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Is there any app or setting that will automatically check in to foursquare when I arrive at a venue without having to take out the phone and click the app? Preferably something where I can mark "favorite" venues to check in to, such as work.

Thanks

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There is an app for iOS called "Future Checkin" that does this. – Al Everett Sep 21 '10 at 17:26
Won't this drain your battery in a hurry? Leaving the GPS as active would be brutal for battery life. Does foursquare accept cell network based location for checkins? – Josh Sep 21 '10 at 19:22
@Josh Yes, foursquare does accept cell network locations. I usually check in to work off the cell location because I don't get GPS inside the building and I forget to do it in the parking lot. Now, if I had an app that would check in from the parking lot automatically for me... ;-) – shimonyk Sep 21 '10 at 20:30

5 Answers

up vote 5 down vote accepted

Tasker can do it, using the foursquare API and the HTTP POST task
In the http post task, fill out the form as follows:

  1. Server:port -> user:pass@api.foursquare.com
  2. Path -> /v1/checkin
  3. data ->
    vid=362349
    private=1
    facebook=0
    twitter=0

vid is the numeric id you can get from foursquare.com by looking up the venue. I have it set to not share auto checkins with others. You can also use a tasker variable for VID and define the VID from other events.. IE, I have my office assigned by 'cell near', same with the park where I walk my dogs.. I just call the named tasker task and it checks me in when I get to that location. I follow it up with a 'Notify' action to let me know it checked it, and what venueid (this was mainly for testing..) You will want to use a phone number login for foursquare, not a emailaddress.. the @ sign in the email will confuse the http post function.

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That did it perfectly, thank you! – shimonyk Oct 25 '10 at 13:55
up vote 2 down vote

Some of these may meet your needs better than others. Not all are free.

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Those are what I am looking for, but the reviews on all four each say they don't actually work. Have you used any of them, and what was your experience? – shimonyk Sep 21 '10 at 20:15
I've not. I'm not a big FourSquare user. – Al Everett Sep 21 '10 at 20:36
up vote 1 down vote

The old HTTP POST task method with Tasker doesn't work anymore, ever since Foursquare updated their api.

This FsIntents app does the job though. Works really well!

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.joaomgcd.intents&feature=search_result

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up vote 1 down vote

I would also suggest Radii Auto Checkin.

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up vote 0 down vote

Your getting into Tasker or Locale territory here (both are apps you can download from the marketplace). Both apps allow you to configure anything you want on your phone and would probably allow you to configure this. You would need to setup GPS points and actions that are triggered by entering those GPS points in either app. Keep in mind this will increase battery usage as your GPS will have to beacon (per how you configure it) to determine if you enter those locations.

Might actually take less time and be all around easier to make a shortcut on your phone to Foursquare and just open it. Rather than go through and program one of those apps which would take some time.

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I have Locale, no idea how to hook it to foursquare though. Taking the phone out of my pocket to click the link is easy enough, but an annoying step and I sometimes forget. – shimonyk Sep 21 '10 at 17:26
Take a look at Tasker. It will cost a few dollars and have a very steep learning curve, but once you understand how it works it is easy to configure it to interact with other apps. I haven't used Locale before so I'm not sure step by step how to do what you want, but I think it can be done with Locale too. – Webs Sep 21 '10 at 18:19
So I am looking at Tasker, I can start the foursquare app, but I can't see how to make it actually check in. How exactly were you able to automate the check in part? Thanks – shimonyk Sep 23 '10 at 21:52
Sorry, I haven't tried this myself, I just know it's possible with Tasker. I'm not really an expert with either application so I may not be able to provide a lot of help in configuring tasker to do this. You might want to ask another question here for help with that if you can't figure it out yourself. – Webs Sep 27 '10 at 13:51
Fist time I have been let down on stack exchange. How do you ^know^ it is possible if you have never seen it done? Your answer was "spend some money on a wild guess I have never seen work" :-( – shimonyk Sep 27 '10 at 14:38
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