I wanted to check the opening hours for our local outdoor pool and decided to try Apple Maps for a change.
Interestingly it heavily features FourSquare stuff. I didn't even know that service was alive, I had assumed it died in 2012 or so. Is FS still a thing? Or is this perhaps just a case of Apple never ever updating their apps?
Using FourSquare's API to post location checkins to social media
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/06/using-foursquares-api-to-post-location-checkins-to-social-media/What is this, 2016?
I like sharing my location with my pocket friends sometimes. If I'm in a cool bar that they know, perhaps they can recommend a drink. If they live nearby, maybe they want to come for dinner. Not everyone has FourSquare's SwarmApp, so it is handy to automatically share its updates with other people.
Of course, Swarm doesn't cross-post to social media because walled-gardens are the most profitable. This is my attempt to open it back up again.
Here's what they look like on BlueSky and Mastodon:
Checked in to Hamburger Fischmarkt, Große Elbstr. 9 (Fischmarkt), Germany
Probably a *bit* early for a breakfast beer.
See on Swarm
[image or embed]
tl;dr
You can get the SwarmToSocial code from my GitLab.
At the moment, developers get 10,000 API calls for free each month. That's probably more than enough for most personal uses.
Documentation
I was pleasantly surprised that FourSquare's CheckIn documentation was fairly easy to use and understand.
Once you've signed up for a developer account you can create an OAuth app. That will generate a Client ID (ABC123), Client Secret (XYZ789), and you supply a Project URL.
Once done you can follow the Authentication documentation. Or just visit:
Jan Ekholm
Tino
toresimonsen
Terence Eden’s Bloghttps://foursquare.com/oauth2/authenticate?
client_id=ABC123
&response_type=code
&redirect_uri=https://example.com/
Sign in with your FourSquare account. It will redirect you to:
https://example.com/?code=456QWE
Use that code to construct the final URl:
https://foursquare.com/oauth2/access_token?
client_id=ABC123
&client_secret=XYZ789
&grant_type=authorization_code
&redirect_uri=http://example.com/
&code=456QWE
That will respond with the Access Token:
{
"access_token":"asdfghjkl123456"
}
Hurrah! Posting a new checkin is relatively simple. POST to this URl with a header of accept: application/json
https://api.foursquare.com/v2/checkins/add?
v=20260223
&venueId=13600425
&shout=This%20is%20a%20test
&oauth_token=asdfghjkl123456
v is, rather confusingly, a date. The versioning documentation has more details but, basically, set it to the date you deployed your app.venuId you'll need to find yourself (more on that later).shout is up to 140 characters (!) of URl encoded text.That will send back rather a lot of JSON. Here are the important bits:
{
"meta": {
"code": 200,
"requestId": "123456789"
},
"response": {
"checkin": {
"id": "987654321",
"createdAt": 1771843820,
"type": "checkin",
"visibility": "closeFriends",
"shout": "This is a test of the API",
"timeZoneOffset": -300,
"editableUntil": 1771930220000,
"user": {
"id": "56367",
"firstName": "Terence",
"lastName": "Eden",
"relationship": "self",
"displayName": "Terence Eden"
},
"venue": {
"id": "QWERTYUIOP",
"name": "My Birthday Party!",
"contact": {},
"location": {
"isFuzzed": true,
"lat": 39.123456789,
"lng": -84.987654321,
"cc": "US",
"city": "Cincinnati",
"state": "KY",
"country": "United States",
"formattedAddress": [
"Cincinnati, KY",
"United States"
]
}
},
"checkinShortUrl": "https://swarmapp.com/user/56367/checkin/987654321?s=wRZ7ByNfCW1DNrOIpsRcytPZelE"
}
}
}
For my purposes, the shout and checkinShortUrl are the most important. You can view a sample check in:
https://swarmapp.com/user/56367/checkin/699c34b55bad6b7fb1695544?s=LA7jCaAtH-s9CwSpgQrQdHrP5-8
Venue ID
If you're already using a service like Untappd you might be able to get the venue ID from that.
If not, FourSquare provides 100 million points of interest for free - although with questionable data quality.
