Foursquare is announcing today what it’s calling the “next evolution” of third-party developer integration: connected apps.
25,000 developers were using Foursquare’s API up until now, but it was never able to be tied together with the Foursquare app itself — the features were all by their lonesome in a separate app. Starting today, Foursquare is changing that with the new connected apps platform, which brings content from other services into the main Foursquare app. By doing this, apps with useful information that Foursquare can’t normally provide on its own can now show up as part of a check-in.
Foursquare is launching with eleven initial partners, but the list will expand over time. A few of my favorites include Eat This, Not That, which recommends healthy dishes to eat when you check in to a restaurant, Snoball, which can donate money to a charity with each check-in, The Weather Channel, appearing as a small tidbit of information giving you the forecast when you check in to a new location, and of course Instagram with its ability to share photos to Foursquare, although that’s been a feature for a while.
The connected apps platform is only a preview for now and that means it’s still in testing, as Foursquare warns. The formal launch will take place either late this summer or early fall when Foursquare will open it up broadly to additional partners and developers will be able to make the most of the platform.
Users can get started today connecting the apps available in the preview by visiting foursquare.com/apps.