In today’s day and age, every one of us can broadcast video right from a smartphone. This gives yet another layer of depth to today’s entertainment, where access to information needs to happen in an instant. This goes hand in hand with quick and effortless spread of information that Twitter managed to capitalize on. However, live broadcasting seems to be the next step, which is something that only a few companies managed to make easy enough to be accepted by a wide range of users.
Meerkat is one of the hottest topics in Twitter universe, at least at the moment. The Twitter-supported streaming app has been incredibly well received by users from all around the world, and even though it seems that Meerkat brought innovation to this field, this is not actually the case. However, this did not stop millions of users to try this app, and create their own streaming clips that managed to create loyal fan base.
In case you are reading this article from your Android phone/tablet, probably the most important thing you need to know is that Meerkat is an iOS-exclusive app. Since it heavily relies on Twitter as a service, you will need to log-in using your Twitter account. Setting things up is incredibly simple, and only takes a few moments, which is refreshing for an app that is built atop a social network. Once you are logged in, you can choose whether to start streaming immediately, or to schedule a stream for later. No matter what option you choose, your Twitter followers will receive a message.
Once you decide to start a new stream, a link that Meerkat previously generated and posted on your Twitter page will go live. Everyone who visits this link (regardless of a device and platform) can watch the stream. In case there’s a schedule stream, there’s still going to be a link posted, but it won’t be active until a countdown clock indicates that the stream is about to start. Once the stream goes online, you will be able to see who is watching, along with messages sent to you. Meerkat uses both iPhone’s cameras, so you can switch effortlessly, and you can use flash as well.
When you are done, you will get to save your stream to the camera roll. There is no option to save it online, so there’s no way for people to re-watch the content (unless you upload it right from your phone using some other online service).
What is great about Meerkat is how easy and effortless it is. Now everyone can use an iPhone to stream live video, as well as to communicate with other Twitter fellows. It is cross-platform compatible, so people can watch videos using a web browser and the iOS app. What’s important to keep on mind is that whatever happens inside the stream will reflect on a Twitter account, making things very transparent and public, but also easily accessible.
Even though it is not the first player in this game, Meerkat is the first one that made video streaming as painless as possible. If live streaming is something that is in your sphere of interest, than you won’t regret downloading this app.
[ad name=”Google rechthoek”]
