The competition between location-based social networking applications just heated up even more with the announcement by Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley, via his blog, that an updated version of his company’s software is now available to iOS and Android users. As frequent users of this application, we couldn’t be happier here at The Flickcast offices.
Focusing on discovery, encouragement, and loyalty, Foursquare 3.0 rolls out several new features. For example, through the new “Explore” tab, users can input what it is they are looking for, getting recommendations from the app based on what’s around and where friends have visited.
In addition, the app features a revamped leader board which the company hopes will further encourage users to explore their world. According to Crowley: “You’ll see that we’ve replaced our old leader board (and its simple points system and Sunday night reset) with a sliding 7-day barometer of you and your friends.” “Check-ins now trigger points for dozens of different types of actions.”
Loyalty comes in the form of merchants additional ways to reward “swarms, groups of friends, regulars, newbies, or everyone.” Merchants will get their hands on these features later this week.
According to Crowley, the company has “really ambitious plans for the rest of the year and we’re excited to let you play with three big new pieces of the master plan.” With what we’ve seen of Foursquare 3 so far, we can’t wait to see what those plans are. The app is available now in the iTunes store and the Android market.
