Source: Foursquare Mobile | Official Sign Up and HomepageIf stalking your friends on Facebook or Twitter is not enough, Foursquare got you covered. Last Tuesday, the location-based social network released its new notifications settings. This enables users to keep tabs on their friends while on the go. As posted on Foursquare’s official blog:
Have friends or family that live in another city, state, or county? Now you can choose to receive notifications when they check in, even if they’re not nearby or you have all check-in notifications turned off. Is your spouse travelling for work? See when he or she arrives at the airport safely. Friends visiting Iceland for a week? Easily keep up with their glacier-climbing, fermented-shark eating adventures.
How New Foursquare Notifications Work
To enable this option, users can simply go to their friend’s Foursquare profile. From there, select the “Always On” option found at the drop-down menu. Because of the new settings, users can now choose to always receive notifications when their friends or family checks in somewhere. The good thing about this is that they can receive it even if their notifications are turned off or when they are not nearby.
Prior to this, users can only receive check-in notifications from pals who were in the same city. It can also be received through email and push notifications on mobile devices.
New Foursquare App and Merchant Tools
Foursquare also released its latest app last June. The location-based social network got a redesign, wherein the photo now takes center stage. User profiles also got tiled user interface, allowing them to access stats, list, badges, and tips from one screen. And instead of using the Like button, they can click the Heart button on venues, tips, lists and friends’ checkins. As stated by Foursquare Head of Product Alex Rainert:
We launched Lists, we launched Explore. What we set off to do six months ago is, now that we have these pieces, let’s put them together.
A redesigned Foursquare was followed by a release of merchant tools in July. This gives businesses better way to communicate with their customers using the location-based platform. The merchant tools now include the following:
- Updates: Share photos, specials, and news to customers that are near a business’ location.
- Specials: Create and manage Foursquare specials on a new and sleeker interface.
- Dashboard: See who checked in a store, as well as the changes in monthly venue traffic.
- Tools: Manage a business’ presence on the location-based social network, which includes adding new managers and editing venues.