Alternatively, you can search by location:
curl --request GET \
--url 'https://places-api.foursquare.com/places/search?ll=51.123%2C0.123&radius=1000&sort=POPULARITY' \
--header 'X-Places-Api-Version: 2025-06-17' \
--header 'accept: application/json' \
--header 'authorization: Bearer ABC123'
As far as I can see, the Bearer Token only exists on the documentation page. I couldn't find it in my developer console. Weird!
That gets you back:
{
"results": [
{
"fsq_place_id": "4be584ed2457a593ad8cab15",
"latitude": 51.11783041264215,
"longitude": 0.11219274871133413,
"categories": [
{
"fsq_category_id": "4bf58dd8d48988d1fa941735",
"name": "Farmers Market",
"short_name": "Farmers Market",
"plural_name": "Farmers Markets",
"icon": {
"prefix": "https://ss3.4sqi.net/img/categories_v2/shops/food_farmersmarket_",
"suffix": ".png"
}
}
],
"date_created": "2010-05-08",
"date_refreshed": "2025-11-01",
"distance": 970,
"extended_location": {},
"link": "/places/4be584ed2457a593ad8cab15",
"location": {
"address": "",
"locality": "Hartfield",
"region": "East Sussex",
"postcode": "",
"admin_region": "England",
"country": "GB",
"formatted_address": "Hartfield, East Sussex"
},
"name": "Perryhill Farm Shop",
"placemaker_url": "https://foursquare.com/placemakers/review-place/4be584ed2457a593ad8cab15",
"related_places": {},
"social_media": {
"twitter": ""
},
"tel": "",
"website": "http://www.perryhillorchards.co.uk/index.php?sec=4"
},
{
"fsq_place_id": "8896f77565e54a658585301d",
"latitude": 51.11649,
"longitude": 0.13131,
"categories": [],
"date_created": "2021-12-06",
"date_refreshed": "2021-12-06",
"distance": 909,
"extended_location": {},
"link": "/places/8896f77565e54a658585301d",
"location": {
"address": "Priory Park, Beech Green Lane",
"locality": "Withyham",
"region": "East Sussex",
"postcode": "TN7 4DB",
"admin_region": "England",
"post_town": "Hartfield",
"country": "GB",
"formatted_address": "Priory Park, Beech Green Lane, Withyham, East Sussex, TN7 4DB"
},
"name": "Spectra Studios",
"placemaker_url": "https://foursquare.com/placemakers/review-place/8896f77565e54a658585301d",
"related_places": {},
"social_media": {},
"tel": "01892 487149"
},
],
"context": {
"geo_bounds": {
"circle": {
"center": {
"latitude": 51.123,
"longitude": 0.1234
},
"radius": 1000
}
}
}
}
You can manually check a place using the Placemaker site: https://foursquare.com/placemakers/review-place/64eca80f0398c97ab52298ec
Getting Existing Checkins
What if you've checked in to a place using the official Swarm app? How do you get your own recent checkin data?
Again, there is documentation on getting user checkins.
curl --request GET \
--url 'https://api.foursquare.com/v2/users/self/checkins?v=20260223&limit=2&offset=0&oauth_token=asdfghjkl123456' \
--header 'accept: application/json'
Where it says oauth_token it actually means the access_token.
The JSON that is returned is a bit verbose, so I've simplified it here:
{
"meta": {
"code": 200,
"requestId": "699c6505b488565a31e315e3"
},
"response": {
"checkins": {
"count": 2344,
"items": [
{
"id": "699c34b55bad6b7fb1695544",
"createdAt": 1771844789,
"type": "checkin",
"visibility": "closeFriends",
"entities": [],
"shout": "Testing the API using an Untappd FourSquare ID.",
"timeZoneOffset": 0,
"editableUntil": 1771931189000,
"venue": {
"id": "64eca80f0398c97ab52298ec",
"name": "Abbey Wood Fossil Pit",
"contact": {},
"location": {
"lat": 51.487514,
"lng": 0.13048041,
"postalCode": "SE2 0AX",
"cc": "GB",
"country": "United Kingdom",
"formattedAddress": [
"SE2 0AX"
]
},
"createdAt": 1693231119
},
},
Annoyingly, there's no checkinShortUrl which means it can't easily be shared.
