RIP Periscope, One Of The Internet's First Live-streaming Apps

Periscope, one of the first live-streaming apps, is being killed by Twitter in March of 2021.

Some personal news: the Periscope app will be going away next year. We’re here to say goodbye. 👋

We appreciate all the support, learnings, and broadcasts from our vibrant creator community. More on our difficult decision to discontinue the app: https://t.co/jZWjDlsRHk (1/2) pic.twitter.com/Kfgvocq31O

— Periscope (@PeriscopeCo) December 15, 2020

Twitter made the announcement Tuesday. Starting in March, no new accounts can be made on Periscope. According to both Twitter and Periscope, the decision is being made because Periscope is "in an unsustainable maintenance-mode state, and has been for a while." In essence, this means keeping Periscope operating is more trouble than it's worth.

Twitter acquired Periscope in 2015 before the app even launched, and played a major role in broadcasting some of the major events in the mid-2010s such as the Trump Tower Climber of 2016. However, it was quickly pushed out of the market by the live-streaming capabilities of other major social media websites such as Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter itself. In recent years, its become a hub for sex workers, conservatives and conspiracy theorists to livestream themselves.

It's rather surprising it took this long for Periscope to be shut down considering how its competitors made it irrelevant, but while Periscope will largely be forgotten, its undeniable the impact it made on social media in the years after its inception.