The Foursquare app for BlackBerry got a modest upgrade today. No, it’s not going to include Radar, but the logo in the top-left now launches into a notification stream. The notification list will include comments on your check-ins, when friends do one of your tips, both you and a friend have an identical place on your to-do list, when you’re ousted as mayor, and a bunch of other activity on the location-based social network.
Foursquare is basically a location-sharing social network with a lot of game elements piled on. You get points every time you check in to a place, which vary depending on how long it’s been since you’ve checked in last, who you’re checking in with, and lots of other variables. Those points put you on a leaderboard among your other friends, so you can compete to be the top dog. The competition includes individual venues too. If you check in more often to a place than anyone else, you can earn Mayorship status, which is mostly just a bragging right, but some businesses offer mayors perks, like discounts or freebies. Those businesses may even offer specials exclusively to Foursquare users. Even if you’re not a mayor or top of the leaderboards, you can also earn stickers for checking in at certain places at certain times. They actually just launched a new sticker for when you check in to a diner 5 times. Again, they’re just there for bragging rights, but if they ever learn from GetGlue, maybe Foursquare will let people order real versions of the ones they’ve earned. On BlackBerry, Foursquare ties in with BBM, so you can update your status with your latest check-in, as well as show off your favourite badges in your profile, even if your friends don’t have Foursquare installed.
Anyway, yay for notifications. It would be nice to see some cool augmented reality or NFC stuff to take advantage of the new OS 7 devices, but Foursquare is pretty tight with RIM – I’m sure they’re busy working on new features. You can download the latest version of the app over here.
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