For that, you'll need to use the get-checkin-details API:
curl --request GET \
--url 'https://api.foursquare.com/v2/checkins/699c34b55bad6b7fb1695544?v=20250202&oauth_token=asdfghjkl123456' \
--header 'accept: application/json'
Which will return this (truncated for brevity):
{
"meta": {
"code": 200,
"requestId": "699c67de5f5c0a0e8ab234db"
},
"response": {
"checkin": {
"id": "699c34b55bad6b7fb1695544",
"createdAt": 1771844789,
"type": "checkin",
"shout": "Testing the API using an Untappd FourSquare ID.",
"timeZoneOffset": 0,
"checkinShortUrl": "https://swarmapp.com/user/56367/checkin/699c34b55bad6b7fb1695544?s=LA7jCaAtH-s9CwSpgQrQdHrP5-8",
Photos
If there's a photo with the checkin, it will be return in the JSON like this:
{
"response": {
"checkin": {
"photos": {
"count": 1,
"items": [
{
"id": "699f3a9f96799c05c0f16c9c",
"createdAt": 1772042911,
"prefix": "https://fastly.4sqi.net/img/general/",
"suffix": "/56367_5VYox4Y-hs66wURVsYc1NLgOokfwBfcWhtKQrOlMdD8.jpg",
"width": 1008,
"height": 1344,
The URl for the image is prefix width x height suffix - in this case https://fastly.4sqi.net/img/general/1008x1344/56367_5VYox4Y-hs66wURVsYc1NLgOokfwBfcWhtKQrOlMdD8.jpg
You can adjust the width and height if you want a thumbnail or some other resolution.
If there's no photo, the count will be 0.
Putting it all together
Every 15 minutes, the SwarmToSocial code does the following:
Enjoy!
#api #BlueSky #FourSquare #geolocation #MastodonAPI
What is this, 2016? I like sharing my location with my pocket friends sometimes. If I'm in a cool bar that they know, perhaps they can recommend a drink. If they live nearby, maybe they want to come for dinner. Not everyone has FourSquare's SwarmApp, so it is handy to automatically share its updates with other people. Of course, Swarm doesn't cross-post to social media because walled-gardens…
🆕 blog! “Using FourSquare's API to post location checkins to social media”
What is this, 2016?
I like sharing my location with my pocket friends sometimes. If I'm in a cool bar that they know, perhaps they can recommend a drink. If they live nearby, maybe they want to come for dinner. Not everyone has FourSquare's…
👀 Read more: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/06/using-foursquares-api-to-post-location-checkins-to-social-media/
⸻
#api #BlueSky #FourSquare #geolocation #MastodonAPI
What is this, 2016? I like sharing my location with my pocket friends sometimes. If I'm in a cool bar that they know, perhaps they can recommend a drink. If they live nearby, maybe they want to come for dinner. Not everyone has FourSquare's SwarmApp, so it is handy to automatically share its updates with other people. Of course, Swarm doesn't cross-post to social media because walled-gardens…
Zest Maps Is the AI-Powered ‘Spiritual Successor to Foursquare’
https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.wired.com/story/zest-maps-is-the-second-coming-of-foursquare/
Why is it so hard to passively stalk my friends' locations?
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/04/why-is-it-so-hard-to-passively-stalk-my-friends-locations/I feel terribly guilty when I visit a new city, post photos of my travels, only to have a friend say "Hey! Why didn't you let me know you were in my neck of the woods?"
Similarly, if I bump into an old acquaintance at a conference, we both tend to say "If only I'd known you were here, we could have had dinner together last night!"
I do enjoy the serendipity of events like FOSDEM - randomly seeing a mate and expressing the joy of spontaneity. But I also like arranging to meet up in advance.
At the moment, my strategy is sending a blast on social media saying "I'm visiting [this city] next week, anyone fancy a beer and a natter?" I've met friends all over Europe, Australia, and New Zealand that way. It mostly works. But I can't help feeling it is inefficient and prone to missing connections.
I even wrote my own code to auto-post FourSquare checkins to my other social media sites.
Here are my ideal scenarios. Imagine something built in to Signal / WhatsApp / Whatever app you already use.
Plan In Advance
I tell my app that I'm going to Barcelona from 14th - 19th February and am happy to meet any of my friends.
