Swarm Update Brings Back Popular Features From Original Foursquare App

In the time since Foursquare decided to split its app in two last years, the company has faced declining interest as well as a wave of employee departures. Now, it has announced its addition of some of the original Foursquare app features to its current app for check-ins, Swarm, to bring back some of the fun aspects that users have been missing since the split.

The company’s update comes before the upcoming version 3.0, which will be released in the coming weeks and will include mayorships within the entire Swarm community, as well as a leaderboard between friends and a one-player game within the world of stickers. This week’s update starts the transition, with the launch of approximately 70 stickers. The company eventually plans to offer a collection of 100 stickers in the app.

“The overall theme of our work on Swarm is about how we can make it more fun,” said Dennis Crowley, Foursquare co-founder and CEO. “When we split off Swarm we focused on the core utility of finding friends nearby, and then we built messaging into it, but there was a minimal amount of game mechanics. We wanted to revisit Foursquare game mechanics, which had become stale, and reinvent them with this new release.”

In the original Foursquare app, users were able to earn special badges when checking in at certain locations or on specific dates. For example, users could earn the “jetsetter” badge by checking in at multiple airports, or they could earn a “hot tamale” badge by going to Mexican restaurants. Many users prided themselves on collecting these badges in the original app, and when they were removed from the main Foursquare app and were not added to Swarm, a lot of users expressed their disappointment. Although Swarm introduced stickers in an attempt to create a similar experience, there were many fewer stickers than the number of badges that had existed. Now, the company is attempting to rectify this issue by adding 100 new stickers, which will include some that are directly related to the badges that were available in the original app.

“Like with badges, you check in where you go to unlock stickers,” the company explained on its blog. “But we’ve taken it up a notch by letting you use (and show off) those hard-earned stickers. Add them to check-ins, photos, or send them in messages.”

The company also says that it will be bringing back the ability to become the mayor of a location in a future update. This popular feature from the original Foursquare app will count current check-ins once it is released.

What do these updates mean for dealerships and other businesses?

In the early days of Foursquare, some businesses used the popularity of “mayorships” as a marketing tool, by giving their “mayors” special discounts. With users competing to receive the title of mayor by checking in at a location more often than anyone else during a 60-day period, businesses could reap the benefits of increased visits to their location and interest in their products. By reintroducing this feature, there is the potential for dealerships and other businesses to find new ways to encourage users to visit their location, to receive discounts or even specialty items that are only made available to “mayors.”

Certainly, Foursquare’s data is considered valuable, as illustrated this past March when Twitter announced a partnership to use its data for tagging locations in Tweets. However, for Foursquare to continue to leverage its location database, it must have users that are continually engaging to keep the data current and relevant. With its user growth stagnating, it’s not surprising the company is reintroducing some of its popular features from the past to encourage users, both new and old, to get on board.

Swarm version 3.0 will also see the introduction of “Coins,” which will take into account the value of your check-ins, stickers and other collections. The Coins will feed into a leaderboard where users can compete with their friend network specifically as opposed to with the entire Swarm community. Another nice feature for past users is the addition of a dusty trophy case containing their old Foursquare badges, which can be seen by scrolling all the way down in the Sticker book tab. Lastly, the company is launching a simplified version of Swarm for the Apple Watch, allowing users to check in and see nearby friends on the wearable device.

Will Foursquare’s update be enough to revitalize its user growth and bring back its original users who have become less interested since the split into two products, or is it too late to re-establish these gaming aspects of the original app? It’s difficult to know at this point, but we’ll be watching as this story develops in the coming period.