Everyone needs recommendations on the go. Your dinner date just went swimmingly, now where’s a great place to get dessert, or see some live music? Or maybe you’re looking to grab lunch – should you go healthy (‘salad,’ ‘grilled chicken,’ ‘wrap’) or bold (‘bacon burger,’ ‘chicken fingers,’ ‘milkshake’)? Whatever you can think of, Explore can be your guide.
Today, we’re launching an updated version of Explore for iPhone and Android, bringing over a bunch of the great features from our recent Explore on the web launch straight to your phone, like changing your location, filtering your recommendations, and photos in your search results! Get ready for personalized recommendations for whatever you’re craving, wherever and whenever you need them!
‘Explore’ is the single most used local recommendation feature on my iPhone. I don’t use Yelp or Twitter or Google Local or TripAdvisor. All of these apps let me down in a HUGE way. Explore is the only tool you need IF you have zero interest in knowing where your friends are.
I say this because Explore needs a special setup to be useful. Here are the qualifications for Explore always being the most reliable way to find things to do no matter where you are.
- You must have lots of friends on FourSquare (I have over 1,000)
- Have friends who travel all of the time to cities that you would travel
- Have friends who actively LOVE adding tips, to-dos and checking in to places in these cities using FourSquare
Every single place I’ve been in the last year since Explore was enabled was enhanced because of this. I rarely check-in to places other than to an airport upon arriving to let friends know that I’m in town. This check-in usually results in comments and text messages with tips and requests to “meet up”. The check-in isn’t that important to me.
The Explore tab is indispensable. Here are some memorable uses for it lately:
- Best Philly Cheesesteak
- Best coffee shop in NYC
- Local and non-touristy Ice Cream shop in Mumbai
- Nearest Internet Cafe in Delhi
- Best Beer Bar in Amsterdam & in Brussels
- The most popular club in San Francisco at this moment (based on check-ins)
- Brunch in Austin during SXSW at a place that’s not crowded right now but friends usually frequent
FourSquare does rank things by most popular universally among people that aren’t your friends but that’s not always valuable to me. Tourists also check-in and rank things amazing as locals get buried especially in big cities. I want local recommendations from locals and I have friends in most major cities. I can filter by what my friends recommend and it’s extremely powerful. Next time you are in downtown Atlanta, open up Explore and you’ll see really great recommendations based on what your friends like. It’s excellent.