YouTube isn’t the only one to introduce a live-streaming app this week. Just days after YouTube Gaming was outed, Japan’s DeNA — a prolific producer of games itself — has entered the scene with its own take, called Mirrativ.
Initially Android only, the app allows users to live broadcast literally anything that is on their screen. With DeNA, gaming is the first thing that springs to mind — DeNA is the partner that Nintendo selected to develop its first mobile games — but the company said that Mirrativ supports all apps, which could give it other uses too.
The app takes away a lot of the complication when live-streaming — Twitch and others require cables and attachments to PCs to facilitate broadcast — but Mirrativ does that with just three clicks.
Broadcasters can opt to add their voice and face to their stream for personalization, but essentially the app will sit in the background and beam whatever they are doing on their phone — games, reading news stories, shopping — to their followers, which makes it far broader than any other screen broadcast app to date.
In gaming terms, Kamcord offers impressive live-streaming on Android, too, but it is limited to select (high-profile) gamers at this point. Mirrativ opens the field to anyone with an Android device.
Mirrativ borrows the familiar user interaction models that have been pioneered by to live-streaming services Periscope and Meerkat. Streams are shared with a user’s followers, and those watching can comment on what they see and add stars to show their appreciation. Right now, Mirrativ isn’t saving broadcasts though, so there’s no way to revisit streams once they are over.
DeNA told TechCrunch that an iOS version of the app will come “soon,” but that it will be limited to watching, and not broadcasting, streams. Like Kamcord, DeNA has likely run into problems around support for live-streaming on iOS. That could change when Apple introduces its first native replay feature for developers in the form of ReplayKit in iOS 9, though.
Mirrativ is available now in limited beta form ahead of a full launch next month. While you can download the app, the company is giving a sneak-peek of live stream demos each day — you’ll need to follow its Twitter account (@mirrativ) to get full details of each broadcast.