Location-sharing app Foursquare gets a makeover

PanARMENIAN.Net - After a week of dropping hints from its Twitter account, Foursquare has finally launched its redesigned app, Mashable reported.

Anyone who was anticipating new breakout features, however, need not get too excited. The main difference between the new and old app is (much prettier) packaging.

“We launched Lists, we launched Explore,” Foursquare Head of Product Alex Rainert tells Mashable. “What we set off to do six months ago is, now that we have these pieces, let’s put them together.”

Photos now take center stage in both the Explore and Friends tabs, making them look more like a Path or Instagram feed than a list. User profiles have a tiled interface that allows users to access stats, lists, badges and tips from one screen instead of scrolling.

Foursquare also finally ceded to the social media norm of the “Like” function. Users can now click a heart button on venues, tips, lists and friends’ checkins.

Technology-wise, the Explore tab got the biggest update. Its recommendations now take into account the time of day and weather in addition to location and friends’ activities.

“If you open your phone on a Saturday morning,” Rainert says, “we know there’s a good chance you’re looking for brunch.”

Though Foursquare revealed last month that it has big changes in mind for its merchant platform, none of them appear in the new app. Eventually, merchants will have an option to purchase promoted placement of specials, and the offers will be targeted using the same technology that powers the Explore feature.

A Foursquare spokesperson told Mashable that the company will begin rolling out the first versions of the option later this summer.