Twitter Launches 360-Degree Live Videos Using Periscope

[Umair Malik]

Twitter is officially competing with Facebook in terms of features. It has just launched its own 360-degree videos using the Periscope platform. The option is currently only available to a select number of high-profile users, but it should trickle down soon after the testing phase is over.

The videos can be seen from your PC, through click-and-drag gesture from the mouse, or your phone by swiping the display or rotating your phone. The first ever 360-degree streaming on the platform was done by the user Alex Pettitt, who made a stream of the sunset in Florida.

The said videos appear with a LIVE 360 badge on your Twitter feed or Periscope app, and can be interacted with while they’re live. While only “select partners” can make these videos as of now, Twitter says you can join a waiting list in the meantime to be notified when the feature goes live.

Otherwise the experience is pretty much straight-forward and similar to what we have been seeing in Facebook for a while.

Users will need to shell out quite a bit, $199 to be precise, if they want to buy the Insta360 Nano, the only compatible accessory to support the feature. The accessory clips to the back of your phone and can shoot a 3K video per second with its two 210-degree cameras.

As live-streaming catches fire, it is a no-brainer that a network like Twitter feels the need to catch up with the trend. The network must keep releasing new features if it has to grow beyond and keeping up with Facebook is a good start.