The Canadian band Walk Off The Earth does a live broadcast via the app Meerkat on Tuesday, March 24. Credit: Meerkat
Cute name. Adorable illustrated mascot. And lots of online buzz. Meerkat, a new iPhone app that just debuted in late February, has got all of these things, plus a lot of new users after a successful push at this year's South by Southwest Interactive. But what is Meerkat, exactly, and why are some early adopters so excited about it?
At its core, Meerkat is just an app for live video streaming using a mobile device. It's not a new idea; services including Ustream, Twitch and an app from a few years ago, Qik, got there first. But Meerkat does a few things cleverly, including piggybacking on a user's Twitter account to announce live video streams and using replies as a chat stream. Like Snapchat, it's also meant to be ephemeral; video streams can't be watched after they conclude and are not saved online. A Meerkat user can download the raw video to their phone after a broadcast, but it's not HD-quality video and, in my experience, the footage is typically incomplete and stored out of sequence.
The reason for Meerkat’s quick success may be its simplicity. It takes only seconds to create or view a video stream. Last week, we used Meerkat to broadcast the recording of an episode of “Statesman Shots” and found the process to be quick and fun. Will Meerkat be a hit like Instagram by simplifying a way to share your world online? That remains to be seen.
But things just got a lot more interesting this week: Twitter's competitor Periscope is now available and appears to be getting adopted quickly by social media power users. (At least the ones on iOS devices; neither Meerkat nor Periscope is out for Android yet.)
In this space every week, we’ll define a tech term, offer a timely tip or answer questions about technology from readers. Email ogallaga@statesman.com.
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