Meerkat ditches Twitter for Facebook

The much hyped but little used live video streaming service has added closer ties with the world's largest social network as part of a new iOS app update. As well as being able to post streams to Facebook, Meerkat users will now also be able to see if anyone they're friends with listed in their device's contacts book, is also using the app.Meerkat launched to huge publicity from tech journalists and initially used Twitter as a means of sharing streams. However, since launching a competing service, Periscope, Twitter has limited Meerkat's access to its platform.And despite huge fanfares, neither app appears to be getting real-world consumers particularly excited. According to 7Park, as of April, Meerkat had a 0.1% reach in terms of all US iOS device users while Periscope boasted a 0.5% reach. For some perspective, Vine, which is well established by comparison, currently reaches 5.4% of American iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch users and its owner, Twitter, 19%.Meerkat has also introduced a new feature called 'mobbing'. According to Mashable, streams which are popular and will meet a certain set of criteria which will be pulled into the main activity feed. In other features, live streams can also be viewed from Facebook, sans Twitter account. Facebook users who engage Pages on the social networking site will now be able to connect their Meerkat accounts with Facebook Pages, which will let users view links within their profile. Though, the app will not support Facebook Login for new users.With inputs from AFP