Android App Spotlight #5-#9: Foursquare, Gowalla, Loopt, SCVNGR, Brightkite, and Google Latitude (With a Little Yelp and Facebook Action Thrown In) (Part 1)

You may think they're stupid, but check-in apps are the next big thing in social interaction. The premise is simple: You launch the app, your position is determined via GPS or triangulation, a list of nearby places displays, and you "check-in" to the location, letting your friends know your here. The concept is best suited for groups of friends that don't work or live together: you're out on the town, and you check your phone to see that your buddy has checked into a bar right down the street from you, allowing you to join him and have loads of fun that will be encapsulated and live forever live as a Facebook photo album that your parents aren't allowed to see.

The basic concept is so simple that there are already several different apps available for the various phone OS, and the distinguishing factors come down to the presentation and the value added by using a particular piece of software. I like the concept of the check-in, and my belief about its upcoming popularity encourages me to participate. The thing is, I don't have a lot of friends and acquaintances which are very technically inclined, so I have to wait until the popularity is at near saturation before things start catching on. In the meantime, I'm stuck having to choose between several pieces of software, each with their own benefits.

Foursquare
Price: Free
Website
AppBrain Link

The current "mayor" of the check in apps, Foursquare was the creation of the guys who started Dodgeball, a similar sort of check in social media service dating all the way back to 2000. The service was acquired by Google in 2005 and turned into Google Latitude and left to fester for five years (more on that later). When you open the Foursquare app, your GPS-determined location returns a list of nearby businesses. You check in and you earn some points, the amount of which varies depending on checkins per day, whether this is your first time at the business, etc. The points don't yet have a use - you can't even see how many points you have - but they reserve the right to use them at a later point. Badges can also be earned for your profile once you fulfill certain conditions. If you check in at a business more times than anyone else, you get crowned the "mayor." It can be used as bragging rights amongst your friends, but more significantly, businesses are getting in on the fun, offering special deals to mayors. The service also offers an open API, which allows even more interesting takes on location apps (even if many of them are iPhone-only at this point). This is the app to beat at the moment, though that doesn't mean that other services aren't trying to "dethrone" them (pun)...

Gowalla
Price: Free
Website
AppBrain Link

Austin-based Gowalla operates pretty similarly to Foursquare - find your place and check in. The differences come in their item-based system: upon a random checkin, you have the chance of finding an item. These items can either be "vaulted" - added to your profile for the world to see, or you can choose to use it to swap for another, cooler item you find laying around at another location. Badges are offered here, and they work similarly to Foursquare, but Gowalla also has trips - a series of locations that, after checking in at all of them, you get a special badge for your profile. The interface also has an open API, though implementation isn't very widespread yet. A gripe I have with the software is that checking in has to occur within 50 meters of the designated coordinate for the business. It's not a big issue if you're at a small restaurant, but at bigger locations, like an airport or even a big department store, you won't be allowed to check in unless the app finds you within those fifty meters. It's an anti-cheating measure, but annoying nonetheless. On the plus side, adding locations is easier than the rest - rather than manually inputting address data, all you need is the name and type of business, and the location is determined by the GPS. However, this can create inaccuracies, too - people might add locations from the parking lot, or the location might be determined by triangulation rather than GPS. Between this and the fifty meter limitation, checking in can be a frustration.

Brightkite
Price: Free
Website
AppBrain Link

You check in, and you can comment on posts, photos, etc. Most of the value in this app is interpersonal - just commenting on the stuff your friends post. Although the achievement-based symptoms of Foursquare and Gowalla are gimmicky, they can encourage participation. Because Brightkite doesn't really offer much unique functionality compared to the former two (aside from the ability to upload pictures), my interest in this program has waned. The fact that I can't stop it from running in the background means that it was recently uninstalled.


To be Continued...