Foursquare is making its biggest move, splitting two of its significant functions into standalone apps for users to discover new places and catch up with friends separately.
Fourquare, location-based social networking service for smartphones, announced a significant change to its core app functions that will be unbundled into two different apps. The company is splitting its check-in function, which creates a social map of nearby friends and their activities, into a separate app called Swarm and is keeping the original branding for its local recommendations.
Foursquare officially announced the change on the company's blog, Thursday, after CEO Dennis Crowley spoke about the change during an interview with The Verge. The decision to split the two major functions of the app was made after realizing that most people opened the app to either look for new places or to find nearby friends. So it is sensible for the company to give its users the choice to use separate apps.
"Our company has always been about helping you keep up and meet up with their friends, and discover great places," the company said in an official blog, Thursday. Our two new, unbundled apps are designed to do that for everyone. Swarm is for people who want the fastest and easiest way to connect with their friends. Foursquare is for explorers who want to know about the best spots, and to share what they've found with others."
Foursquare is reserving the discovery function and building the app from the ground up. On the other hand, the social aspects of the app will be incorporated into the new Swarm app to help users catch up with friends easily and quickly than the current app.
The new Foursquare app will offer tailored suggestions while finding places for dinner or lunch. The move brings it into competition with Yelp, which offers similar services. Instead of bringing general suggestions for places, the company is looking to use its massive database to recommend new places based on previous experiences and suggestions from friends.
The polished and updated Foursquare app and the Swarm app is not ready just yet, but will hit the app stores in the coming weeks. Android and iOS users will get the taste of the new apps before Windows Phone users are treated with the change.
