Zoom might have some competition…from Twitter.
On Friday, two pieces of news hinted at Twitter mixing up its video strategy after buying Periscope five years ago.
First, prolific code detective Jane Manchun Wong found some code hidden in the Twitter app indicating that the Periscope app would shut down, per TechCrunch. That code points to a currently broken Twitter support link, but one would assume that would change if and when Twitter makes the news official.
Second, a video chat app called Squad announced the same day that it had been acquired by Twitter. The app itself is shutting down on Saturday, so we can’t really test it, but it gave users a way to do simple mobile video chats with the ability to screen-share. If you wanted to workshop an Instagram post with your pals, for example, Squad was there for you.
Squad’s tweets suggested the people behind it will build “new, fun things” into Twitter going forward.
Thanks for all your support & for being on this journey with us! We’re shutting down the Squad app on Dec 12th at 5pm so we can start to transition to Twitter. Please DM your friends to tell them where to find you & watch out for new, fun things that we’ll build into Twitter! 💜
— Squad (@squad) December 11, 2020
What does this mean for the future of live video on Twitter? It’s tough to say. The Periscope app shutting down isn’t a huge surprise. Twitter built the ability to broadcast live directly into the Twitter app years ago. Perhaps Periscope shuts down and Twitter uses the talent from the Squad acquisition to build video chats or screen sharing into the Twitter app. Perhaps nothing changes. We reached out to Twitter for comment and will update you if we hear back.
Just don’t be shocked if Twitter tries something new in the near future. We already got Fleets this year. Maybe we’ll get a Zoom competitor too.
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