I don’t know what got in to Foursquare. I don’t think the management was thinking right when making all the funny and stupid decisions they’ve made this year. The Foursquare we knew is dead. These are my last respects.

You remember the days when you always wanted to check in somewhere new, beat your friends and become Mayor of your hostel, school or the cafeteria nearby? Well, they’re gone totally. Foursquare decided to split earlier in the year to two apps: Swarm (some yellow thing) and Foursquare (a different nonsensical app). Swarm tries to maintain the good old original Foursquare but no one seems interested.

You see, in my class we had this competition of who’d be the Mayor of our School. You couldn’t last a week being Mayor especially after some fourth years graduated. And that was the fun. We all had the app in our phones and were all ready to check-in into new places while travelling, gain points and try and be above all the rest. But it seems like the guys at Foursquare weren’t pleased with this. They decided to force us to install Swarm.

When I first launched Swarm, I expected all the things Foursquare offered previously. I check in, earn points and go above my friends on leaderboards, but that was not to be. Well, not at least as it was before. I don’t even know why they decided to remove the title ‘Mayor’ and replace it with I don’t know what. Plus to view more about the place I’ve checked in, I have to go to the other Foursquare app? Meaning I need two apps? Did they really think this through?

I expected to find some cool new additional features to enable me enjoy the new service. Instead, I found an app for checking in only. Imagine! I found a load of countless features and tabs I have never bothered myself with. All I do with the new app is check-in so that I reassure myself like I did a while back. I feel bad that I don’t get to earn points and be on top of my friends but the worst bit of it is that I’m losing friends. People who were once “Foursquare-holics” are no longer “swarming”. They tried but quit on the way.

Then there are others who deleted the original app long ago when it started changing. I have tried convincing to check out Swarm, which I use daily, but they don’t seem ready to try the new thing out. It is like ‘to hell with checking in’. My classmates will complain that they cannot start the new app. It keeps crashing. It force stops every time. It is too yellow (or Orange), yet Foursquare was blue. It is boring. Blah…

The staunch “check-in” guys are still checking in. We hate the new app, but we still use it. Foursquare is dead and we’ll miss it. Rest in peace. Swarm may soon follow. I am recording all events and will be very ready to release Swarm’s Eulogy.

Here’s one guy’s breakup letter to Foursquare –> Click Here