Periscope makes it easier to view live streams from people you know

Thanks to Periscope's early fame, one of the major downsides to the live streaming app is that the first thing you saw when you launched it was a slew of streams from strangers all over the world -- strangers that you probably don't care that much about. It was difficult to sort through the mess to find broadcasts from the people you do want to follow. With today's Periscope update, however, that changes. Now when you launch the app, you'll see live and recorded broadcasts from people who are in your social graph (ie. the folks you follow) in a Friends list, while the rest of Periscope's global stream is now in a separate Global tab.

On the broadcasting end, it's also far easier now to control the quality of the comments. For one thing, you can now set it so that only the folks you follow can chat, which is useful if you'd rather not have a flood of strangers saying all kinds of nasty things to you. But even if you do allow it, it's also now easier to block annoying folks -- a single tap on an offending comment will offer an option to add the person to your blocked list. Other updates have been added too, like better scrolling and the appearance of a verified badge for verified users. Of course, all of these improvements doesn't necessarily mean we'll get better quality Periscopes, but it'll at least make it a lot easier (and less intimidating) for new users to try this whole live streaming thing out.