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Swarm 6.0 — Lifelogging, now powered by social discovery
Swarm is the best way to keep track of the places you go. From the new café downtown to that killer ramen spot in Tokyo, you’ll never ask “what was the name of that place?” again. Whether you love to be a local, or are trying to travel the globe, check in so you can remember everywhere with Swarm.
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Replies
Chris Messina
Top Hunter
Hunter
TBH, I stopped checking in actively when Facebook killed off my ability to automatically cross-post my check-ins (I set the privacy of those posts to Only Me so I'd have a backup record of where I've been).
It seems like the Swarm team realized that the old ritual of opening your phone and checking in every time you showed up somewhere wasn't a sustainable behavior anymore, at least compared with a batch-mode, after-the-fact confirmation process (i.e. confirm the places where Swarm thinks you've been).
I'm willing to give v6.0 another try, especially as I've got a bunch of travel coming up in November...
v6.0 Release notes
## All-new Check-in and Place Pages
We’ve updated check-in pages to showcase more info about you and your friends’ check-in. That means a better experience for browsing and uploading photos and an easier way to learn about all those rad places your friends are checking into.
We’ve revamped the place pages in Swarm to include helpful info like photos, tips and ratings from your buddies, top things to try, and a whole lot more…
## Saved Places
So that restaurant your friend checked into looks reallll good. If only you could save it to remember to go later...oh wait...NOW YOU CAN.
- Save any place you want to go from our all-new place pages
- Browse your saved places directly from the re-built Swarm map
- Check out your friends’ saved places on their profiles
- Best of all, your saved places are kept in sync with Foursquare City Guide
## Ratings and Tips
Alright, that burrito place you just tried was TOO good. You’ve gotta tell everyone about it.
So we’ve made it really quick and easy to rate a place you’ve been and leave a tip for your buddies - right from your check-in. It’s a helpful reminder for you and inspires your friends to discover the best places you go. Win. Win.
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@chrismessina I've been a loyal Swarm user for almost 8 years now. I use it as my life diary and travel log everywhere I go! I didn't do the Facebook cross-post, instead I use IFTTT (https://ifttt.com/applets/425475...) to post my check-ins to my calendar. So I can always refer to my calendar as a monthly view of where/when I checkin and come back to use Swarm as my search, to find and view my travel history. Highly suggest that^ 😉 @avneeshk91. Looking foward to v6.0!!
@john_m_egan You might be interested to know that you can do this directly by subscribing to the calendar feeds: https://foursquare.com/feeds/
I’m always amazed that this feature is almost completely buried. It is SO useful!
@john_m_egan I used to use Swarm in this way too - with the IFTTT recipe to my calendar. But at some point I realized I never viewed my history - and I stopped using Swarm since then.
Always nice to see some improvement on a product I use everyday. Although their vision is for you to share the places you've been, I just use it as a diary for myself. Tested a bunch of apps and settled on this more than a year ago, as the check-in process and the whole app are delightful. Also like Foursquare to find places. Keep up the good work!
Did they fix the image preview of their shared links? I used to get always the same boring orange box, instead of some visual content matching with the place where I am checkin in. That would be an easy and relevant product update!
Love the improvements in this version
Pros:Keeps track of everyplace you go and improves recommendations in Foursquare
Cons:none
I definitely am seeing the overlap between Swarm and Foursquare. It’s interesting to me that the changes seem to suggest a reverse on the decision that split the app into two. I noticed a significant drop in friends using it when they split the app. Now I feel like I basically check-in for myself and don’t really get much engagement or interaction from friends at all. Most of my current friends on the app live in different places of the world where I’m unlikely to be able to visit their spots… at least in a hurry. I do wish more of my local friends and family used it. I got used to checking-in, so even when I deleted my account at one stage, I came back because I missed it. It would be much more fun if people I cared about it used it, so I could check-in with them and didn’t feel like I was using the app in isolation.
@heidi_helen I think the distinction is chiefly that Swarm concerns the past - “Where did I go? What was good about it?” and Foursquare concerns the future - “Where should I go? What’s good around here?”
@heidi_helen Can totally relate to the 'I feel like I basically check-in for myself and don’t really get much engagement or interaction from friends at all' part. Wish more of my local friends used it too!
I've been a Foursquare lifer since my first iPhone. I was even one of the few people who thought separating Swarm and City Guide was a smart move! I'm happy to see continued improvements and user-focused changes. I'm excited to try out the new Saved vs. Visited lists and the new place pages.
Pros:Continued improvements to the user flow
Cons:None to speak of
Love it! Have also been a loyal user for 8+ years... and I've been dying to see some new features and improvements with the app! In my circle of friends at least, Swarm is seen as a geeky app where check-in does little unless you share it on Facebook - which I don't - so I've always been eager to see the app evolving into something more. Go Swarm!
O pessoal aqui do Brasil usa muito o app. O CEO deve olhar com mais carinho para os usuários brasileiros do Swarm 😉