Last week, I posted some thoughts on Foursquare’s new Swarm app, and its present failure to win over either old Foursquare diehards or a new demographic of social sharers looking to connect with friends for a good night out (or maybe a World Cup match). In the comments, most MobileSyrup readers agreed, stating that the Foursquare/Swarm split had made them lose interest in both apps; they wanted the old Foursquare back.
As Foursquare struggles to find a new user base for Swarm, its best hope for winning back frustrated fans is to continue iterating until the experience becomes undeniable. As a nice start, Foursquare has made Swarm check-ins more information rich and social via an update released this week.
Each check-in now shows a leaderboard to let you know who amongst your friends has been there, as well as the location’s current mayor (remember: mayorships are now between friend groups, not all Swarm users). In addition, photo’s taken at the location are now displayed, similar to how they appear in Foursquare. Foursquare also claims that backend improvements has made check-ins faster and more accurate.
Social sharing has also been updated, allowing users to send check-ins to Facebook and Twitter with a quick button press. In its App Store change log, Foursquare says this improvement was a result of user feedback – new requests can be sent to swarmfeedback@foursquare.com. Longtime Foursquare users currently unhappy with the state of Swarm should reach out and let their voices be heard. The old Foursquare is never coming back, but a newer, better Swarm might lessen the demand.
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