Untappd launches completely redesigned app featuring new “discovery” features and more
Untappd, an app for checking in the beers you drink and where you drink them, just launched an all-new version of the app that’s been completely rebuilt from the ground up. On top of a faster, better looking interface, it now features more accurate personalized recommendations and a “discovery” tab. And the release couldn’t come at a better time: Untappd also announced that they’ve just hit 10 million beer check-ins.
Much like foursquare’s Explore, the Discovery tab is aimed at helping you find new beers to drink and places to drink them, along with finding where your friends are drinking nearby. Searching for nearby beers shows the top-rated beers in your area and where to find them (although many of them appear to be home “bars” in my area), while searching for nearby bars shows the most-visited places nearby. You can then view that bar’s most popular beers. Foursquare users will take to the “trending beers” and “find your drinking buddies” tabs quite easily.
Untappd’s recommendations under the “Drink Up” tab are finally personalized to your personal drinking tastes instead of just the last beer you drank. For me, it shows a lot of American IPAs and Pale Ales — exactly what I like. This should make it easier to find accurate recommendations for what to order.
Checking in beers is easier and faster thanks to the new design and completely rewritten code base behind the scenes. They’ll even push your photos to foursquare or Facebook now when you add them to a check-in.
A new activity feed — that in many ways resembles foursquare’s activity feed (this is a good thing) — has been added that incorporates check-in photos, comments, toasts and more directly in line with everything else.
Other changes include badge progress bars, so you can see exactly how many more check-ins you need to get a badge you’ve been working toward, and new options for reporting incorrect or duplicate beers. This all comes on top of Untappd’s integration directly into the foursquare app that came with the launch of connected apps. Checking in to a bar or restaurant shows a recommended beer to try.
This is a huge update from the Untappd team — a team that’s built a great app and community in their spare time. The app really looks beautiful and finally feels like an app instead of the mobile website it grew out of.
It’s been fun to see how much the community has grown since I first started testing the app almost two years ago. Untappd is now an integral part of the craft beer community — I’ve even seen it listed as a job requirement for the marketing manager of a brewery. This update makes a great app even better and is sure to help Untappd capture even more users as it continues to grow.
The free update is available today for both iOS and Android.
Do you use Untappd? What do you think of the updates?
