The Magazine

Foursquare for Android adds comments and likes to notification pulldown

6

on September 11th, 2012

Foursquare released an update for their Android app yesterday. The release notes remain the same as the previous version, but Ching Yu let us know that he spotted a new addition: users can now like and comment on check-ins directly from the Android notification pulldown. It’s a nice feature that should help to dramatically increase engagement with foursquare check-ins.

The 2012.09.10 update is available for free in the Google Play store.

UPDATE: Today I learned that the release notes posted on the Google Play store don’t reflect those within the app — and that this feature isn’t really new. See the comments below for more details.

PS Wondering who Joe LaPenna is and why he appears in the URL for the Android app? Dennis Crowley answered the question on Quora last year:

Joe LaPenna is a great guy who built foursquare’s first Android app using the foursquare API.  His worked jumpstarted foursquare’s presence on non-iPhone devices and played a big part in kicking off our developer ecosystem.

When we first built foursquare, we wanted to get it in everyone’s hands but, with only two people, didn’t have the manpower to build it for all platforms. We worked super hard to get the iPhone app out, and then, to make it easier to build on other platforms, we opened up the API. Joe LaPenna, who is an incredibly talented coder (he works at Google), built the first Android app using that API. We’ve seen a bunch of other awesome builds, like the work Geoff Gauchet did for WebOS. It’s obviously both amazing and humbling to see that people like what you’re doing enough to contribute to it in that way.

As foursquare grew up a bit (and Android adoption exploded), we decided we could move a lot faster by bringing development in house. It’s been that way for well over a year now – development is led by our own awesome Mark Wyszomierski. Because of the way the Android market is structured, we can’t rename the package, so it still carries the name of the awesome Joe (and the open-source name ‘foursquared’). An exciting piece of foursquare trivia for you  :)

  • https://www.foursquare.com/user/1219967 Jean-Francois Potvin

    Likes and comments are in the notification center for Jelly Bean (4.1) users only as of now. It wasn’t haded yesterday but still is a great feature !

  • pred2k

    i don’t like it that they don’t post the changelog at android updates :(

    But that actions will be only available on the latest android version “Jelly Bean”!

  • https://www.foursquare.com/user/1782921 Ray Petti

    According to the changelog, they also added the ability to make OpenTable reservations directly from within the app. Also on the friends tab, it now shows when a friend becomes mayor or unlocks a badge.

  • http://robert.aitchison.org Robert Aitchison

    I think I know the answer but have they made it any less cumbersome to check in?

  • https://www.foursquare.com/user/33318 Brian Rawson-Ketchum

    There’s also an Explore map shortcut available which (surprise) opens up the Explore map immediately. From what I can see so far, you have to enter whatever you’re searching first (i.e. it doesn’t automatically bring up what it would when you go to the Explore tab in the main app).

  • W

    I noticed that action buttons are also available in friend request notifications. Also when your friend uploads a picture to a checkin that you have commented on, it shows the big picture inside the notification!

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