There are three changes being made in this release and two of them are user requested. Please give me one more day to test this release just to be safe!
Change #1: Foursquare API Rewrite (from users)
Several users have emailed me that Checkin Assistant has issues and a "Cannot connect to Foursquare." message is displayed despite having no connection issues outside the app.
I said: "That's crazy, I never saw that... oh....[expletive deleted]!"
So I did some homework and found a robust connection system that someone else already built!
Change #2: Facebook and Twitter
This is something I've wanted to add for a while. I figured if I'm going to do so much testing I should probably throw in the Twitter and Facebook integration.
Change #3: The "It never checks me in!" issue (from users)
Several users have complained that they haven't seen a single check-in done by their Checkin Assistant. This is most likely because the calculation of your location by network triangulation is considered inaccurate by 100 to 400 meters. This release will relax this restriction from 100 meters to 400 meters.
If you aren't being checked in often enough, turn on GPS and then disable and enable the Checkin Assistant in settings. I would rather this app err on the side of caution.
Clarification of issue: "It checked me in too quickly."
Well I know 2 users that would love to have that problem but one user has emailed me to say that he was checked in 6 times in 20 minutes which exceeds the Foursquare check-in limit of 3 every 15 minutes even though he set the app to check-in once every 20 minutes.
I might make a change in the future to limit the check-ins to 3 in 15, but I want to keep the fine grain control in the hands of the user. If you set a Checkin Radius that is too large or your location signal isn't accurate enough this will happen. Look at the "Distance(m)" while you're at that venue and make sure the checkin radius you set won't include your other favorites.
If you're in doubt and don't want to be checked in automatically... don't set that location as a favorite!
FYI: If you're accidentally checked in you can always delete the check-in on http://foursquare.com/history.
In regards to accidental check-ins: You really need to implement a verification mechanism that the user actually STAYS at the venue and does not just pass by. For instance the user should only be checked in if he stays at the same position for at least 5-10 minutes. This can of course be made optional. Without this, Checking Assistant is bordeline unusable for me because I often just pass around some of my favourite venues en route to others that I'm actually visiting. It happened to me just minutes ago on way from lunch.
ReplyDeleteI assume 4sq API does not allow third party applications to delete check-ins, does it? The ability to delete accidental checkins directly from Checkin Assistant would probably suffice.