14 DAY TRIAL // The long-awaited update for Foursquare is out now in the App Store. Version 8.0 brings a complete redesign focused around discovery. This is the final step in the company's big split, after the Swarm app has been released.
Foursquare has made the move from everyone's favorite app when it comes to check-ins to a hated product. The app no longer accepts check-ins, but it directs users to use another app – Swarm. After the big split, the Foursquare team completed the last big step – the redesign of Foursquare into what it looks like a Yelp tailored to each user.
It remains to be seen if their current ideas will fly. From what it looks so far, the app has significantly lower ratings and it has sparked some privacy issues in the traditional media.
Beginning with the Foursquare description, the first words seem to be directed towards users that are still asking for the good-old app. "Our tastes are different..." say the developers, supposedly talking about search results.
The new Foursquare is the kind of app that continuously learns about the places you love and suggests new, similar foods or places to visit.
The app is created around the idea that you don't want to see just what is around you, but to get custom-tailored results that will match your previously chosen preferences of food and locations.
When you first open the app, you will be asked to fill out a page of apparently random preferences from food, drinks, and coffee to ingredients, music and locations.
The app's UI is heavy and difficult to navigate. It looks nothing like the original Foursquare and it has so many buttons, menus, pictures and sliders that you can get lost. Foursquare counts on people leaving reviews and tips to earn expertise. It uses all the old tips from Foursquare and the same profile pages and the users will see their old followers too.
There's one downside to the app. Because it is using the GPS in the background, the battery of your iPhone will drain faster. The Wall Street Journal actually warns that the new Foursquare app is tracking your every movement even when the app is closed and they tag that feature as creepy. This did not go well with users. The majority of the reviewers have awarded only a 1-star rating and that took the count from 5 stars for the previous version to just 3 stars for Foursquare 8.0.
