The White House created a Periscope account on Tuesday, just in time for Pope Francis’ trip to the United States.
The White House live broadcast Pope Francis stepping off his plane and greeting the Obama family. More than 11,000 viewers tuned into the White House’s inaugural stream.
Twitter, which owns Periscope, is hoping to capitalize on coverage of his visit. The company announced three different emoji that can be used to track the pope’s movements in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and New York.
The Periscope account is the latest example that the White House wants to reach out to the #coolkids. Obama has embraced social media since his 2008 run, but recently has ramped up his use. The president started his own Twitter account, released his Spotify playlists, signed posts from the White House Instagram account and wrote several posts on Medium.