Twitter integrates Periscope features into its own app, but will you use it?
Twitter integrates Periscope features into its own app, but will you use it?Reuters

Twitter is known for its spontaneous micro-blogging nature and millions of people love this feature about it. Even though the character limit has turned off some users, there are ways to overcome that by posting photos and videos. But if you are in a concert live tweeting your experience, 140 characters just isn't enough.

In that case, Twitter's latest feature, which quite frankly has been overdue for a long time, will help users broadcast live video from the Twitter app. The popular social networking site made this possible by integrating the features of Periscope, the independent live streaming video app Twitter acquired last year.

"If you're viewing a broadcast, you'll be able to comment and heart and participate in the broadcast right from within Twitter. And you'll also be able to go live and broadcast yourself right within Twitter yourself and without the need of the Periscope app," Sara Haider, head of Periscope engineering, said about the new feature.

"We've put a lot of work into making it as easy as possible to go live. It's just a couple of taps and you're good to go," she added.

If you wish to test the new feature Twitter has rolled out, simply update your iOS and Android app from respective app stores. Moreover, the company has also made it easy to report inappropriate content such as violence and self-harm by directly clicking a button on the video streaming tweet.

Twitter is joining the party a bit late

Twitter acquired Periscope 18 months ago, but it decided to bring the live video broadcasting feature to its own app only now. If the company had integrated the feature shortly after the acquisition, it would mean a great deal for millions of its users. Nevertheless, users have it now.

But the integration is not entirely new to users as there are other apps such as Instagram and Facebook that already have the live video broadcasting feature integrated within. Twitter's offering is now just following the footsteps of its rivals when it could have been leading the way.

Facebook's Live feature already lets you broadcast live events in real time and so does Instagram. Since these social networking sites have offered the feature for a while now, it has given them a head start. Twitter is joining the race midway, but faithful users of Twitter will certainly appreciate the new offering.

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