Periscope App Officially Shutting Down

Six years after its launch Periscope, the app that popularized live streaming video from user’s smartphones is shutting down. The service, which has been owned by Twitter since right before its official launch in March 2021, will be shut down on Thursday, April 1. The app has already been pulled from both Apple’s App Store and Google Play and Periscope’s official Twitter account made the announcement of their “final goodbye” on Wednesday as well.

“This is it. Our final goodbye. Today is the last day the Periscope app will be available,” the post reads. “We leave you with our gratitude for all the creators and viewers who brighten the Periscope community. We hope to see you all live on Twitter.”

The shutdown of Periscope was announced back in December. At the time, Twitter cited a decline in usage as the primary reason and that the app had been in an “unsustainable maintenance-mode state” for some time. At the time of its debut in 2015, Periscope was hugely popular, quickly becoming the leader in live streaming over another app called Meerkat. Soon after, Facebook began to push its live streaming function, and then in 2016, Twitter launched its own in-app ability to live stream, roughly making the standalone Periscope redundant.

Even with the Periscope app being shut down, Periscope’s website will remain available according to Twitter (via 9to5Mac) as an archive of all public content. Users will also be able to download their Periscope videos from the website as well.

What do you think about Periscope shutting down? Were you a Periscope user? What is your preferred live streaming platform or app? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.