A couple of weeks ago, we reported that Foursquare would split its service into two apps. One of those two apps, Swarm, is now in the Play Store. Swarm will be your new go-to app for all your check-ins and to see what your friends are up to. However, Swarm won't work exactly the same way as the existing Foursquare app.
With Swarm, you can check into to all the same places you have in the past, but the focus is on your friends. You will easily be able to see where your friends are, even if they haven't checked in anywhere. Friends can choose when to share their locations though. You will also have the ability to send out a message to all your friends to meet up somewhere. Sounds good, but the bad news is that the conventional rules involving mayorships and leaderboards is no more. Every location will be able to have multiple mayors, meaning that each “group of friends” will have their own mayor. So you could have 100 check-ins for a particular place, but someone else with only 5 check-ins for the same place could still be a mayor, assuming they are not friends with you.
What about the existing Foursquare app? For now, you can still check into places, but not for long. In the coming weeks, there will be an update to remove the feature, and the app will solely be used for discovering new places.
What do you guys think of this change? Is it now going to be confusing with two apps? Are you less likely to check into places with the new mayorship rules?
