Foursquare announces Swarm, its new app for checking in

By Simon Sage
last updated

Foursquare has announced that they're going to be spinning off a new app this summer called Swarm. While Foursquare has been used for sharing where you are for years, Swarm aims to facilitate meet-ups with friends more easily by letting you broadcast where you're going next and what your friends' plans are. Meanwhile, the original Foursquare app will be changing a little bit to be more focused on venue discovery and reviews.

The power of Foursquare as a recommendation engine is significant. Our own Ally Kazmucha says it's the only travel app she needs. As for Swarm, location (or even proximity) sensing isn't something we haven't seen before, but nobody's been able to do it in a big, popular, and ubiquitous way. Foursquare's existing popularity may be enough to propel Swarm to that status, but we're going to have to wait a bit to find out.

Swarm will be rolling out in a few weeks to Android and iOS, with Windows Phone not too much farther behind. How do you feel about sharing your location with a broad circle of friends? Have any apps been able to do it well enough for you so far?

Source: Foursquare

Simon Sage
Simon Sage
47 Comments
  • So basically it'll take a week to hit iOS, 2-3 weeks to hit Android then 2-3 Months to hit Windows Phone, considering most Dev's leave us until last? To be frank I still prefer 4th & Major, but I will give Swarm a try.
  • I couldn't agree more with your first point. Same thoughts here.
  • We can't do anything for it if there are still least users of WP compared to apple and Android.
  • 2 - 3 months. You'll be closer with years in some cases when it comes to apps and games.
  • Yeah it sucks that we are always last but my main concern is quality. Quality over quantity however developers should be professional enough to release their apps unified on all platforms
  • Yeah, but we wait longer for apps, and they still don't have the same quality, and feature set, as iDroid apps... Let's not fool ourselves... Android, and iOS apps are great, and most developers just release apps on WP just to shut us up...
    .........................
    For example... Look at:
    Voxer, Instagram, Whatsapp, Facebook, and other major apps from banks, what about Waze,,, and games??..... No, WP users shouldn't wrongly make themselves feel better about their platform by telling themselves that they have "quality over quantity".... That will just hide the fact that WP users need to stay mad, keep demanding more from developers, and keep pushing MS to push developers to give WP equal treatment....
    .......
    BTW, sorry to step on your point, and I do agree with that concept.. I'm not trying to be rude, so I hope that you don't take it that way..
  • You couldn't have said it any way better than this! I salute.
  • I totally agree with you.
  • No offense taken. I agree that the quality is not there... We've seen it with Microsoft's own apps.
    That needs to change!
  • Lol!! Yeah, didn't think of that.. Especially when they release apps for other platforms, and forget about their own..
  • +8X Ive never had an Iphone or Android device and so i never worried about the lack or wuality of apps for that matter. However as years went on ive seen the high quality of apps on iPhone and im amazed by the great quality. i am dying for an official snapchat with the new update (love rudy's but i want the official) but i dont want them to release a basic version of it. as days pass i wonder what'd it be like to have a collection of perfect apps.    
  • Sir, you win the Internet today. Hats off.
  • Well, Fourscquare has been commited to the WP platfrom from the early days to be honest. It was one of the first major apps that hit Windows Phone 7 back in the day :) So, I think they are up to speed.
  • They are a rare breed... Lol!
  • I pretty much give up on four square. At least on Windows phone. It's slow and usually incorrect about where I am. 4th and mayor is far better.
  • Why not launching the app at the same day for iOS, WP and Android??
  • foursquare app question, is it possible to tag people on WP app? 
  • No you can't.
  • Exactly my question!!! WTF is it still not possible to do that??? It irritates me because when I go to the cinema with my brother in law, he always tags me in his checkin and I can't. Come on Foursquare, if you are reading this, please make this a feature in your WP app very soon!!!??? Pretty please??? :)
  • I'll be at your mom's. Ciao!
  • Guys i have a major doubt now but its a little off the topic.. Please someone answer.. Will wp8.1 be left after the release of new Os like wp9 or higher.. Like they left support for 7.8... ?? Bcoz i cannot afford another wp9 or higher mob ... I already had a lumia710 and now lumia620 :/ wp central can you explain?
  • Relax, it is still on the 8 series... :)
  • I guess it really depends on what WP9 capabilities are deemed essential and if those essential capabilities are supported by old hardware. For example; if there is some sort of Kinect camera (just throwing it a crazy thought) then obviously old hardware wouldn't be able to run it.
  • Neither they could afford that. Pulling another Windows Phone 7 scandal would be the end of Windows Phone for good. They must know that.
  • Windows Phone 9 will also be built upon the NT kernel, like WP8. I'm sure lot's of devices will get the WP9 update when it arrives. But I'm sure MSFT will first release WP8.2 when they are merging Windows RT with Windows Phone.
     
