Foursquare Recommendations Get “Proactive”

Foursquare is trialling “proactive recommendations” in its Android app to serve up location-based recommendations to users through push notifications, rather than waiting for them to check in or search.

The app will serve up suggested dishes when the user sits down in a restaurant, or places to see when they arrive in a new neighbourhood or city.

“We think of this feature like a sixth sense,” says the blog post announcing the test. “Proactive recommendations of things you didn’t even know you were looking for.”

Of course, its easy to see more privacy-concerned users taking issue with this move, as it will be constantly monitoring their location. This isnt an issue Foursquare has addressed, though it is at least easy to see the value for sharing this data.

Another concern could be how much battery can be drained when using background location data, but Foursquares got this one covered: “From our internal tests on a bunch of phones, it only increases drain about 0.7 per cent per hour, or, over the course of a day, the equivalent of about a 20-minute game of Angry Birds.”

The rollout will begin with a limited number – somewhere in the thousands – before expanding to all Android users, with iOS coming in the next few months.