Periscope will soon show you trailers of broadcasts

Twitter has introduced several tools designed to enhance its Periscope product and give users a better viewing experience, within the live video app and beyond. Among these features is Highlight, which automatically generates a “short trailer” that you can watch within the Periscope app. Live videos can now be played within embedded tweets and will autoplay within the company’s Android app (iOS is coming).

Above: GIF showing Periscope’s Replay Highlights feature.

Image Credit: Twitter

Hundreds of millions of broadcasts have been made on Periscope, and to help you find those that are interesting to you, Twitter needs to ensure that you have the right information. Currently, you’re limited to location, the title of the video (assuming it’s descriptive enough), and the creator. But how will you know if that broadcast is really from your Pokémon Go meetup or is just something generally related to Pokémon?

Highlights is designed to solve this problem by giving you a quick summary of what was broadcast. The tool will automatically produce a clip between 3 and 20 seconds in length, recapping what was recorded. The duration of these trailers is set by the system, not by the user. Within Periscope, you’ll be able to watch each Highlight from the Watch tab. They’ll also be displayed in search results and on your profile.

To determine what goes into a Highlight, Twitter relies on a variety of signals, though the company declined to provide specifics. However, it would probably be safe to say that the signals include the number of likes that are received, timestamps, comments; and any influx of viewers. Replay Highlights are going to be available on Periscope’s iOS and Android apps “in the next few days.”

Earlier this year, Twitter added in-tweet support for Periscope broadcasts, and today, this capability is rolling out in more ways. Within embedded tweets, you can now quickly play livestreamed videos without being prompted to open the app. Until now, if you saw a broadcast in one of these tweets, it displayed a paused screen on the web before directing you to Periscope — now it will be more seamless, leading to a more engaging experience for readers and viewers.

And lastly, Periscope videos on Android devices will automatically play without sound. This affects live videos within the app’s Watch tab and global feed. It only affects the videos in the app, but Periscope videos already automatically play within tweets. While Android is being updated now, iOS will be made available soon.

As the battle between livestreaming services continues to rage on, Twitter is making enhancements to its service so broadcasters and viewers will find it easier to share their experiences with others.