Announced earlier this month, the new app from Foursquare which will take-over the check-in aspect of the location based App, as well as adding functionality to find your friends and organise your outings – Swarm – has just landed in Google Play.
The app can now be downloaded, but leaves the Foursquare in something of a limbo state, with most of the functionality going to Swarm. Foursquare will be transforming over the coming months into a discovery or recommendation service akin to Trip Advisor and Yelp, but at the moment it has yet to receive an update.
Swarm, will be taking over your check-ins and you will be encouraged to add stickers to your check-ins (Don’t worry, they’re all free) to show your feelings about the Check-in. The most famous feature of Foursquare which moves to Swarm – Mayorships – gets an overhaul by allowing a venue to have many mayors, but you’ll compete with your friends to be Mayor of the venue within your group.
Your previous Foursquare history is still available to view in Swarm, simply go to your profile and you can check for all the old check-ins and location history, you accumulated over the years in Foursquare.
But it’s the planning aspect of Swarm that bodes well for at least the urban users of Swarm, you can simply ask questions such as “Who’s up for drinks after work?” or “Anyone want to see Godzilla this weekend?” and your friends can respond and interact with you in the app. Alternatively, you can check out what your friends have annoucned they are doing and tag along with them.
It’s out now in Google Play for Android devices running Android 2.3.3 and upwards. If you’re a dyed-in-the-wool Foursquare fan, go check it out and see what you think.
