Make check-ins super fast on Android with Simple Check-in
In last week’s review of SwiftSquare, I noted the occasional need for a foursquare app that just does fast check-ins. When you’re broadcasting your location at one of those mundane places you visit every day, there’s no need for all the frills of the regular foursquare app like tips, explore and the locations of all your friends. In many cases, faster and lighter is better.
Enter Simple Check-in, a new Android app from Matthew Rathbone, one of foursquare’s analytics engineers. It does one thing, but it does it very, very well.
“I built the app because sometimes I want to avoid being rude, or because I’m checking in somewhere mundane like the supermarket,” says Rathbone in a blog post. “This app allows me the best of both worlds, I can check-in so fast no-one knows I even did it.”
Simple Check-in shows you nothing but a map (so you can confirm you’ve been located correctly) and a list of nearby places. A single tap on that list checks you in.
There’s no broadcasting to Facebook or Twitter and no private check-ins. The app is meant mainly for those mundane, daily check-ins, so those items really aren’t necessary.
Simple Check-in is written in just 770 lines of code, which helps keep it fast and reduces battery drain. Rathbone’s goal is to keep it under 1,000 lines.
Users who’ve experienced trouble with foursquare’s official Android app getting their location correctly should be pleased with Simple Check-in. It doesn’t appear to exhibit any of the same problems. It also succeeds where SwiftSquare failed. Your location is transmitted to foursquare, so you’ll have no issues earning and keeping mayorships with Simple Check-in.
Simple Check-in is no replacement for the official foursquare app (and isn’t meant to be), but it makes a perfect complement to it for those times you’re in a hurry or want to be discreet. It’s free (and there aren’t any ads), so give it a try and let us know what you think in the comments.