✨Background Magic✨
My friend Alice has also planned a trip to Barcelona around those dates. She gets a ping saying that one of her friends is going to be in the same city. Does she want to know more?
So far, so Dopplr.
My friend Bob lives just outside of Barcelona. He's set his "willing to travel" settings to be about 30 minutes, so also receives a ping.
I don't know that either of them have seen the notification until they decide they want to meet.
Spontaneous Fun
I step off the train in Manchester, England England. Perhaps the app notices I'm away from home, or maybe I press the "Anyone Around?" button.
On a map I can see friends who have shared their rough location. I decide to message Chuck to see if he's free for a chat.
Dave notices my location is now within his preferred travel distance. He gives me a ring.
A bit like how FourSquare used to be - but with less precision.
Downsides
The above is very much the "happy path". It doesn't look at any of the knotty problems or grapple with the UI that would be needed to make this work. But we know the technology for sharing location is viable - so what are the social issues that make this so difficult?
Social Awkwardness
"Oh, fuck, Edgar's location says he's in town. Can we pretend to be out of the country?"
Alternatively, "Huh, I know at least a dozen people who live in Skegness. Why aren't any of them responding to me?"
Social pressure and awkwardness are hard problems. No one wants to use the app that makes you feel like a friendless loser.
Privacy
Do you want your friends knowing your every movement? I'm sure some people do, but most probably don't. It's possible to sketch out some vague controls:
Danger
Is it a risk to let people know vaguely where you are? Is meeting up with (semi-) strangers from the Internet a smart life choice? Is having an app stalk you across the globe giving too much data to advertisers?
Does that creep from work abuse the system to keep popping up whenever you're out with friends?
Technology
I said the technology exists for this, and that was sort of true. Every device has GPS & an Internet connection. Storing a log of friends and sending them a message is a solved problem.
But is it solved in a decentralised and privacy preserving way?
No one wants to give all this power to one company. Google will build it and kill it. Facebook will sell your secrets to dropshippers. A funky start-up will be acquhired by Apple & restricted to iOS devices.
My location is fuzzed to an acceptable degree of imprecision and then sent… where? To all my friends directly? To a central server? Can k-anonymity help?
Is this a separate app? Everyone seemed to leave FourSquare after they buggered around with it. Perhaps it is just a feature in existing apps?
What's Already There?
Messaging apps like Signal, Telegram, and WhatsApp allow you to share your location with one or more friends.
To me, it feels a bit weird to manually send a dropped pin to some / all of my contact. It also doesn't let you share "tomorrow I will be in…"
Using "Stories" is the common way to share an update with all contacts - but none of them let you automatically share your location in a story.
FourSquare's Swarm app allows you to check in to a "neighbourhood". But there's no obvious way of saying "London" or "Manchester" - and I'm not sure how close to an area you need to be to get an alert that your friend is there.
What's Next?
I don't want to build this. Trying to get everyone I know to adopt a new app isn't going to happen. With the fragmentation of messaging and the lack of interoperability, this is likely to remain an unsolved problem for some time.
So here's my strategy.
I feel terribly guilty when I visit a new city, post photos of my travels, only to have a friend say "Hey! Why didn't you let me know you were in my neck of the woods?" Similarly, if I bump into an old acquaintance at a conference, we both tend to say "If only I'd known you were here, we could have had dinner together last night!" I do enjoy the serendipity of events like FOSDEM - randomly…
🆕 blog! “Why is it so hard to passively stalk my friends' locations?”
I feel terribly guilty when I visit a new city, post photos of my travels, only to have a friend say "Hey! Why didn't you let me know you were in my neck of the woods?"
Similarly, if I bump into an old acquaintance at a conference, we both tend to say "If only I'd known…
👀 Read more: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/04/why-is-it-so-hard-to-passively-stalk-my-friends-locations/
⸻
#FourSquare #geolocation #location
I feel terribly guilty when I visit a new city, post photos of my travels, only to have a friend say "Hey! Why didn't you let me know you were in my neck of the woods?" Similarly, if I bump into an old acquaintance at a conference, we both tend to say "If only I'd known you were here, we could have had dinner together last night!" I do enjoy the serendipity of events like FOSDEM - randomly…
Terence Eden
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