New Twitter feature allows users to broadcast live video from within tweet

A live video creation feature has been introduced which uses the site’s existing live video app Periscope, and is the first time Twitter users have been enabled to broadcast directly from a tweet they post.

Until now a link to the Periscope platform was used in tweets to access live streams.

The introduction of the feature directly into the Twitter platform follows rival social network Facebook, which launched Facebook Live earlier this year and is also rolling out a similar feature to Instagram, the photo-sharing app which is part of Facebook’s “family” of companies.

Periscope chief executive Kayvon Beykpour said: “We started Periscope because we wanted to give people the superpower to share live video with an audience.

“Bringing this capability directly into the Twitter app is an important step because it brings that superpower to the hundreds of millions of people who use Twitter.

“Twitter’s already the place where people go to see what’s happening. With this update, anyone can now broadcast what’s happening live.”

Those watching broadcasts will be able to interact by commenting and sending hearts to show they like the broadcast, while tweets that contain broadcasts can still be retweeted and liked, Twitter said.

Twitter boss Jack Dorsey has previously said the site must do more to attract new users, and has identified video and coverage of live events as a key part of the site’s strategy in the future.