Remember last year when Foursquare split its app in two, and got rid of all the fun features that actually made people want to use Foursquare? Well, people like me didn’t like it! Now Foursquare is backing down, at least a little bit. You can now be the mayor of your favourite coffee shop again!
This functionality has been gone for a while, so why exactly did Foursquare bring it back?
When Foursquare split its app in two, the check-in functionality was all built into a new app called Swarm. Which wouldn’t have mattered if Foursquare hadn’t gotten rid of badges and the regular method for becoming mayor in the process. Instead, you got to be mayor amongst your friends only. Which kind of sucks because you have maybe one other friend who goes to the same coffee show as you. (Furthermore, badges were done lame-arse stickers to affix to profile picture and a creepy functionality that tells people where you are all the time. Woohoo.)
Instantly, you lost much of the incentive for checking in to the freaking Coffee Bean every day. Personally, I liked to collect as many Mexican joints, and indie movie theatres, and concert venues as I could. When Foursquare stopped rewarding my dedication to populating its app with activity, I stopped caring about Foursquare. Once an avid oversharer, I don’t use it at all any more.
I’m at Metz at mhow. There I didn’t need foursquare to tell you.
— mario aguilar (@mariojoze) May 28, 2015
Foursquare appears to recognise its error and is turning back the clocks a bit — you can now compete globally for mayorships again. Maybe Foursquare will be able to rescue itself from flailing, but I’m not rushing to download the app again.