The official Foursquare app still focuses on Check-ins
A few interesting tidbits about the official Foursquare app for Windows Phone that you may be interested in on this lazy Sunday. Even though we swear by 4th & Mayor, some of you like the unique design of the Foursquare app even if it's a tad slow by comparison.
Today the app has an update to version 2.11 which is certainly fairly minor but still important. The first one is that it now runs on devices with 256MB of RAM aka "Tango phones" like the Lumia 610. While less than 2% of the apps of the Marketplace are non-Tango optimized they tend to be some big titles (mostly Xbox LIVE games), so it's nice to get that nod.
The second update is the more vague "bug fixes" which will hopefully address some issues some of you may have had recently.
Perhaps the bigger news (and non-surprising) is the official Foursquare app has not been update to the new "5.0" system like Android and iOS. Those apps were completely rebuilt and re-coded from the ground up with Check-ins losing their primary status for the service. That's right, most users evidently weren't even using Foursquare for check-ins but rather recommendations of nearby locations.
Check-ins in the new Foursquare have been sidelined as the service expands to be more Yelp-ish with new features like Explore and Lists. Photos are also more prominent now as users are more likely now to document their experiences. Of course the much superior 4th & Mayor app already has all of these features built in but with the more original focus on check-ins.
No word on if Foursquare will bother scrapping and re-doing the current Windows Phone app to reflect these new changes. Our bet is they'll wait till Windows Phone 8 comes out to release the overhaul.
Pick up the official Foursquare app here in the Windows Phone Marketplace. Users can also grab the free 3rd party version, 4th & Mayor here instead. Thanks, Brian, for the heads up
Reader comments
Official Foursquare app gets Windows Phone Tango certified but no overhaul for new service
Cool just updated before this info was posted
Nothing new with this update for me....the errors with servers continues, Live Tile doesn't work...this is not a good news at all
I agree ....just bad bad worthless update
It sux...whoever designed this app had no common sense....when you get notification you click on it and it takes you to your check in instead of comment section. Unless I'm doing something wrong but this app is cumbersome and not even close to 4th as far as user friendly.
Agreed.
Big fail on this point!
Meaning I agree with you completely!
This app needs to be rebuilt from the ground up. I haven't touched it since 4th and mayor came out.
4th Mayor is superior to this app and have been using it since it came out..thanks Jeff Wilcox!
Totally agree.....offical app at this current state is useless...
Seriously? Who uses this instead of 4th and mayor? No comparison.
I use it because 4th & mayor ALWAYS got my location wrong. It would say I'm 3 miles away from where I actually was and so I would never get credit for my check-ins.
I used 4th and Square for about a year, but it crashed on me a lot, specially when 3g signal was not that good (I think) and while official app is obnoxiously slow I ended up using it instead.
Its 4th and mayor
Yes, you're right, it was.
That is embarrasing for foursquare because 4th & mayors is better app than this one