What Is Periscope?

What is periscope, you ask? Well, it is the newest live video platform, from Google Play, for your cell phone. It works in conjunction with your Twitter account, and let's you interact live, with your followers, and other Periscope users. It was unveiled in March of 2015. Below, is a blurb of the creator's vision, from Periscope's official page. 

Just over a year ago, we became fascinated by the idea of discovering the world through someone else’s eyes. What if you could see through the eyes of a protester in Ukraine? Or watch the sunrise from a hot air balloon in Cappadocia? It may sound crazy, but we wanted to build the closest thing to teleportation. While there are many ways to discover events and places, we realized there is no better way to experience a place right now than through live video. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but live video can take you someplace and show you around.

So here's how it works:

1. Download the app from either iTunes or Google Play Store
2. Log in with Twitter account or your phone #
3. Create a username (if you want it to be different than your Twitter username)
4. Create a bio
   
5. Find some users to follow. Type in subjects that are of interest  to you and follow people who broadcast videos, pertaining to those interests.

You are now ready to broadcast live or watch other user's broadcasts. 

You can make your videos public or private. You can also save them after your broadcast is over and share them on other platforms. Saved videos are only available for viewing, for 24 hours. After that, they "expire."

Viewers are able to comment live as your video is being broadcast. They are also able to "like" them, by sending cute and colorful hearts.You, yourself cannot chat or comment with your keyboard, as you're broadcasting, but you can respond to comments, audibly. 

You are able to announce, that you are going live and share your video, with your Twitter followers, simply by clicking on the bird icon, on the right side of your screen, before you start your broadcast.

I've had the app for about a week, and I've done 2 broadcasts. The first one was, the live press conference, in regards to #SandraBland, and our day at Galveston beach, today. It was pretty cool to have viewers from Italy and Israel, be excited to see scenery in the US, especially Texas, as I was told in the comments. 

I expect, that in the future, I will be broadcasting some of my teaching, as well as, some the shenanigans of my everyday life. There are  many ways to use this easy and innovative platform. Many users have used it to broadcast live concerts, and a wide variety of tutorials, among other things. It's really up to you, how you want to use it. I expect this app to become the next preferred way of live video streaming. It is still fairly new, but once the word gets out, people will wonder, what took them so long to find it.