Gaming may be the most popular area for the live streaming at the moment, but apps like Meerkat and Periscope are helping to turn it into a new form of video sharing by allowing anyone with a smartphone to start live streaming whatever they want, whenever they want. In order to help streamers engage their viewers more and better categorize their streams, Meerkat has released a pretty big update for its app that allows streamers to poll their viewers and create hashtags.
Today we’re introducing a new community based approach for stream discovery. Include a hashtag in the title of your stream and you’ll be added to the user generated feed of hashtags at the top of the app! Those that are underlined include both scheduled streams as well as live streams. This new approach to stream discovery is the quickest way to meet people around shared interests as they happen. As you know, the Meerkat community is diverse, and streamers go live to talk about a broad range of topics. Now you can find them with just one tap. Look for streams from popular events (#VMAs, #BurningMan), and browse through some of the consistent categories all year round (#comedy, #DIY). For instance, if you love to stream your workouts… add #fitness to the title! New stream will be added to existing categories, or we’ll just create a new one as soon as you press the Stream button.
