Your Periscope broadcasts can now live on forever

Live-streamed Internet broadcasts are the hottest thing in social media right now, and Periscope generated a lot of that heat when it launched in 2015. 

While Periscope broadcasts were previously only stored and viewable for 24 hours, the app is now testing out a new feature where users can choose to save videos indefinitely.

The new feature is currently in open beta, which means anyone can test it out right now, CEO Kayvon Beykpour announced in a broadcast (of course) on the service. By putting "#save" in the broadcast title, the recorded clip live on for as long as you choose. Of course, previously, there was a workaround and you could store the videos offline.

During the announcement, Beykpour said the "#save" designation in broadcast titles will go away once the feature leaves beta and becomes an official part of the app. For the time being, "#save" can't have any prefixes or suffixes attached to it in the description.

Naturally, this isn't great news for third-party app Katch, which made a business out of allowing users to save Periscope broadcasts to be posted elsewhere.

This turn from temporary to optionally permanent falls in line with Periscope's efforts to build out the platform, including its workforce. Periscope recently hired veteran tech reporter/editor Evan Hansen to begin curating and highlighting content on the app and develop an editorial team. He left a similar position atMedium as head of content labs.

With growth into areas that lean toward editorial content and content curation, it makes sense that Periscope is testing out a #save feature. If a broadcast is particularly popular and could stand to live a long life and bring in a large number of viewers over time, why not facilitate longer lifespans for videos?

With this change, it seems like Periscope is following in the steps of Facebook Live, which has always allowed users to save videos indefinitely after the broadcast is over. But in April,Beykpour told Mashable his company doesn't focus on competition like that.

"If we spent our time worrying about competitors, we wouldn’t actually build anything of value to the world," Beykpour said.

If anything, it looks as if Periscope is taking a cue from Snapchat, which also moved from purely-temporary image and video sharing to longer-lasting features and editorial content curation with stories and Discover.