Two weeks post opening registrations for the beta product, live video streaming app Meerkat has an Android version. Even though the app is technically categorized as a beta product it is now available for anyone to download through Google Play.
Meerkat permitted users live-stream from their mobile to all their Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) followers and made a big splash after its introduction at South by Southwest (SXSW) previously this year. However the formerly iOS only app was surpassed by Twitter itself in late March when it introduced its similar product known as Periscope on iOS.
Though Periscope has gone ahead of Meerkat, the fact that Meerkat is supported on Android significantly boosts its prospects and delivers on its $14 million funding.
Twitter is currently working on an Android version of Periscope. Soon both firms will be clashing on both Android and iOS platforms. The future will tell if Meerkat can leverage the Android market to compete with Periscope.
Meerkat is moving away from Twitter. The live-streaming service is connected to Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) by virtue of an update to the iOS app released this weekend. Now it is possible to publish Meerkat alerts directly to Facebook. Further fresh users can login to Meerkat without a Twitter account. The Facebook login can be used. The update also debuts address book scanning as well as matching, so you can immediately create a network of friends on the service by simply allowing the app to view your contacts.
The move is without doubt a reaction to Twitter’s move to cut Meerkat off from its social graph. In March at the pinnacle of Meerkat’s popularity Twitter made the decision to shut off access. By utilizing Twitter’s social graph, it was initially able to populate and link friends on Meerkat simply by viewing your connections on Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR). A couple of weeks later, Twitter introduced its live streaming competitor, Periscope whose popularity has left Meerkat behind.
