Just as Periscope users were beginning to wonder if the startup was simply stringing them along about its promise to offer a landscape mode, the team behind the live-streaming app on Thursday finally rolled out the feature.
However, if you got used to streaming in portrait mode and now really rather like it, then the option of course remains in place.
For the uninitiated, Periscope is a streaming app that lets users launch live broadcasts right from their smartphone. Viewers can use the app to search streams from around the world and interact via live comments, questions, and “hearts,” which let a broadcaster know that you’re enjoying their stream. The app launched for iOS in March and Android in May.
Announcing the new landscape mode in a blog post, the San Francisco-based startup described it as a feature that “the community has been craving,” adding that it took a while to introduce because it wanted to make sure it could create a seamless experience across all of its platforms, which, besides mobile, also includes the Web.
As with portrait, comments in landscape flow up the left side of the display, with hearts on the right, though of course in the new mode you now get more clear screen to look at. In portrait, comments and hearts can end up covering much of the picture, though it’s possible to turn them both off.
Apple TV app?
The arrival of the new landscape mode appears to back up a report earlier this week claiming the startup is building an app for Apple TV. An icon of the app was spotted at the Curpertino company’s big media event on Wednesday as it demoed the latest incarnation of its streaming device.
A few other new features were also rolled out as part of Periscope’s latest update. These include share context which shows who among the people you follow shared a broadcast with you; mutual follow (Android only for now) that makes private broadcasts easier by letting you choose from a list of mutual followers (people you follow, who also follow you) or select them all at once; and the first of what the team promises will be an expansive set of accessibility features for visually impaired Periscopers.
Periscope formed in February 2014 but came to wider attention earlier this year when Twitter acquired it for a reported $100 million.
