In the last few months we have witnessed a sort of ‘Battle Royal’ unfolding in the streaming Twitterverse, with plenty of surprises.
This blow-by-blow, Game of Thrones-esque skirmish sees two of the hottest tickets currently up in the Cloud, Twitter’s own Periscope and its arch-nemesis, Meerkat. These ground breaking apps are now available both on iOS and Android, and both allow Live Streaming of video and audio content to be shared globally on Twitter – all by using your mobile phone!
Here are what we feel are the key differences between the two apps. We hope it helps you choose which one to go for!
Ultimately, it all comes down to personal preference, but we believe that Periscope will, before our “tweety” eyes, turn out to be the long term winner. Not only because it looks and feels more solid and robust, but also as it is owned by Twitter. Which means a lot.
Periscope – has an aesthetic edge on Meerkat in terms of interface and design and its colour palette isn’t as garish and loud as Meerkat’s. Also, its menus are easier to navigate and despite being a Twitter-owned product, it gives you the option to sign-in without having a Twitter account. It begins by greeting you very simply, with a world map showing current live streams. Periscope’s team have had heaps of time to get their user experience sorted (a year, according to official sources) and is considered by many a better platform, yet it owes a great deal of its kudos to Meerkat’s pioneering instinct in bringing Live Streaming to the twittering masses.
Meerkat – is more reliant on its symbiotic connection with Twitter because, as the app itself states on startup, “everything that happens on Meerkat, happens on Twitter”. It does have a confusing ‘leaderboard’ set-up that leaves you wondering whether it is a video app or a video game you’re playing with. The obvious limitation in Meerkat’s “feel” is perhaps due to the legendary speed with which it has been put together (allegedly 8 weeks) as an aside for founder Ben Rubin’s Life on Air project. Nevertheless, regardless of its imperfections, Meerkat has been a total game changer in the mobile video sharing landscape, being the first app of its kind to truly go ‘viral’ and gain sizeable commercial success as a result