Foursquare has been all the rage in the early adopter mobile space the past several months. And it has been peeking outside of the early adopter crowd with things such as local bars offering promotions for Foursquare usage. But it has still been held back a bit by the fact that it has only had an iPhone app and a somewhat clunky mobile web interface. And Foursquare understood that, so it called for developers to help build its app for the other mobile platforms. Today, the first of those is ready to go: Foursquare for Android.
Work on the project started back in April and was mainly coded by Joe LaPenna and Chris Brummel in their spare time. It started as a project to first reverse engineer the iPhone API, and then migrate to Android using Foursquare’s beta API, LaPenna tells us. After a few months of work, the duo and Foursquare’s Naveen Selvadurai (who has been managing it from the service’s side) feels its now feature-complete and ready for distribution.
Users who have played with the iPhone version should feel at home with this app. But it has a few features that the iPhone version doesn’t, such as integrated maps and a one-click check-in process. Other areas like the friends check-in list and the page to display your badges are largely the same as the iPhone version, but the app has the distinctive Android look and feel.
One advantage the Android platform has over the iPhone is that applications can run in the background. But Foursquare for Android chooses not to take advantage of that, and instead opts for speed and better battery life. “No “location aware” always-on background services or application bloat to drain your battery over the course of the night,” is how they phrase it. Since Foursquare is all about manually checking-in places, that makes sense.
With the app now complete, the next revisions will focus on performance and UI, LaPenna says. But there are also some new features that both they and Foursquare have planned. “We of course plan on adding features to the app but we’re not sure what order we’re going to tackle them in,” LaPenna says.
Having another mobile application for Foursquare should certainly help with its adoption. And Android is especially key since a lot of geeky early adopters have Android phones. There is also work being done on a BlackBerry app and a Windows Mobile app. The latter I’ve seen in action, as my friend Anand Iyer has been working on it. It has a few great features also not found on the iPhone app including the ability to ping you if three of your friends check-in somewhere that you are not. And placing your friends on an actual map to show where they are (think Latitude).
One really nice thing about the new Android app is that it’s open-source. LaPenna and Brummel have already had plenty of others help in building it. You can find out more about it on the Google Code page for the project. They’ve also written up some documentation for first-time Foursquare Android users.
The Android Foursquare app is available in the Android Market right now for free, or you can grab the app from the Google Code page and install it yourself.
Update: DailyFinance published some other interesting information today in a profile of Foursquare. The most interesting part is that Foursquare is preparing to announce a round of seed funding. We’ve heard that as well from a couple sources. From what we hear, the company is actually looking for less money than some investors are offering.
Look for a low seven figure seed round to be announced in the coming weeks. And one name that is continually thrown around as being involved is Union Square Ventures’ Fred Wilson. And where he is putting money, you can often find Spark Capital’s Bijan Sabet close by as well. Nothing confirmed yet, that’s just what we’re hearing.
Working on the Pre version over here. Ping @mager if you wanna help!
Congrats to the developers on a successful port. Still, there are a massive number of Android users here in London. (Hero, G1, Galaxy, Magic) If Foursquare supports Amsterdam, it should really support London as well. Just my 2p.
The Foursquare team keeps on rolling. Congrats to everyone involved
Foursquare for Android!
>>>> Great. Congrats to Foursquare developments. Foursquare in Android proves to be more functional than in iPhone. Android’s application home widens with Foursquare.
The Android version came about two weeks too late for me to care anymore. Foursquare jumped the shark a few weeks back when some jackass checked in from traffic on an LA freeway. And from a few postings from the Foursquare twitter account people keep checking in from there houses!? I’m hoping Foursquare will start enforcing checkins from actual bars/restaurants/venues only. What’s the point in checking in anywhere if you can check in everywhere?
Though I am biased since I helped beta test this app, a lot of the complaints stemming from this sort of thing are, I think, easily rallied against by saying: play against your friends? People will always cheat on the internet in games based on honor and honesty, that’s just the way it is… If your friends are cheaters, then I guess this ‘game’ sucks and you can move on.
Also, being stuck in traffic on the 405 (as I believe the venue is labeled) is definitely an aspect of many people’s evenings.
In short… Foursquare is no more pointless than BrightKite, except that is has points that are pointless unless you want them to mean something. Most things we do in life for entertainment are pointless. Just two years ago most people couldn’t imagine that writing 140 character blurbs about yourself could turn into a worldwide phenomenon but look at us now!
I want a BlackBerry version!
Same here.
Foursquare is basically just a fad: it was
fun for my friends and I for a few weeks, then it just started to feel pointless — feeding the ego with virtual badges only lasts so long.
http://www.dail...dennis-crowley/
“I’m sitting in a dimly lit, slightly grungy bar in New York’s East Village, where Dennis Crowley, co-founder and CEO of Foursquare, the white-hot mobile networking service quickly becoming de rigueur among bloggers and scenesters of a certain set in New York and San Francisco, is holding court. It’s late.
An intermittent stream of well-wishers greets Crowley, who receives each compliment with a low-key smile and slight wave of his signature shaggy bangs. In addition to co-founding the five-month old startup, Crowley is also, as they say, a client, not to mention a bit of a man about town. In fact, he’s probably the most influential “Foursquarer” in existence, so the stream of quite comely friends who have seen his “check in” and stopped by to say hello isn’t exactly surprising.
Welcome to Dennis Crowley’s life.”
I just checked into “Your Mom”. I am now the mayor of “Your Mom”. Do I get a free beer MG?
lol, i get more downloads on my crappy soundboard apps than this app did
Photo session with Foursquare founders Dennis Crowley and Naveen Selvadurai: http://bit.ly/W7mAV
All images © 2009, David Brabyn.
Wow, an Android article from Siegler! What a refereshing change! This is the right time to cover the submissions to Android developer challange 2 which might include some really innovative apps. Ask your readers to submit the details/screenshots of their ADC2 submissions and be the first to write about them.
Maybe you could explain what foursquare is. Yes, it’s a phone app, something to do with maps apparently, but what does it do? Please explain to ignorami like myself who’ve never heard of it. Thanks.
I saw ‘Amsterdam’ at the top of the city list and thought, fantastic – it’s international!
One download and a bit of config later and I find that ‘London’ isn’t in the list – disappointing :/
Agreed. We have more Android users here than in Amsterdam. (Yes, I know Layar is Dutch; but the critical mass is here.)
Early adopters? No… More like people that happen to live in one of the ~20 cities they support! Not everyone reading this site lives in the NY or LA area.
All spread new Foursquare motto!
“The game where even the winners are losers”