Periscope
- Cause of death
- Killed by cost
- Made by
Twitter said the standalone app had been in an unsustainable maintenance-mode state for years, with declining usage and support costs that would only keep rising.
Periscope arrived as Twitter's answer to Meerkat and helped bury it within a year. Twitter had bought the app before it was even public, then spent 2016 folding its best features into the main Twitter client, which left the standalone version as a chore nobody wanted to own. Twitter's own farewell called it 'an unsustainable maintenance-mode state' with declining usage, and the app went dark six years and five days after it launched.
Replaced by Twitter Live.
Standing in the archive
Rank 96 of 127 by lifespan. Periscope outlasted 25% of everything else on file.
Cite this entry
"Periscope." How Long It Lasted, https://www.howlongitlasted.com/thing/periscope.
Died nearby
- Vine3y 11m · killed by cost
- AstroWorld37y 4m · killed by cost
- Braniff International Airwaysabout 54 years · killed by cost
- Choco Tacoabout 39 years · killed by cost
- Circuit Cityabout 60 years · killed by cost
Sources
- Twitter will discontinue its standalone Periscope apps in March — Engadget
- Periscope App Officially Shutting Down After Today — MacRumors
- Periscope, Twitter's answer to Meerkat-style live streaming, is now available — The Verge
Last checked by a human on 24 July 2026