Up Periscope! Twitter's live-streaming app is exciting us, but here's how it could be better

Periscope is so hot right now. The Twitter-owned live video streaming app that lets viewers comment on what they’re seeing and the Scopers (is that a word yet?) respond in real time may only be 10 days old but it’s already causing ripples as it rises above the competition. And that’s despite it still lacking some basic functionality that would make it much better - presumably due to it being pushed out early to block the growth of rival Meerkat, which it has very succesfully.

Currently a sea of: a) people looking a bit confused as they test it for the first time; b) people filming out of car windows as they drive around; c) people walking around cities; d) people doing “ask me any thing”s, and; e) people showing the contents of their fridge (yes, this is already a meme), it’s not yet clear what the USP of Periscope will be.

It may be tempting to think it will only be useful for big events – whatever each of us consider ‘newsworthy’, or will only appeal to people narcissistic enough that they feel they are worthy to broadcast to an audience. That may partially be true, but it is such early days for Periscope that the most significant uses haven’t been invented yet. There will be events that come to define it, events that might end it, careers born of it – it has only just begun.

And just as celebrities think they have the demands of selfies nailed, they will have to start planning their red carpet Periscope strategy too. Poor, poor celebrities.

But for now … we think there are some very basic improvements that would make Periscope much better for users. Dear Twitter – here’s our features wishlist:

Discovery is too hard

Browsing is very hard, as at the moment there is only a reverse chronological feed. There needs to be filters for language – a live stream of someone speaking in a language you don’t understand turns out only to be interesting for so long – and for location. It would be nice to know what’s happening nearby right now, and perhaps clusters organised by interest too – so users can browse by sport, music or personalities, for example.

So is finding something you are looking for

There’s also no search function, so you’re limited to stumbling across an interesting sounding feed, rather than being able to search for “Apple Watch unboxing” or whatever. Maybe hashtags could help with organisation here too.

Notifications need some work

Right now, notifications seem to be for anyone who’s broadcasting (or maybe we just imported too many Twitter followers?), but we probably don’t really need to know that Oguzhan or whoever is broadcasting about a shopping mall at 3am. We could turn notifications off, but there’s no other way to find out if genuine contacts or colleagues of interest are broadcasting. As it’s much more about here and now, rather than the it-doesn’t-matter-what-you’ve-missed ambient flow of Twitter, that is quite pertinent.

As does how to manage who you interact with

A swipe right on each broadcaster in the “Watch” feed, to block, follow, add to a list or favourite individually, could be a good mechanism. Verified ticks would also help identify higher profile broadcasters. And fast switching between accounts would help, especially if Twitter wants to encourage news organisations to get involved.

Typing comments on a mobile is too slow

There’s dissonance between what’s happening or being said, and the time it takes for responsive comments to appear, so it can end up with comments being out of sync. Free text commenting needs to stay, obviously, but pre-written comments of approval or disagreement would help too. Switch them off if you don’t want to use them. Or maybe a wider range of one-touch emoticons would help; love hearts only go so far …

And it’d be great to be able to interact outside the app

Obviously being restricted to iOS so far is not great, so we hope the Android app is imminent. But a desktop app would also help – perhaps one limited to commenting rather than broadcasting so that things don’t get a bit too Chatroulette-y, God forbid. It’s hard to type fast on mobile, so that would help bridge that problem.

Comments covering the screen can be tricky ... but they kind of work

The overlay of comments and the love heart feed on the broadcast image mean the space given to the face of the broadcaster (or whatever else you’re watching) is maximised, and that’s good. Boxing them off would have lost that, and it’s the softness of the design here that is particularly good. The fading comments and hearts somehow emphasise the real time, the ephemerality of the feed, and it’s rather captivating.

Not using both cameras is missing a trick

Periscope should take a leaf out of Facetime’s book and include a thumbnail view of what viewers are actually seeing. We found during a test that we had to use another phone to see what the output actually looked like, but that won’t be possible for most people. It’d also be cool to see both the Periscoping and the Periscoper at the same time.

And finally, TTC?

It’s only a very short matter of time before some prankster tries to broadcast some intimate part of their anatomy. Perhaps it’s because login is verified through Twitter, which has become increasingly strict about adult content (although arguably not strict enough) but it’s surprising there isn’t very obvious live streaming of, well, periscopes being Periscoped. Maybe they have an ultra-vigilance content policing policy. At the moment it seems to be working, let’s hope it stays that way. What happens with graphic and disturbing images will need close attention too.