  • Could you not? Head to the forums if you want to be off topic? Don't post it as a comment on an article. It's really rude.
  • I might be old fashioned, but isn't all this check-in capability a security risk? It's like broadcasting to crooks when it is safe to rob your home.
  • If you have crooks for friends.
  • Exactly, it's not publicly broadcast so you have nothing to worry about.
  • Who doesn't?    In all seriousness, you make a valid point but I don't know anybody who doesn't have a sketchy friend or relative. Maybe they wouldn't do anything, but people they know and live with might. Granted, you can unfriend them, but typically that happens after it is too late.
  • Exactly why I don't use it.  If I'm someplace fun and looking to let my friends know, I send them a text message. 
  • Can Foursquare fix their app first and make it on par with Android and iOS? Still missing features.
  • Maybe I am missing something, but how is this much different than check in on Facebook? Doesn't it tell a large group of your friends where you are, and potentially where you are going if you post it in time? In my circles,I have seen the use of foursquare and other check ins decline. I don't even use Facebook check in except for some family outings.
  • Wp is always..... You know what i'm going to say. Lol.
  • I usde Foursquare with 4th & Mayor but none of my friends use Foursquare at all.
  • Time to make new friends, perhaps?
  • I really hate when these services spin off a sub service as a new app instead of making their app handle the new functionality better. case in point: FB messenger. Why can't the standard FB app do as good a job? What's next? I'll need a FB app to search for people, another to post comments, another to view images, and another to manage privacy? We need to go the way of richer better apps, not more apps that make you hop around.
  • "With Windows phones not so further behind..."
    Seriously, what's so difficult about releasing them all together? This kind of prejudice is (one of many) what damages WP's reputation when it comes to apps...
  • Yeah what the first guy said
  • You check in on facebook and you inform everyone right ?
  • This sound similar to um... hurricane? or something weather related gimmick named... though that was a tad different. Instead of being restricted to friends, you could see a heat map (views as tornadoes/funnel clouds, some graphic) that changed colors according to the number of checkins occuring within a specied interval.  It was neat to see where things were happening downtown if you're terrible at find stuff on your own.  Swarm is an interesting idea.  It is not so easy to get a bunch of people to go do something without a lot of conversation.  This will make broadcasting intent easier, I hope.
  • Wasn't there some murmering about the WP Foursquare app getting a major update soon? Or did I just dream it?
  • Ahahahaha, and yet again Foursquare for Windows Phone does not have a basic feature such as check in your friends... Not to talk about other constantly omitted features...
  • when microsoft and 4sq announced their partnership i was optimistic that foursquare will finally improve their very very basic app on WP, but now I realize that foursquare does not care about WP at all. I think they'll release this Swarm stuff for WP then they'll abandon the development, but iOS and Android will improve of course
  • What partnership do you speak of? Microsoft paid FS to use their data, that's all.
  • I don't want 2 separate 4square apps, and 2 separate Facebook apps, and 2 separate.......you get the idea.   PUT ALL YOUR SHIT IN ONE APP PEOPLE!!!   /rant
  • Microsoft should buy FS. Before someone else does.