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Twitter will now let you broadcast live video directly from its main app, which means users no longer need to download a separate app in order to broadcast live on the service.
The live button uses the same technology as Periscope, the standalone broadcasting app Twitter bought in early 2015. You could already watch Periscope broadcasts live on Twitter, but you couldn’t create them or interact with them (e.g. comment on them). Now you can.
Even though Periscope is pretty much baked into Twitter, the company has no plans to get rid of the standalone app, according to Sara Haider, a senior manager of software engineering at Twitter.
“We’re definitely still invested in the Periscope app. It’s not going anywhere,” Haider said. “We have so many communities that have developed for Periscope; they live and breathe Periscope, and we’re going to continue to serve those communities.”
It’s worth noting that Twitter is handling Periscope differently from its other standalone video app, Vine.
In Vine’s case, the app was left on its own with very little integration into the Twitter app, which has a monthly user base of more than 300 million accounts. Eventually, Vine’s audience and creator base disappeared, and the app and its six-second video format died altogether.
Haider, on the other hand, is optimistic that bringing Periscope broadcasts into Twitter will increase the number of people who go live, as well as the total audience of people who watch the streams.
“Because Twitter is part of so many peoples’ daily lives, they’ll be reminded to go live more often,” Haider said.
The new live button will be available Wednesday as part of an app update for iOS and Android. Twitter will also use some in-feed promotions to alert folks of the change and will even pay some Periscope creators to advertise the new product to their audiences through Twitter’s advertising service, Niche.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
