How to navigate the Periscope app

What is Periscope's Watch Tab?

The Watch Tab is where you can watch live broadcasts and replays from people you follow, recently featured broadcasts, and broadcasts shared with you. Click the TV icon to get started. 

Broadcasts shared by your followers will appear in the feed with an indicator above the broadcast title explaining who shared it with you. On iOS and Android, live broadcasts will autoplay in the Watch Tab and Global Feed (to view this, tap the globe icon) without sound.

The Global Feed is where recent live broadcasts and replays are surfaced from across Periscope. You can select either the list or map view and sort your feed to include the most suggested, recent, or popular broadcasts using the icon in the upper right corner of the screen. If you select the list view, you’ll see several curated channels. You have the option to hide any of these channels from your feed by tapping the more icon and selecting the hide option. To unhide channels, you can go to Settings > Channel Preferences > Hidden Channels and tap the channels you’d like to unhide.

What is the map?

Curious about what people are broadcasting around the world? The map, accessible when you click on the globe icon, allows you to access live and replay broadcasts from around the world.

When you zoom to a new place on the map, Periscope will load live and replay broadcasts from that region. Red dots represent live broadcasts, while blue dots represent replays. A broadcast will only show up on the map if the broadcaster is sharing their location.

What is the Activity Tab?

The Activity Tab allows you to see several types of notifications in one place instead of receiving push notifications. On iOS, the activity tab is the bell icon located between the Broadcast Tab and the People Tab. On Android, it can be found between the Global Tab and People Tab. Once you tap into it, you will see your activity feed.

Types of notifications

Your activity feed will include three types of notifications:

New follows

Tapping into new follow notifications will pull up a list of your new followers. You can follow back by selecting the follow icon next to someone’s display name.

Follows that happen while viewers are watching your replays

These follows are distinct from the follows reflected under new follow notifications. Tapping on these notifications will pull up a detail view with a tappable replay cell and a list of your new followers. As with new follow notifications, you can follow back by selecting the follow icon next to someone’s display name.

New replay watches

New replay watch notifications show you who has watched your replay and whether or not they follow you. If you’d like, you can follow them by tapping the follow icon next to their display name. 

Interacting with the activity tab

One notification can reflect multiple events if they happen around the same time. For example, if you have 10 people watch your replay within a close time span, these viewers will be combined into one notification.

Unread notifications will be denoted with a blue background –– this will only go away once you read the notification and navigate outside of the activity tab. Once a notification is read, it will remain the same and you’ll receive new notifications for future events.

What are Superfans?

Superfans are your most engaged followers. Each broadcast can have up to 10 Superfans, and you can become a Superfan to anyone by being one of the top 10 people in the community who engage with their broadcasts. From your profile, select Superfans to view your Superfans and the people you are a Superfan to.

A Superfan's profile is marked with a flame icon and a numerical score. This score is calculated by an algorithm that's informed by several engagement actions. Since a Superfan score is based on engagement with a specific person's broadcasts, scores will differ for every broadcaster-to-viewer relationship. You can see anyone's Superfans by going to their profile and tapping on Followers. You will see Superfans listed as the top 10 followers.

You have the option to turn Superfans off, which removes the Superfan list from your profile, and you from other’s profiles as a Superfan. To turn Superfans off, you can go to Settings > Privacy and turn off Enable Superfans. 

What accessibility features are supported on Periscope?

We're always working hard to make Periscope easier to use for everyone, and we support accessibility settings on Periscope for Android and iOS.

Periscope for Android is fully accessible with a variety of features you can enable, including TalkBack, Switch Access, BrailleBack and Voice Access. If you’re on Periscope for iOS, you can enable larger comments and VoiceOver. Below, you’ll find more on how each of these features work within Periscope:

TalkBack

Enabling TalkBack in your Android accessibility settings allows for several actions within Periscope, including:

• Tapping on any item in the app to hear a spoken description that provides more context on that item.
• Focusing on an item by single tapping, and double tapping to execute an action related to that item.
• Using larger buttons on the screen to access features easily while broadcasting or viewing broadcasts.

BrailleBack

Periscope for Android is compatible with any attachable Braille keyboard and your Android device. BrailleBack can be used with TalkBack to edit broadcast titles, searches, and comments using your Braille keyboard.

Voice Access and VoiceOver

Using Voice Access, you can create and view broadcasts using only voice commands in Periscope for Android. For example, you can say Open Periscope, Go live, Type <Broadcast Title>, and Start Broadcast to go live without tapping a button. Voice Access can be helpful for people with limited mobility, visual impairment, or anyone who is not in a position to hold a device.

Additionally, our iOS app supports VoiceOver which enables spoken descriptions when you tap on any item in the app. You can turn this on in your iOS device settings under accessibility.

Switch Access

Switch Access is also a great option for people with limited motor abilities to interact with Periscope using a pair of switches instead of the touchscreen.

Larger Comments

On Periscope for iOS, you can enable Larger comments in your settings under Preferences, which makes comment text size larger and easier to read.

What languages is Periscope available in?

Periscope is now available in 33 languages on iOS, 32 languages on Android and over 38 languages if you’re viewing from the web.

To view Periscope in your desired language, follow these instructions:

• On iOS: Make sure your language is set up by going to Settings > Language & Region > iPhone or iPad language, then open the app and go to the People Tab > Profile > Settings > Preferred Languages.
• On Android: Go to Settings > Language and Keyboards > Choose your language.
• Via web: your browser needs to be set to your desired language.

The languages you select will influence which broadcasts appear in your Global Feed.