It’s felt like a long time coming, but the Twitter-owned app Periscope has confirmed today it is shutting down.
Periscope announced today via a blog post that it will be shutting down its service, with the service winding down completely by March 2021. The move is not completely unexpected, as Twitter, which owns Periscope, has been gradually integrating Periscope’s features directly into Twitter itself. For instance, way back in 2016, Twitter started integrating Periscope live broadcasts into Twitter.
The blog post is forthright about the decisions to pull the app and shut down its services, saying that Periscope, in its current state, is in an “unsustainable maintenance-mode state” — and “has been for a while”. The developers confirm that usage of the app has declined over the last couple of years, but costs to run the app will only continue to rise.
From the blog post:
We still believe in the power of live video to solve impactful problems, which is why we’ve brought most of the core capabilities of Periscope into Twitter. We probably would have made this decision sooner if it weren’t for all of the projects we reprioritized due to the events of 2020. We’re sharing our decision with you now because we want to be transparent and honest about where we’re at and what’s next.
The Periscope team confirms that the app will be pulled from the App Store by the time March 31, 2021 rolls around. As of the next public release for the app, though, the service will no longer allow for any new sign ups. All current Periscope users will be able to download their past broadcasts, so they won’t be lost forever by default.
We’re planning to remove Periscope from the app stores by March 2021, but no one will be able to create a new account in-app starting with the next release. Broadcasts that were shared to Twitter will live on as replays, and all broadcasters will be able to download an archive of their Periscope broadcasts and data before the app is removed in March 2021. You can find more info here about what will happen to your Super Hearts and broadcasts, how you can go live on Twitter going forward, and more.
As for live broadcasts, well, as mentioned above, they are integrated into Twitter now.