According to reports, the nascent live video streaming app from the creators of Musical.ly is worrying the competition. We’ve got everything you need to know about Live.ly below.

What is Live.ly?

Live.ly is one of a growing number of live video streaming apps. It’s been available on iOS devices for a few months, but has only just come to Android.

Like competitors such as Periscope, Facebook Live (and the recently defunct Meerkat) Live.ly lets you broadcast live video to friends and fans, and engage in real-time interactions.   

Quick out of the blocks

Given the amount of competition in the live streaming space, and without a unique spin on the technology, you might be wondering: What’s the big deal?

In a word: uptake.

Live.ly currently boasts around 4.6 million active iOS users in the US alone. Of all the apps released on iOS and Android in the past six months, only Pokemon Go has attracted more. With the release of the Android version, that tally is expected to grow significantly.

More than lip service

There’s a simple reason behind Live.ly’s lightning rise up the app charts. Many of Live.ly’s early adopters are coming from parent app Musical.ly’s user base of 100 million+.

Musical.ly is an app that lets you create ‘instant music videos’ by recording yourself lip-syncing to a favourite tune. That might sound like quite a small niche, but it’s proved enormously popular, especially with teen girls. And those teen girls are rushing to get on board with Live.ly.  

Live.ly to down Periscope?

Despite it’s new-kid-on-the-block status, Live.ly has reportedly already attracted more iOS users than Twitter’s far more established competitor, Periscope. With the Android release, it could be poised to become the biggest standalone live streaming app of all.

Of course, nothing is guaranteed. Facebook Live will be tough to overcome (1.7 billion active monthly users makes gives you a tad of an advantage), and the once-much-touted Meerkat has already gone the way of the dodo.

For Live.ly to achieve real longevity, it’ll likely have to branch out beyond its teen girl market. Only time will tell if it can.