Twitter launched a version of its service on Apple TV and other media player platforms last fall in order to deliver its live video content to the big screen. Today, the company is updating its Apple TV app with a couple of new features, including support for Periscope’s Global Map and the ability to watch live 360 degree videos.
The company notes that, with this launch, Twitter is the first Apple TV app to support live 360 degree video.
To try out the new feature, Apple TV owners will use the Siri remote to move around the video to view its content from different angles, offering a more immersive look into the scene.
To date, Twitter’s TV applications – which are also now available on Fire TV, Xbox One and, most recently, Roku – have been designed to feature Twitter’s live video content, much of it coming from the company’s numerous content deals. For example, Twitter earlier this month announced a series of new live shows, including those from the WNBA, BuzzFeed, Viacom, Live Nation, and others. With the additions, Twitter met its goal of being able to offer users live video 24 hours a day.
However, live video content on Twitter doesn’t just come from Twitter’s premium partnerships – there’s also user-generated video to explore, streamed through its Periscope app or directly from users’ tweets. The company says that during the first quarter of 2017, there were 77 million hours of live user-generated video broadcast on Twitter.
To stream live in 360 degrees, Periscope users can take advantage of tools like Periscope Producer, which works with the Ricoh Theta S or the Orah 4i; or they can use attachable smartphone cameras like the Insta360 Nano for iOS devices, or the Insta360 Air.
Apple TV users can also now explore the added Periscope map to find other user-generated content from around the world, including both 360 degree live videos and otherwise.
These new features are rolling out now to Apple TV devices through the Twitter app update.
However, the updated Apple TV app isn’t the only upgrade arriving today. Some users are seeing a new option to connect their Twitter app with Apple TV via the app’s Settings. Enabling this allows you see your Twitter account on the Apple TV.
Asked for more information about this feature, Twitter declined to comment.