Periscope was born in February of 2014, and before launching a product, it attracted the attention of a number of investors. Then Twitter bought it for something resembling $100 million. The deal closed early this year, and now the two are ready to introduce Periscope to the public.
Unfortunately, the Android version will have to wait. This is an iOS-only launch.
So what is Periscope? It's like Twitter, but with video. Instead of sending out a message to your followers the moment something happens, you fire up a live video stream and invite them to come watch instead.
Periscope is hardly the first app to push video streaming—even live broadcasting—but with the current state of smartphone cameras, better data connections, and Twitter's cash, Periscope might just stand a chance of catching on. We'll have more to say once a version of the app makes it into Google Play.