Depending who you ask, Foursquare could be in a great place as far as growth. Or in a bad place. We’ve heard about potential acquisitions, difficulty fundraising and everything in between. One thing we do know is that Foursquare needs your check ins to survive. After pushing consumer-facing features that allow you to dive deep into venue information, whether you check in or not, the metric is clearly still Foursquare’s bread and butter.
Today, the company has released an iOS update to speed up your check-in process. The app has turned into a hybrid of Yelp and history-tracker, but this update is focused more on the latter. Naturally, without knowing how many people visit a venue, the company can’t truly tell you how popular it is.
To date, Foursquare says it has “Over 3 billion check-ins, with millions more every day.”
Here’s what Foursquare had to say about this “lightning fast check in” update:
Now when you tap the check in button and see a list of places, just press and hold the place you’re at. You’ll see a green bar glide across the top of the screen and… voilà! We’ll check you in instantly. You can also long-press the blue button at the top of the screen when you open the app.
Until now, you’ve had to find the venue closest to you, tap it, then tap check in. Foursquare has kicked the extra step out so that it can track your whereabouts. Here’s what the feature looks like:
Foursquare is very open about how important the data is:
Remember: each time you check in, you’re teaching us about the restaurants, bars, and shops you like, so we can give you even smarter recommendations in Explore. And now that it takes just a split-second, it’s even easier to check in everywhere you go.
I personally still use Foursquare to track everywhere that I visit, but even some hardcore users have trailed off in the past few months from what I can tell. Are you still a diehard Foursquare user? If so, will this feature make you check in more? I’ve always felt that until battery-drain issues with smartphones are corrected, a service like Foursquare can’t hit the masses, since automatic check ins are the only way to truly grab as much data as possible. One day, maybe. Until then, go get your glide on.
[Photo credit: Flickr]
Foursquare is a geographical location based social network that incorporates gaming elements. Users share their location with friends by “checking in” via a smartphone app or by text message. Points are awarded for checking in at various venues. Users can connect their Foursquare accounts to their Twitter and Facebook accounts, which can update when a check in is registered. By checking in a certain number of times, or in different locations, users can collect virtual badges. In addition, users...
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