What does Foursquare’s two-app strategy mean for mobile?
Foursquare, one of the first successful location-based apps on mobile, is splitting itself in half. After noticing that only 5% of its users took advantage of both of its app’s main functions — checking in to destinations and getting recommendations — the company has decided to build two completely new apps to address both use cases.
The first of these apps is Swarm, released in May, which exclusively caters to users who check into the places they visit on Foursquare. The app includes straightforward posting of images and location-specific tips, and allows for communication between users to plan get-togethers or events. It also shows the passive location of certain friends, encouraging spontaneous meetups much like Facebook’s recent Nearby Friends feature.
This week, Foursquare released a preview of an upcoming revamp of its core app designed around finding new venues and restaurants based on your preferences and history of visits. Showcasing a new logo and ground-up redesign, the new Foursquare app will include the reviews and tips features inherited from previous versions. In addition, Foursquare users with the Swarm app installed will be able to check in to venues straight from the app, but the option will be hidden from those uninterested in logging their location with Swarm.
The Current State of Unbundling
Foursquare’s unbundling of key features from its mobile app matches a recent strategy from Facebook, who last year released a redesigned Messenger application that interoperates with the traditional Facebook app in similar ways. Facebook has experimented with compartmentalized secondary apps in the past, with its ill-fated Snapchat competitor Poke and the standalone Facebook Camera photo editor in 2012. More recently, Facebook has introduced the dedicated News Feed client Paper and made another stab at matching Snapchat with its Slingshot release just this year.
Dropbox, too, has dabbled in dividing its features into standalone app silos. After purchasing the popular cloud photo management app Loom, the company moved to spin off its own photo offering into the single-purpose app Carousel. The company now offers a fledgling suite of mobile apps, including Mailbox for email triage, which each integrate with its original Dropbox app and cloud storage service to varying degrees.
Yahoo seems uniquely dedicated to offering mobile users a fleet of single-serving applications, having released 17 different apps just since 2012. The company’s services have been divided into the news summation app Yahoo News Digest, the video app Yahoo Screen, and four different apps for various Yahoo Sports. The strategy seems focused on landing a hit on mobile with at least one of its offerings, but also divides the brand’s presence on the App Store’s and Play Store’s top charts.
Unbundling services from one monolithic app into several simpler ones allows users to pick and choose the products they want on their mobile phone, while bypassing some of the company’s core services that might not be immediately relevant to them. Like Facebook with Messenger, the company has an opportunity to reach audiences through a more straightforward chat app that might not have an interest in the full Facebook experience. In addition, these independent apps allow for design flexibility and experimentation, and their innovations can serve the company’s other services in the long term.
The trend of mobile giants breaking down their complex features into single-purpose apps may continue, but Foursquare’s experiment with Swarm may be the strategy’s first real proving ground. Swarm is available on the App Store and Google Play Store today, and the company says its redesigned app will be available for download “soon.”