Got Android? You can finally stream with Periscope as Android app launches

Livestreaming via your smartphone is the mobile tech world’s new darling in the social media space. Rival apps Periscope and Meerkat have dominated this conversation during 2015 so far; albeit only on iOS, as Android versions were conspicuously absent. That changed when Meerkat unveiled its Android app earlier in May. Much as it did after SXSW, Periscope is now spoiling Meerkat’s party by launching its own version for Google’s operating system.

Unlike Meerkat, Periscope is meant to evoke Android Lollipop’s “material design” aesthetic philosophy right out of the gate. At the same time, it’s trying to maintain its minimal, out-of-the-way visual style, lead Android developer for Periscope Sara Haider tells Tech in Asia. “[We wanted to make it] feel like an Android app, but also feel distinctly like Periscope,” she says.

So many phones, so little time

Android has had considerable penetration in Asian markets for a long time, even though Apple is catching up rapidly. So Periscope’s development team is excited by this new prospective audience for the app, but also conscious of the challenges it presents.

“We can’t test every device, [as] there are thousands and thousands of [them],” Haider says. “But if we see problems that are specific to a device, we will absolutely try and fix that. So over time, the experience on all phones should get better and better.”

Bandwidth issues might prove more pressing than device fragmentation in several Asian territories. While countries such as South Korea and Singapore enjoy good connections and mobile internet coverage, others aren’t as lucky. Haider claims Periscope can handle these discrepancies by optimizing video and streaming quality according to the connection quality available.

“The app does a pretty good job of gracefully degrading in low network conditions,” she says. “Obviously, tons and tons of improvement will have to be made around that as we better understand how the livestreams perform under those conditions, but that’s certainly a huge concern of ours.”

Material concerns

Periscope’s Android app features familiar Lollipop elements. For example, users can find the red call to action button on the bottom right of the screen, which echoes Google’s native apps such as Gmail and Calendar. It also takes advantage of Lollipop’s redesigned notification system. “Notifications are one area where Android and iOS behave a little differently,” Haider says. The app uses Lollipop’s notification tray to allow users to switch out of the app on the fly (to check a message or return to the home screen) and be able to come back to the broadcast via a notification. In addition, the user can set notifications for things like the first time someone they follow on Twitter is broadcasting, or a contact shares someone else’s broadcast.

Periscope for Android takes advantage of Lollipop’s redesigned notification system.

“We didn’t want [Periscope] to look like we just took the iPhone app and dropped it onto Android,” Haider says. A seasoned Android developer whose previous work includes the Twitter app since Android version 1.6, Haider is conscious of the unique challenges it poses. The development team has been working to accommodate as many different types of devices as it can. Periscope works on version 4.4 KitKat, currently the most popular Android version worldwide, and version 5 Lollipop and upwards, which gives the team quite a lot of devices to consider.

A whole lot of streams

Recent popularity of livestreaming apps has reignited the debate over social media and their reach and influence in today’s world. Headlines were made last week over the first Periscope livestream coming out of North Korea courtesy of a visiting activist group. Media organizations are trying to see how they can incorporate this kind of social livestreaming in their day-to-day operations, much like they did with Twitter and Facebook. And then there are the millions of users streaming moments from their lives, from the most exciting to the completely mundane.