Meerkat announces public beta for upcoming Android app
Chance Miller / 9to5Google :
Context & Ripple Effects
Meerkat's iOS app for streaming live video to Twitter followers went viral in March 2015 on the back of Twitter's own graph, but the audience was locked to one operating system. The public beta announced here is the first step toward closing that gap, and the related coverage shows it worked: by early May Meerkat had shipped an Android beta carrying most iOS functionality, landing on the platform before Twitter's rival Periscope did.
The move also sets up the strategic fork the corpus documents next: with Periscope backed by Twitter itself, Meerkat doubled down on an open developer platform to differentiate from Periscope rather than compete head-on — and within a year had pivoted to the group video chat app Houseparty.
First-order effects
- Meerkat's addressable audience expands from iPhone-only to Android users as well, letting existing streamers broadcast to followers regardless of device during the beta window.
- Twitter-owned Periscope loses its chance to claim the Android live-streaming space uncontested, since Meerkat's beta puts it on the platform first.
Second-order effects
- Periscope is pushed into its own Android rollout and deeper Twitter integration to defend distribution, while Meerkat responds by opening a developer platform to make its product more than a Periscope clone.
- Cross-platform parity becomes the competitive baseline for consumer live-video apps, pressuring every player in the category to fund simultaneous iOS and Android development rather than staging launches.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, viral single-platform apps treat rapid second-platform expansion as table stakes, while differentiation shifts to developer ecosystems — yet Meerkat's eventual Houseparty pivot suggests the open live-streaming-to-Twitter model itself proved fragile, pushing the category toward private group video instead.
The trend: Consumer live-video apps in 2015 are racing to be on both major mobile platforms at once, with platform ownership (Twitter backing Periscope) forcing independents like Meerkat to differentiate through openness before ultimately pivoting.