1. Twitter launches Periscope

Live video streaming is definitely a hot topic after Meerkat hit the app store in early March. This week Twitter’s own broadcasting app, Periscope, has finally been released. Periscope has been in development for over a year, and offers a beautiful user experience for those looking to share, watch, and interact with live video. What sets Periscope apart is the ability to save streams to view later, which lessens the stressful “you can only view it once” aspect of Meerkat. Periscope is poised to change the way users interact with Twitter, and although it needs traditional web URLs for now, the direct integration of deep links into Periscope feeds will absolutely change the type of content expected on the service.

2. Facebook Messenger platform

At its annual F8 conference this week, Facebook expanded its Messenger product into a platform that accommodates third-party app extensions for emoji, images, and more. Facebook is investing heavily in Messenger as the communications platform for mobile users, and is following in the footsteps of massively popular messaging platforms like WeChat and LINE in Asia. It remains to be seen how Messenger integrates with Facebook’s $19 billion dollar WhatsApp acquisition, but Messenger Platform lays the groundwork for the next chapter of Facebook’s app presence.

3. Apple Watch apps begin to trickle into the App Store

Weeks ahead of its global launch, Apple Watch apps have begun appearing in the App Store. Updates to Twitter, Evernote, and others include WatchKit extensions to make use of Apple’s upcoming wearable. When the Apple Watch debuts in April, a new Apple Watch app included in iOS 8.2 will help users download and manage their Apple Watch apps from their iPhone.

4. Xbox Fitness and Microsoft Health

Microsoft Health and Xbox Fitness are joining forces to expand the game console’s fitness app outside the console. With the update, Microsoft is allowing data from the app to be accessed by the cloud-based health integration platform Microsoft Health. The company’s wearable, Microsoft Band, also connects with the platform as Microsoft aims to expand its service to offer more digestible data to its users. If one thing’s for certain, it’s that Microsoft knows that in order to be successful in the connected health realm, it needs to deliver on users demand for cross-platform accessibility.

5. How mobile impacts Google search rankings

Later this month Google will be updating its search algorithm to reward those websites that are mobile-friendly. In addition to content relevance, Google will soon more heavily weigh mobile optimization as a factor in ranking websites in search results.