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Move over Periscope , there’s a new live-streaming app vying for our attention. Launching today, Mirrativ (a portmanteau of mirror and narrative) lets you broadcast whatever is happening on the screen of your smartphone or tablet. It combines untethered mobile broadcasting, screen sharing and social interactions into one single app. You can use Mirrativ in beta on Android starting today, with iOS following in the coming weeks.
Broadcasting your screen while playing a game has become incredibly popular thanks to Twitch, a startup that lets you live stream gameplay from a console (like the Xbox or PlayStation) or computer.
Google’s also getting in on the action with YouTube Gaming, an Android app and community it launched on August 26 for watching live video. But neither Twitch or YouTube Gaming currently give you the option to broadcast directly from your mobile without connecting to a PC.
Enlarge ImageScreenshots by Sarah Mitroff/CNET
Mirrativ opens the door to streaming mobile games without being tethered to a computer. And as mobile games get more popular, with big titles like Hearthstone and Minecraft, there’s more of a desire to stream and for fans to watch.
The app can do more than stream games — it can share anything that’s on your screen, including apps or the menus of your phone or tablet. This lets you show off unique tricks with your phone, or the features of a particular app. For instance, if you’ve mastered a cool technique for editing photos in Instagram and your friends want to know your secret, you can share it with them using live video.
Mirrativ also takes a cue from the two popular live-streaming apps that launched this year, Meerkat and Twitter-owned Periscope. Those app broadcast video captured with the camera on your phone or tablet.
Just as with Periscope, Meerkat and Twitch, on Mirrativ the people watching your stream can interact with you in real time by submitting comments and asking questions. Viewers can also like the stream, which you’ll see as stars on your screen. Mirrativ has the added bonus of using your front-facing camera to stream your face along with what’s on the screen.
Because Mirrativ opens up new doors to mobile streaming, there’s a potential for abuse. You could potentially use the app to broadcast videos from Netflix or music from Spotify, which would violate copyright protections. Mirrativ says its team will investigate all claims of copyright infringement to mitigate this issue. The company will also monitor streams for inappropriate content and remove it when needed.
Mirrativ is available now on Android in beta. However, during the beta period, you’ll only be able to try it out during testing periods, which the company will notify you of in the app. In the next month, the app will fully go online with all the features enabled.
