BitTorrent’s live video app is now available on iOS

Half a year after its initial release back in May, BitTorrent Live is finally making its way to iOS. BitTorrent Live is already available on the Fire TV, Apple TV, and macOS, and is now coming to its first mobile platform after a delay following plans to launch on iOS in June.

And while the service still offers a somewhat lackluster offering of 16 channels — the highlights of which include NASA, One World Sports, and France 24 — it’s the technology behind BitTorrent Live that makes it significant. Like the infamous file sharing method, BitTorrent Live relies on peer-to-peer technology. But instead of allowing for faster downloads of files by using every user as a simultaneous uploader, BitTorrent Live casts viewers as a broadcaster, allowing for a more distributed method of streaming video that the company claims offers lower latency and more scalable streaming that traditional methods.

Of course, not even the most revolutionary streaming technology will help if there’s nothing good to actually watch. Here’s hoping the increased viewership that the iOS audience can offer to BitTorrent Live can help the service attach some bigger names in content.

The BitTorrent Live iOS application is available now on the App Store.

Update December 28th, 8:20AM ET: BitTorrent confirmed to us that it’s using peer-to-peer streaming for live video, however it’s said to be a different technology than what’s used for traditional BitTorrent downloads. “We run a single source peer to start the swarm,” BitTorrent media VP Erik Schwartz writes in an email to The Verge. “All additional viewers are self sustaining.”