In our Apps of the Year series, The Next Web team shares personal recommendations for our favorite apps of 2015.
No app new app has had as much of an impact on social media in 2015 like Periscope, the Twitter-owned livestreaming app that’s popularized personal livestreams with the masses.
Though it arrived on the heels of Meerkat, a great platform in and of itself, Periscope’s direct tie-ins to Twitter (which bought the company before it even launched) allowed it to quickly be adopted by celebrities and change the way both public figures and Average Joes interact with each other on the Web.
It meant thousands of people already on Twitter could livestream on a public forum with nothing more than a smartphone; that audiences could be more connected with the news, celebrities and current events. Suddenly people were live streaming everything from Donald Trump’s rants to tragic explosions, the latter on the very first day the app launched.
It also forced other big players to rethink their video strategies, with YouTube amping up its livestreaming features and Facebook preparing to bring live video to its 1.5 billion users.
Meanwhile Periscope hasn’t been resting on its laurels, adding features like landscape videos, a ‘Couch Mode,’ additional replay controls, an Apple TV app and much more in the months since its launch. All signs point the the app will only get better in 2016.
We’re not alone in thinking Periscope deserves a spot atop the best new releases in 2015 either; Apple just named Periscope as an app of the year too.
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