New Foursquare way of working

This article explains the changes Foursquare is having and how they will affect Localistico.

2011 Foursquare merged with Factual. The merger brings together two places data sets and new delivery channels and, in turn, brings a series of changes in how brands and partners manage their Foursquare profiles.

Up until 2021, Localistico’s integration with Foursquare allowed us to publish, extract and discover profiles and manage the reviews left on the profiles via their API, with clients’ location data being reflected in the Foursquare City Guide. The information being published from Localistico was considered ‘the source of truth’, with the brand being considered the owner of the profile, meaning that we have full control over what is being shown in the Foursquare City Guide.

Foursquare has changed its implementation approach and will be based on partners delivering daily file feeds. Foursquare will no longer take one data source as the ‘single source of truth’ but will instead take the information from all partners and sources and will determine which information should be published to Foursquare Places. They are making this change to try and improve the accuracy of the data being displayed in Foursquare profiles. Data submitted by listing syndication partners (such as Localistico,) will still take priority over other data sources. We are also expecting Foursquare to release reporting functionality, which will enable brands and partners to view what information is being published and the source of that data. More information can be found on Foursquare’s website.

During the development of the new data pipeline, there will be a delay in data being delivered to Foursquare’s consumer apps, Foursquare City Guide and Swarm. The data is still being updated and shared with Foursquare Places data partners, companies like Twitter, Uber, and Airbnb, but those changes won’t be instantly visible in CityGuide and Swarm until development is complete. The work was scheduled to be completed in Q2 2021, but that timeline has changed. In the interim, brands can still access and update their profiles via Foursquare City Guide directly by entering to Foursquare directly.

For Foursquare Places, using the new daily file feed integration, brands and partners are still able to publish: Basic venue information: name, category, location (address, coordinates), phone number, website, opening hours (only normal openings, not special hours) and venue status (open, closed).

As Foursquare no longer has an API available for brands or partners to use, it will no longer be possible to discover profiles or extract data from Foursquare or respond to the reviews left on the profiles. We are hoping that this functionality will be restored by Foursquare.

Foursquare credentials will no longer be needed to be connected in Localistico as they are not required for the new daily file feed integration.