Twitter has finally released Periscope to Android users. Periscope has been available for iOS since March but Android users have not been fortunate to use it until now.
Developed by Kayvon Beykpour and Joe Bernstein, the app accords users’ opportunity to broadcast live video to the public or to a specific audience who can comment on what they’re watching.
With Periscope, users can also set these videos to be re-playable for 24 hours.
Twitter bought the app for US$100 million and released it through its own app account on March 26, and the live-streaming app is now available on the Google Play Store.
Announced through Medium.com, the Android version of Periscope will work on KitKat (4.4) and Lollipop (5.0) and it includes a few features not available on the iOS version of the app. Android users can manage notifications, such as first-time broadcast notifications (which alerts users when someone they follow on Twitter uses the app for the first time) and share notifications (which alerts them when someone they follow shares another person’s broadcast).
There is also a resume notification feature that lets users continue to watch a broadcast that got interrupted by an e-mail or phone call.
Despite the large amount of press coverage for Periscope, it’s hard to say how well the Android app will do.
The iOS app is not currently listed in the top 100 free apps ranking but Android users could be more interested in broadcasting their lives.