The Magazine

Here with Friends gets massive update making it more secure, easier to check in your friends

15

on October 22nd, 2012

Here with Friends — the Foursquare connected app that lets you check in your friends — has received a major update. The changes make it more secure and more useful.

The biggest change to the app is a new setting that lets you choose exactly who’s allowed to check you in, allowing you to limit its capabilities only to friends you trust to do so honestly. You can choose from letting anyone check you in, disabling it for everyone or allowing just a specific list of friends.

There’s also no longer a need to mention your friends in your shout; a reminder from Here with Friends will appear in the connected apps section either way. Tapping through takes you to a list of friends who’ve given you permission to check them in, where you can check their names and check them in.

As before, the key to Here with Friends is that you can only check in friends or be checked in by friends who’ve previously authorized the app. Unlike Facebook’s location check-ins for friends, it’s not on by default for everyone, so you know what you’re getting into before you’re checked in without your knowledge — and you have far more granular controls to choose who’s allowed to check you in.

The new settings answer all the challenges we had for Here with Friends in our initial review, finally making it an app I won’t hesitate to leave connected to my account.

What do you think of the changes?

  • Ching Yu

    Chris, you can check me in at Kings Island anytime you want!

    • http://aboutfoursquare.com Chris Thompson

      Ha! Not if I don’t find my stupid passes…

  • pred2k

    If a friend checks me in with that, i suppose that doesn’t count for mayorships and badges or does it?

    • http://aboutfoursquare.com Chris Thompson

      I don’t believe it counts for mayorships, but it should still count for badges.

  • http://www.saltedlolly.com Olly

    The thing that I didn’t like about it was that if you mention a 4SQ friend in the comment of your check-in, it checks them in to. I always found this functionality a bit presumptuous – to assume that just because I mention them I am with them. Maybe I want to shout out to them to let them know I am here?

    Has this functionality been removed?

    • Adam Poswolsky

      Yep, since the app now shows a list of friends you no longer need to mention them. If you do mention friends when you checkin, it will have them preselected as friends to check in, but you can uncheck them.

  • http://www.saltedlolly.com Olly

    I also think that there should be a good way to invite other 4SQ friends to install the app – if I attempt to check in a friend who doesn’t have the app installed, it would be good if it invited them to install it. It is not much use if you are the only user of the app.

    • Adam Poswolsky

      Unfortunately, our platform currently doesn’t support the ability to invite friends to use a connected app, but I agree it would be a cool feature, at least for this app.

  • https://www.foursquare.com/user/1014163 Pierre Jessop

    I’m growing to like this app.
    It’s quite useful.

    I’m a little uneasy about possible unscrupulous “friends” checking me in without me being really there. I’m aware I would be notified if someone did so but, still…

  • Shannon

    I have a few things to say about this app:

    1. Yes, Pred2K it counts for badges. How do I know? Glad you asked b/c this brings me to my next point.

    2. Last week I was checked into Madison Square Garden for a Bieber concert. I received two badges and a sh*tload of points, the only problem, I wasn’t there…I wasn’t even in NYC. The next days later, I was checked into a London venue, where I received more badges and more points…again without being in the city. Oh wait…I wasn’t even in England or Europe for that matter. My favorite happened yesterday, “a friend” checked me into a subway stop in JAPAN (no badge, lotsa points) while I was decorating my Christmas tree in Washington, DC.

    As someone who plays Foursquare with integrity (most of the time #dontjudgeme, I’ve only jumped once or twice), as much as I wanted to keep the pretty new badges and all of those points, I deleted the check-ins.

    This app makes it too easy for jumpers to get badges or points they haven’t earned. I like the premise, but it needs some work.

    • http://aboutfoursquare.com Chris Thompson

      Quite frankly, it’s awful damn easy for jumpers to earn the badges as it is. I don’t see how this makes it any easier.

      I’m not comfortable with letting anyone check me in, so I’ve disabled that option. I think that’s probably the best setting for most honest, active Foursquare users. The ones this benefits are the ones (like my wife) who never think to check in, but wouldn’t mind if one of those honest, active ones helped them out when they’re together.

  • Carmine

    This app is complete bs. Abuse is rampant with ppl checking in others who are only loosely friends just to boost their point totals. It’s actually destroying the whole concept for those of us who play with integrity. At least with rapid fire check-ins you have to actually be there. Unless this is fixed, I’ll stop “playing” Foursquare entirely.

    • http://aboutfoursquare.com Chris Thompson

      How exactly is this hurting you?

      • Carmine

        It’s not hurting me, wise ass. It’s degrading the fun behind it all. Earning badges used to be a challenge. Earning points was based on actually being somewhere for real with real friends. How is cheating your way to attaining these things bettering the experience?!

  • Shannon

    And today is the day…I’m disabling the app. I received four badges from my K Street office in downtown DC LOL. And yes, I deleted the check-in, losing everything…except my integrity. #StandingTall

    This app has given me more badges and points than my SXSW trips combined.

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