The social live streaming battle heated up Thursday as Twitter released Periscope, a live streaming app that seems to be a clear answer to rising star Meerkat.
Before launch, Periscope gave celebrities early access: Sophia Bush, Mark Cuban, Al Roker, Mario Battali and iJustine all used a beta of the app and are already listed as favorites on the app’s Most Loved leaderboard. And Kevin Jonas launched his public Periscope by eating breakfast in front of the world.
The app, which Twitter acquired in January for a reported $100 million, has similar functionality to Meerkat—live-streaming what you’re doing and seamlessly live streaming it on Twitter—but offers one main difference: playback.