According to a FastCompany report, Instagram is testing a new version of its app which sees Facebook replace Foursquare as its location provider. This means that the "name this location" tool when uploading photos will use data from Facebook's own Places platform rather than Foursquare. As the feature is still in its testing phase, only a subset of users will see the change.
The move makes sense for Facebook, might rather use its own platform rather than sharing Instagram's data with one of its potential competitors. "Foursquare is a great partner, and people will continue to be able to share their check-ins to Foursquare from Instagram," an Instagram spokesperson told CNET. Although Instagram says otherwise, its a no brainer that the question is not if, but when will the swap happen.
Apart from the Facebook-owned photo-sharing service, which boasts more than 200 million users, many other popular social apps like Path, Pinterest, Vine, Yahoo's Flickr, and more also use Foursquare's location database. Even Uber, the ride-sharing startup, taps into Foursquare's location data to help its drivers and passengers find an exact pickup location.
Although Foursquare has more than 45 million registered users, a complete disassociation from Instagram would definitely be problematic. The 5-year-old service is currently focused on competing with Yelp in the local search arena.
"We've worked with Facebook and Instagram for a while, and they're great partners," a Foursquare spokesperson said.
