Following
the
release
of the Android beta app on Google Play last week, Meerkat has updated
its iOS app with new features that most notably include the ability for
users to post live and upcoming streams onto their Facebook Pages.
Meerkat
found most of its early traction via Twitter, but with the
micro-blogging website having blocked the app's access to its social
graph when it was getting ready to launch Periscope, users found it
difficult to find and notify their friends. Now, Meerkat features
address book integration, linking phone contacts with users by matching
phone numbers.
Also new with the Meerkat update for iOS, which
brings the version up to 1.3, is the 'Mobbing' feature. If the stream
meets a certain criteria of popularity, or 'starts to mob', it will be
featured on the main Meerkat feed. The broadcaster and viewers will know
the stream is mobbing if 'a little meerkat flying around in a rocket
ship' starts floating around the screen.
The Meerkat for iOS
update also brings fixes for issues with streams not being published to
Twitter. The company's move to allow for Meerkat broadcasters to post
their live streams on Facebook certainly broadens the viewer-base, and
the company is more than happy to release a feature that Twitter's own
Periscope app will struggle to justify, or wish it hit the market first with.
The
company in its blog post notes that a
Twitter account is "now optional", and that the audience can sign in with
Facebook Connect to view Meerkat live streams. Also new is the emoji
reaction feature, which lets viewers comment with a single emoji that
will flash on top of their displayed face sporadically.
The
updated Meerkat v1.3 app for iOS is already
available
in the App Store, and the company is expected to release an updated
Android app with the same features in the coming weeks
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