What is Meerkat?

Meerkat is a popular topic these days, especially after Twitter’s acquisition of its rival app and limiting its access to the Twitter social graph. In this post, we will discuss Meerkat’s features, its experience with Twitter and what the future holds for them. So, let’s dig in right away.

So, what actually is Meerkat?

In simple words, Meerkat is a free app that lets its users start a live video stream right from their mobile devices, to anyone who follows them on Twitter.

The experience is unique because:

• The quality of the stream is excellent and you can stream for unlimited amount of time without any charges.
• Live video streams, popularly referred as “Meerkasts”, are almost real-time (there is a delay of about 30 seconds).
• Users can also schedule Meerkasts, so people know when to tune in.
• Casters can save their streams on their devices locally.
• If you missed a Meerkast, then you cannot re-run it. However, a promised future update will let people re-publish streams even after they are done.

Currently, Meerkat is only available for iOS devices, so you need to have an iOS device and the Meerkat app to stream live videos.

What’s with Twitter?

Meerkat started its journey with Twitter, as it asked users to use their Twitter’s profile to sign-up and login. The app then automatically starts following everyone you are following on Twitter. So, when a person on your “Following” list starts a video stream, you get a push-notification, alerting you.

Moreover, when you start streaming with Meerkat, the stream is automatically announced on Twitter via a tweet with a link to the stream on the MeerkatApp.co website. It’s also announced inside the app for users who are following you on Twitter. Replies to the tweet are displayed as comments, which appears on top of the live-streaming video.

In May, Twitter announced the acquisition of Perioscope, another app that offers public live streams, private streaming and replays of old broadcasts. This means that Twitter will now offer its users their own live video streaming service. With that, Twitter closed Meerkat’s access to its social graph and other features.

This means, Meerkat won’t be able to send any push-notifications and automatic following of a user’s “Following” list. Moreover, Meerkat won’t be able to suggest “new people to follow” to its users, as the app was using Twitter’s search feature to do that. Twitter’s move left them stranded with a need to build their own social graph.

“It’s a speed-bump,” says Meerkat’s co-founder Ben Rubin. “We never hoped to build our ‘Graph’ on Twitter. To start with Twitter was an interplay, as we always believed that we will have to grow beyond a social network.” This means that Meerkat will now have to build its own social network.

Future of Meerkat

One way to build a social graph quickly, is to switch immediately to phone numbers as an identity system. Meerkat could let users sign in with their phone number, upload their phone contacts, and then auto-follow their friends that way.

Even though real-time content does not seem to be a priority for Facebook due to its filtered (delayed) News Feed, it may still be eyeing live streaming services, thus making Meerkat a good acquisition option for Facebook.

Moreover, Facebook has recently announced its Messenger as a separate platform for developers. If Meerkat somehow develops a functionality that could be used with Messenger then it could help its effort to build its own social graph. For example, a feature that could send notifications via Messenger to all people in your Facebook’s friend list or to a set of people you want to notify about your scheduled Meerkast. Then, another feature could let them watch or send Meerkasts right from the Messenger app.

Wrap Up

Building functionality is easier than building a community, but Meerkat should not throw in the towel. It is a wonderful technology that offers a lot of versatility to the modern day live video streaming feature. It is fair to say that live streaming via mobile is here to stay. However, Meerkat will have to fight its way to stay relevant and attractive for users against tough rivals. Moreover, it will have to find another home to achieve all that, it may be the right time to start a new social network.