Foursquare (remember that app?) is joining forces with Twitter to make tweets more relevant to specific locations. At the moment it is possible to tag your location in a tweet, but you're limited to mentioning the town or city you find yourself in.
With the new partnership, you'll be able to tag individual locations such as the Starbucks you're sitting in with your iPhone or Android handset. It's a feature that takes advantage of the huge cache of data Foursquare has built up over the years and something that provides yet another way for users to search for data and, importantly, for Twitter to monetize data.
While no real details have been given yet, it's not hard to imagine Foursquare/Swarm-style mayorships being introduced, and the option for businesses to run special offers through the app. It's also a feature that users may well find provides a useful way to share their location with friends.
Twitter has not said exactly when the feature will be rolling out, but references to it already appear in the support documentation:
You can choose to add a location to your Tweets using Twitter for Android, Twitter for iOS, twitter.com or other mobile applications. For example: To give additional location context to your Tweet, you can add a general location label such as "SoMa, San Francisco." In select locations, you may also label your Tweet with the name of a specific business, landmark, or other point of interest. These locations are provided by Foursquare.
Twitter announced the upcoming new feature, unsurprisingly in a tweet, complete with a video that shows off how it will work:
Coming soon! We're working with @foursquare so you can tag specific locations in Tweets: [https:] pic.twitter.com/jATzXvbuV6
— Twitter (@twitter) March 23, 2015
Photo credit: aprilvalery / Shutterstock