Round 3 of the epic battle of the live-streaming apps. After Twitter cut off Meerkat and launched its own Periscope, Meerkat was due to fight back. They starting doing so last week by being the first to launch on Android. Today, Meerkat is looking towards developers to differentiate itself some more.
Also Read: Meerkat Beats Periscope To Android With New App Launch
Building for Meerkat is not something entirely new for developers. Since its launch 9 weeks ago, 37 developers have already built companion experiences for Meerkat. But up to now, apps like stream discovery, automatic uploads of streams to YouTube, or meerkat audience analytics tools were all built using an unofficial, private API.
But today, Meerkat is launching an official developer platform and set of APIs. As a platform, Meerkat can now look forward to build new tools and experiences that the small Meerkat team could not even dream of building themselves. No doubt this is a strategic move to propulse Meerkat up, maybe on top of Periscope again?
If you like our stories, there is an easy way to stay updated:
Follow @wersm
The Meerkat API allows developers to pull arrays of all current or scheduled streams, as well as information like comments, viewers, and more. However, Meerkat is not yet allowing for a stream to be posted from outside the app, likely because of the security reasons behind letting developers do so.
Meerkat founder, Rubin, explained the reason behind this to TechCrunch:
[quote]We believe that whatever we release now is a promise forever. Step by step, Meerkat may cautiously offer more API functionality, but the last thing we want is to have to take a step back.[/quote]
[wysija_form id=”5″]
More from Other Platforms
YouTube’s ‘AR Beauty Try-On’ Feature Lets You Virtually Try On Makeup
Last week Google introduced a new 'AR Beauty Try-On' feature that lets viewers virtually try on makeup while following along …
Snapchat Launches ‘Stranger Things’ Lens In Collaboration With The Chicago Cubs
The Chicago Cubs teamed up with Snapchat to create a 'Landmarker' lens promoting the new season of Netflix's new season …
Instagram Is Working On A ‘Stop Motion’ Camera Mode For Stories
According to reports, Instagram is working on a new Stories camera mode that allows you to create stop-motion videos easily …
