Periscope: Watching the Uncut Stories

Today, viewers can watch live footage from the refugee crisis on the Hungarian border on an app called Periscope. Anyone can turn on the news and see footage from the crisis on their TV screens, but until recently, viewers haven’t had direct access to live, uncut news footage from this event and others like it.

We published a blog a few weeks ago about citizen journalism, where we recognized  the idea that just about anyone can be a videographer, or at least wear a videographer’s hat for a day. Modern technology has given countless people access to the kinds of tools needed to capture relevant news footage as it’s happening. The rise of citizen journalism means that virtually anyone can report on virtually any event.

Periscope is taking that idea to a whole new level.  

IMG_1500“It may sound crazy, but we wanted to build the closest thing to teleportation,”  the company wrote in a post on its website. Periscope, which was acquired by Twitter in January, allows users to stream live video from their iPhone, and has amassed a whopping 10 million registered users. A TechCrunch article said that as of mid-August, all of the app’s users combined were streaming over 350,000 hours of video a day. All in all, that means that collective amount of video streamed on the app is equal to over 40 human lifetimes.

Periscope will eventually become more than just an iPhone app – (or at least that’s what people are saying.) It’s been rumored that the company is developing an app for the new Apple TV that will allow users to watch live Periscope footage on their TV screens. In another article, TechCrunch reported that Apple TV will function like the Periscope website, which allows users to watch live footage but, of course, limits them when it comes to uploading their own streams.

So, what are people watching on Periscope? Well, there’s TIME’s live footage from the migrant crisis on the Hungarian border, as well as a few popular live streams Apple’s big event, including a firsthand look at the new iPad Pro and a post-event chat with Verge reporter Casey Newton. You can check out these newsworthy “recent streams” on the app right now, but Periscope makes it really easy to access other streams, too. It’s not all about following the big news channels. Periscope also functions sort of like a hybrid mix of Snapchat and Skype because it allows users to watch live streams from their contacts, but its structure is that of a social network.

We love everything about Periscope, because it really complements what we’re doing for video here at Wispeo. We believe that life should be captured from every angle and that those stories should be shared and connected in the most convenient and advanced ways available. If you want to send large video files, you can use Wispeo to do it in the highest possible quality.

And, just like Periscope, Wispeo will soon be available on iPhone and Android devices. Sign up so you can be the first to know when the apps are available!

UPDATE: Wispeo is now mobile! Get the easiest way to share videos and photos from your phone in the App Store or from Google Play.

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