Facebook For iPhone Gets Event Check-Ins, Maps, And Unfriending
A couple weeks ago, after All Facebook spotted the ability to check-in to Facebook events, the social network confirmed to us that the feature would be launching shortly on the iPhone and their mobile-based touch site. Today, here it is.
Context & Ripple Effects
The check-in feature had been telegraphed: All Facebook spotted it in late March, Facebook confirmed an imminent iPhone and touch-site rollout, and it now ships. It closes the loop on the Foursquare competitor reporting from August 2010, which framed event and place check-ins as the obvious next battleground for Facebook's mobile client.
It also slots into a busy stretch for Facebook's local and mobile ambitions — the company launched a subscription service for its local Deals offering just weeks earlier, and with Edison Research finding a majority of Americans now on the site, the phone app is where incremental engagement has to come from.
First-order effects
- iPhone users gain the ability to check in to events, see them on maps, and unfriend from the mobile client — removing the last routine reasons to open Facebook's full site for event management.
- Event organizers get real-time attendance signal, since RSVPs can now be converted into verified on-site check-ins rather than intentions.
Second-order effects
- Foursquare, whose core mechanic Facebook has now replicated inside an app with vastly larger reach, faces pressure to differentiate on game mechanics, merchant deals, and data partnerships rather than check-ins themselves.
- Check-ins feed Facebook's local graph directly, strengthening the Deals offering it began monetizing via subscriptions in March 2011 and making place-level targeting more valuable to local advertisers.
Third-order effects
- If platform-scale apps keep absorbing single-feature mechanics — check-ins being the clearest case — standalone location startups are pushed toward verticals and merchant services rather than raw presence broadcasting.
- Location data shifts from a product category to infrastructure inside large social networks, raising the long-run question of how much independent check-in data exists outside Facebook's walled garden.
The trend: Location-based features pioneered by dedicated startups are being folded into platform-scale social apps' mobile clients, with Facebook's release cadence setting the competitive tempo.