BitTorrent Live video streaming app for smartphones launches in 2014
BitTorrent to offer a peer-to-peer video streaming service for mobile devices
BitTorrent is coming to your mobile phone and you will be able to stream live video content using a specially designed mobile BitTorrent Live app, the company has announced. The service is already available for desktop computers giving users the possibility to broadcast and watch video content for free. Similar to the torrent services, BitTorrent Live is not using servers to store video files but instead it is peer-to-peer. A person who broadcasts video sends it to users who in turn share it with even more people.
BitTorrent Live mobile is in the works and the service will be available for mobile phones later in 2014, a person familiar with the matter has explained. Anyway, at present we don’t know on which platform BitTorrent Live is arriving first and how actually the app will work – whether users will be able to broadcast, watch or both.
Even though the video streaming service for computers started in 2013 and the company says it has already matured enough, it is still in a public beta. Similar, the mobile app will initially launch is an alpha – at unfinished state. One of the major issues for the service is reportedly connected with the developing protocol but not with the app itself. With the protocol relying on the distributed network, the service is highly dependent on the number of viewers and if they are not enough, videos start slowly or don’t start at all.
BitTorrent Live would lead to certain benefits for small and independent broadcasters as they would be able to stream video content for free. If you want to test the service now, go to the company’s website and watch some test video streams.
[Source: BitTorrent]
