Remember Foursquare? Well, it seems that its “check ins” feature has become all the craze among iPhone users, that one of its rivals, Yelp for iPhone has just added the same feature to version 4.0 of its own native iPhone app. Actually Yelp for iPhone has been around longer than Foursquare but didn’t quite get the same enthusiam from iPhone users.
With the release of Yelp for iPhone v4.0, Yelp hopes prevent Foursquare’s possible break-out in the mobile location service arena.
So, what is this “Check-Ins” feature all about? It’s a way for you to broadcast that you are at a business to your friends on Yelp, Facebook or Twitter. Specifically, you can broadcast the following:
- Your activity via your Yelp for iPhone profile page
- Opt-in alerts including “Push” notifications
- A Leaderboard on Yelp for iPhone
- A Map that will also show the “Check-ins” of your friends nearby and your check-in count next to your Yelp star rating if you’ve written a review on Yelp.com
- Where you’ve checked in on Monocle, Yelp’s AR feature launched in August
- Active users of Yelp Check-ins can also earn “Regular” status of highly-frequented businesses.
Aside from the “Check-Ins” feature, Yelp for iPhone v4.0 also rolled out some new features including the ability to log into your Yelp.com profile and see and interact with your Yelp profile as you would on Yelp.com.
You can now also see and invite friends from your iPhone’s address book to join you on Yelp, share your check-ins and quick tips via Facebook Connect and Twitter. You can also check out Monocle, Yelp’s augmented reality feature.
Overall, Yelp for iPhone is a pretty good iPhone app. Yelp for iPhone is a free app and you can download it from here. (iTunes Link)