Periscope
The standalone app
It made broadcasting from a phone feel immediate, then dissolved into the platform that bought it.
Quick facts
- Existence state
- Officially Gone
- Peak stage
- general availability
- Research confidence
- high
- Last verified
What it was
A standalone mobile live-streaming app acquired by Twitter before its public launch.
Periscope let anyone broadcast live video, receive comments and watch a map of streams around the world. It reached the public as a complete service and helped normalize vertical, real-time phone video before live features became standard inside larger social platforms.
Existence timeline
Periscope arrives on iOS after Twitter acquires the company.
Live Periscope video becomes increasingly embedded in Twitter.
Twitter says the standalone app is in an unsustainable maintenance state.
New broadcasts and standalone service access end.
Twitter buys the still-unlaunched livestreaming startup before its public debut.
Why it ended
Twitter removed the app from stores and shut it in March 2021, citing declining use and the cost of maintaining a separate product. Live broadcasting continued inside Twitter, but Periscope as an independent experience ended.
Last confirmed trace
Archived broadcasts where creators saved them, app captures, API documentation and the Periscope brand account remain; most transient streams do not.
What it left behind
Its mechanics migrated into mainstream social apps, making the product disappear partly because its central idea had become ordinary.
How we classified it
The archive unit reached normal public release or operation and is no longer available in its original public form.
The archive unit reached normal public availability, so Arrival Score V1 assigns 100.
Sources & verification
Last reviewed 2026-08-01. Sources are linked so readers can inspect the evidence directly.