While this isn’t a major feature update by any means, foursquare is definitely pushing its Explore functionality forward by making it more prominent in its mobile apps and site and, now, by letting you add a shortcut directly to the tab on your Android device.
In a quick post today, the company talked about the thoughts behind the move:
Now, we’ve made finding the best stuff nearby even easier, with a quick shortcut to the Explore tab in the app that you can put right on your Android home screen.
The process for adding the shortcut is the same as adding any widget to your home screen: go to the widgets tab (in ‘all apps’) and long-press the ‘Explore’ icon (it looks like a green ball caught in a radar’s crosshairs!).
The next time you want to find that boutique your friend has been raving about or an awesome new cafe in the neighborhood, just tap your handy new Explore widget!
This is pretty handy, actually, as I’ve found myself using foursquare Explore more than I’ve used services like Yelp in the past year. I find that coupling the geo-location data with tips from people who’ve been there and then adding the layer of content from my friends, be it past check-ins or if they’re nearby, to be a complete service for my needs.
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When I want to look up a bar in San Francisco, I go to foursquare without thinking. This widget saves me a tap by sitting on my phone’s home screen. Sadly, this isn’t something you can do on iOS, but perhaps foursquare will break out the Explore piece much like Facebook has with its approach to Messenger on iOS.
Foursquare isn’t just a check-in app anymore, folks.
[Photo credit: Flickr]
