Snapchat’s parent company Snap has struck a deal to access Foursquare’s location data. The latter is best known for its location and discovery app, which now boasts a database of more than 87 million real-life places, such as businesses, bars, restaurants, and markets. Foursquare’s data will power Snapchat’s geofilters — location-centric graphics that can be overlaid on to images and videos within the visual messaging app.
Until now, geofilters circulated by the app have generally been tied to broader locations such as cities, major sports arenas and events. The Foursquare partnership will open up the feature to a lot more people and services around the globe. It could, for example, power Snapchat’s custom geofilters tool — which allows users to create their own graphics for a price — essentially allowing for more information to be added to filters related to special events and occasions. Foursquare compiles its data by tapping into a variety of communication signals, including GPS, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth to determine where exactly a phone is located.
Foursquare’s data could also prove a boon for brands and marketers. Here’s how the company describes potential use cases for businesses on Snapchat: “Consider a surf brand. Now that we’re powering Snapchat Geofilters, the company could offer branded Geofilters at a chain of surf shops or at every beach in the U.S. Or a soda company may now purchase Geofilters across all fast food and convenience store locations.”
The onset of more sponsored geofilters will inevitably result in more cash in Snapchat’s pocket. Additional revenue options are critical to a company gearing up for an initial public offering.
Users too should welcome more geofilters that represent places they frequent or have a strong connection to, such as local parks, farmers’ markets, and bars. The data could also come in handy for snaps captured via the company’s new video-recording sunglasses, Spectacles, which are all about sharing your activity outdoors.
Foursquare claims it will not receive Snapchat user data as part of the deal. The platform already provides its data services to other tech companies, including Apple Twitter, Uber, and Pinterest. Foursquare was also one of the first brands to advertise on Snapchat’s Discover channel, where it ran promos for its Swarm check-in app.
Discord is trying to push more visibility on the internet for some of its biggest communities, and there's a good chance your messages could end up in a Google Search. The platform is preparing to make conversations from certain public servers searchable on the web, so there's a privacy setting you might want to check before the rollout begins.
According to Discord's official announcement, the changes will roll out in two stages. Starting November 16, qualifying servers will have public web pages featuring automated summaries of conversations. By mid-December, individual messages from eligible public channels could also appear word-for-word in Google and other search engines.
You just opened X and started typing your thoughts. Imagine the jump scare when a hand suddenly pops up on your screen, pointing at the promote button. It doesn’t say a word and simply points. For a growing number of X users, this isn’t a made-up scenario but something they have been seeing since yesterday, and very few of them are amused.
Most of us have learned to tune out the usual in-app upsells, whether it’s a glowing upgrade banner or a pop-up about a premium plan. A floating hand hovering over your draft is much harder to ignore, and that’s probably the whole point.
Scroll through any app for five minutes, and you’ll find someone maxxing something. Their skin, their sleep, their protein intake, even their Friday night on the couch. That little suffix has been everywhere this year, and now it has a trophy to show for it. In a recent announcement, Dictionary.com named maxxing its 2026 Word of the Year.
What are people actually doing when they’re maxxing?