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Periscope are taking some cues from their owners - Twitter - and
starting to make their approach more TV-like. The mobile version of the
live-streaming app has had curated channels for quite a while, but the
desktop version requires a lot more human intervention to find the right
feed.
Sorry, that should be required, as the curated channels have now made the leap from mobile to desktop.
This is yet another example of the recent trend of more advanced
services on mobile, which while understandable given modern trends,
still seems very backwards to people like me who used to be amazed that
you could play Snake on a mobile phone.
If you jump on Periscope.tv now, you'll find yourself faced with a brand new home page with
channels curated by the in-house team, and channels curated using
popular hashtags. You can scroll between them both at the same time
until you find a feed that tickles your fancy. As you'd expect, clicking
on a channel will take you to a feed of all the relevant streams.
It's all very fluid, and easy to understand, even if the multiple videos
can sometimes be a bit visually overwhelming. The featured ones tend to
be specific to something that's going on in the world right now,
whereas the hashtag ones are based around themes like food, music and
discussion. Beyond this, you also get sections like 'Walk on the Wild
Side', 'Master Casters' and 'Discover Your Next Favourite Musician'.
You can also view the channels in a list, making it a little bit easier
to find something if you already know what you're looking for. Of
course, there's always the search function if neither of these options
are getting you where you want to be. There's no reason why Periscope
shouldn't be as intuitive on desktop as it is on mobile, and in fact if
you're following news, this might be even better.
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