Live streaming videos are a big hit now, most of us have accepted them with open arms. Let us begin by understanding what live streaming is :

What is live streaming?

It is manner with the help of which users get to post and stream content on social media live. The technology was being used by a number of people in the past, but it gained huge popularity only in the year 2015. And this has led to a battle between two big applications- Periscope and Meerkat. Though both of them do the same thing, that is stream content on social media, but there are some points where they have made the difference.

Meerkat was launched in the year 2015. Meerkat was accepted by users initially because of the ways with the help of which it integrated with Twitter and other social media platforms. With the launch of Periscope, the attention that was given to Meerkat got diverted. Though users know that both the applications perform the same function, at the same time, the same users also believe that one platform will definitely outperform the other one. For that to happen, users should know those key differences that make one platform stand one way ahead as compared to that of the other platform.

Important characteristics of Meerkat :

  1. It has a very important function that provides you with chat feature. With the help of this feature, you can easily share your links and comments, and when you doing that live, the same will be posted on your Twitter profile also. This feature is liked by most of the users as it becomes easy to find comments after you post them.
  2. You also get to see the profile of those people who are watching your video at that point of time that makes it easy for you to connect with your users.
  3. When live streaming is over, you can neither save the video nor can you download it for future use- this comes as one of its disadvantage.
  4. This platform has been integrated with Twitter in a good manner, which means each and every activity happening on Twitter will make sure that you get a notification of the same.

Important characteristics of Periscope :

  1. As a marketer, Periscope offers you a number of benefits- it will show you the number of viewers, your average viewing time after the streaming has ended and it will also give you your performance statistics.
  2. The disadvantage here is that old comments will get disappeared and the users cannot see those comments.
  3. Meerkat did not take much time to develop, according to sources, it was developed in around 8 weeks and Periscope took a year to develop. The user interface of Periscope is better as compared to that of the Meerkat. Users also believe that Periscope provides them with a better visual experience.
  4. Periscope videos can be easily saved. With the help of this feature, the users can view the video later and the user can save the video, share it again in the future, and this is one of the most important feature of Periscope.
  5. As it is integrated with Twitter, it gives you a choice whether you want to share the video on Twitter or not, and you can also follow more and more people from Periscope.
  6. One more feature where Periscope is at an advantage is that you can also block people you do not want to share with.

Note : If you wish to install Periscope for pc then can follow this step by step Guide.

Conclusion : Both the applications allow you to interact with users when you are live streaming. It depends on your purpose, your objective that helps you in deciding the feature you would want to use.