MarsBot - Local recommendations based on where you go. By Foursquare.

@rrhoover @dens I'd wager that the interesting thing here exactly is the dedicated app. It's basically the same Foursquare intelligence, delivered differently. Foursquare already sends passive notifications; Marsbot seems like a more powerful, more personable, more interactive version of that. Foursquare is about the content; Marsbot is dedicated to the discovery process. Then again, that's all conjecture!

@cdohertyk @rrhoover @dens We did discuss building into the OG apps, but felt that it would seem like a tacked on feature and get lost in amongst the other great features there. We wanted to try out a new app and a new communication style. Notifications (esp on iOS) tend to go into a black hole, plus there is little interaction you can have with them.

@marissachacko @cdohertyk @rrhoover @dens Notifications are dead, long live SMS! I dread the thought of the 'Messages' app becoming our new 'inbox'.

@oliverwaters @marissachacko @cdohertyk @rrhoover @dens The use of SMS was hotly debated here at Foursquare. I find SMS on the iPhone much more straightforward than push notifications, but we all have busy Messages App, so we designed something that fits in really well in terms of how often it messages you. We'll be listening closely over the coming weeks to see how this aspect of Marsbot is received.

Neat idea ... Is there any data attached to back up a recommendation?

@roryoo Each recommendations comes with a link to the Foursquare page. You'll also be able to type "MORE" or "MORE DETAILS" and Marsbot will give you information on when it's open, the address, what people like there, etc. In the future, maybe we can support more questions.

@tollerton It is a number that you text, but we need the app in order to get your location.

@tollerton It's based on passively tracking where you go so needs an app running on your phone

@maxsklar I was thinking more like Foursquare for Slack where the user would manually mention their location in the conversation. E.g “Mezcal cocktails in East Village”

@tollerton that's how it was in the beta. Alas you can't give SMS apps your location!

@tollerton like your thinking :)

@snk I find Swarm and Foursquare to be two of the most useful apps I have installed. If you don't like Foursquare, I'm not sure why Marsbot would be any more useful.... it's just a different interface.

@lukamarr If iOS goes well we should be able to spin up android quickly, but since we've been live for less than 2 hours hard to predict ...

@marissachacko @lukamarr Fair enough, ha

@tuxracer fair point, but right now we are trying to develop bots in an app environment, so in order to have rich contextual data to personalize (location / identity / memory), we need an app (because Apple, Google & FB won't provide any other means) ... developing bots on messaging clients will be cross-platform but at the moment still seems like very limited and would degrade the experience we wanted to provide (something beyond a question and answer experience). Ultimately we have to push the platforms on this one, but I agree with your sentiment

@vukovicnikola This is a very limited release right now - we're only accepting users in the United States.

@maxsklar I think you should give non-US users some indication of this in the app. Right now it just seems like it's broken + builds wrong expectations

@vukovicnikola Yeah, it shouldn't have been in the non-US app stores. Sorry about that!

@vukovicnikola @maxsklar Sorry we meant only to release it in the US app store, our bad!

@vukovicnikola same problem with 🇨🇭, +41 XX XXX XX XX

I love it! 2016 is the Year of #ConvComm! @chrismessina @marsbotapp @foursquare

@hashim Yeah, but that's actually exactly what we do in Foursquare today. Marsbot's location engine is built off of the same technology that powers Foursquare.

@maxsklar @hashim Any early data on increased propensity to check-in with Marsbot? Really curious!

@xstex Same for france.

@xstex it is US only, right. A screen telling you that it is would've been nice..

@janebersbach @xstex Sorry our bad ... accidentally published to UK store when should have been US only.

@marissachacko it's available in the German store as well.

@janebersbach Sorry about that, you still seeing it? should have pulled by now

@mcmurrak @dens @foursquare @marsbot Everyone is waitlisted now. I'll start taking people off once I finish answering questions!

Nothing personal - everyone is waitlisted! We'll be starting to take people off soon.

@coreyo If you search "find a beer bar", it'll run Foursquare's recommendation algorithm, and give you the top-listed result. You can text Marsbot and get a response (it's fun!) but we're not emphasizing that as the killer feature, since opening the Foursquare app would get you something similar. The main idea here is going to be how Marsbot begins to fill out your profile (in the notebook) automatically as you live your life, and then repackages notifications in a more lightweight and timely way. To improve over the coming weeks, we're going to look at the messages we're sending to users and find ways to increase the valuable ones and remove the less valuable ones.

@jfornear you can thank @mari18 for the original mascot which lives on in Swarm, Foursquare and now Marsbot!

@thomas_howard1 SMS is really difficult to do internationally. Dealing with the regulations and pricing alone would be a nightmare! I'm the only engineer on this full time so we can't have that right away - we're going to test and iterate on what we've got first.

@maxsklar yes, but I WANT to use my US number! However I'm locked into the country code based on my geo-location. Why can't I choose my country code?