Periscope videos to automatically play within Twitter for iPhone

The move will see Twitter-owned Periscope video cards automatically playing within the Twitter iOS app, in a similar way to Twitter’s Vines, pre-recorded video or gifs – which all now download and play without requiring the user to interact with them. Since Periscope launched previous year, people have created over 100 million live broadcasts. It essentially brings the Periscope experience – live broadcasts, hearts from viewers, and a running chat – into a tweet.

In the meantime, many Twitter users who haven’t bothered to download Periscope will now see it regularly.

With Twitter’s Periscope increasing in popularity among livestreaming apps, the company has begun taking steps to better integrate it into its native app. Periscope has yet to reach that stage, meaning that broadcasters relied on Twitter to spread their videos, which until now were simple links to the stream or the Periscope app.

It was always obvious, however, that Periscope’s real-time streaming would be a logical type of content to put right within Twitter.

The move will make video more accessible to Twitter users and will make the Twitter audience more accessible to broadcasters. Now no Periscope account (or installed app) is needed to view the streams on your iPhone. It’s a bit of a one-way street right now, but that could change once Twitter is done rolling out support across the world. He’s also been criticized for failing to commit to Twitter full time, choosing instead to split his days between it and payments company Square.

“When you think of Twitter and you think of Periscope, a lot of the vision overlaps”, says Sara Haider, Periscope’s mobile engineering lead.

Periscope and Twitter view this feature as something that will enrich both app experiences, in part by adding more viewership.

Social media platform Twitter recently updated its application on Apple’s iOS in an attempt to improve user experience. “People who don’t even have to know what Periscope is can now watch”.

The new function is being rolled out on Twitter’s iOS app, with Android set to follow. “When I hold a tweet, why doesn’t it go live on Periscope?”