. Twitter had acquired Periscope in 2015 before the app had even launched, as part of a move to double-down on live videos.
The Periscope team announced the development in a Medium post today. “Today, we’re sharing that we have made the difficult decision to discontinue Periscope as a separate mobile app by March 2021,” the Medium post said. The company said that Periscope is shutting down because has been in an unsustainable maintenance-mode state for a while. Over the past couple of years, Periscope has seen a declining usage and know that the cost to support the app will only continue to go up over time. Further, the company said that leaving it in its current state won’t be doing right by the Periscope community or by Twitter, hence many Periscope features will be integrated into Twitter lives. “We still believe in the power of live video to solve impactful problems, which is why we’ve brought most of the core capabilities of Periscope into Twitter,” the company said.
In its announcement, Periscope also said that it would have made the decision sooner if it weren’t for all of the projects that were reprioritised due to the unusual events of 2020. “We’re sharing our decision with you now because we want to be transparent and honest about where we’re at and what’s next.”
As part of the shutdown, Periscope will be removed from all app stores by March 2021 and no one will be able to create a new account starting with the next release. Broadcasts that were shared to Twitter will live on as replays, and all broadcasters will be able to download an archive of their Periscope broadcasts and data before the app is removed in March 2021.
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