Two months after debuting on the iPhone, Twitter announced Tuesday that it’s finally making its live-video app, Periscope, available to Android users as well.
Android users have had to wait to get in on the live-streaming fun, but they’re getting something for their pains. For example, users who get interrupted mid-stream by a phone call or message can go back to watching right where they left off. Android users will also have more control over notifications from Periscope, such as being alerted when someone you follow on Twitter broadcasts for the first time, or when someone you follow shares a Periscope stream. People who create new streams can also save replays without having to upload a video file. These features are not available for iPhone users.
“This is just the beginning for Periscope on Android,” the company wrote in a blog post. “We have many exciting features and improvements in the works.”
Twitter has been under intense pressure from its shareholders to post strong user growth and revenue numbers – goals that the company whiffed in its last earnings report, sending its stock down 28 percent last month and into a slump from which it has yet to recover.
Periscope was a bright spot in that earnings report, with the company saying the service acquired 1 million users within its first 10 days. But it remains to be seen whether Twitter can sustain that growth, or even keep those million users in a social media climate where it can be hard to separate fads from trends.
For its part, the social media company is shoring up efforts to make money off its (comparatively) small but mighty audience, announcing in its latest earnings report that it had acquired the advertising technology firm TellApart and a partnership with Google that brings Twitter messages into search results. (There’s also a persistent, if wispy, rumor that Google may even buy Twitter, something both companies have declined to comment on.)
There are also faint hints that the company may be looking to start a new act as a more traditional media firm. Periscope, of course, holds the promise of exclusive videos or shows against which Twitter could sell advertising. And on Monday, technology new site Re/Code reported that the social media network had also held talks to acquire the digital magazine platform Flipboard, citing “multiple sources with knowledge of the situation” that say the deal would value Flipboard at over $1 billion.
Both companies declined to comment.
Flipboard isn’t nearly as big Twitter, but has added approximately 15 million users in the past three months to reach 65 million. It’s also taken some steps similar to Twitter’s to spur revenue growth, Re/Code noted, such as launching video ads, as well as letting brands add “promoted” items into users’ feeds.
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