Terence Eden’s BlogUsing 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:
https://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
vis, rather confusingly, a date. The versioning documentation has more details but, basically, set it to the date you deployed your app.venuIdyou'll need to find yourself (more on that later).shoutis 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
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 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…
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