Since details were recently revealed about Apple’s iOS 6, the upcoming mobile operating system due for release in the fall, we’ve been bringing you plenty of details. Today we have news that the Apple Maps app supported by iOS 6 could feature location check-ins via Yelp.
If accurate this could be big news as iPhone and iPad users haven’t been privy to location broadcasting before without using a third-party app and we’re interested to find out if users of iOS devices would welcome this development. We recently told how iOS 6 had bypassed Google Maps for its own Apple Maps app and one of the details we noted about this new feature was Yelp integration with millions of business listings. There are further details of iOS 6 coming out all the time (see our previous articles here) and it seems that the Yelp involvement may be further advanced than we initially thought.
An article on 9to5Mac, sourced from Bloomberg, tells how Apple developer kits handed out to software developers seem to contain screenshots of Yelp check-ins within Apple Maps. Check-ins using GPS allow users to share events or businesses they are attending and to see which other friends are visiting the same location. This would mean that iOS 6 device users taking advantage of Yelp check-ins could let friends know their location without opening a new app or leaving Apple Maps.
It has now been more than two years since Yelp launched social location tags for mobile devices so this development is certainly plausible. According to Bloomberg 70% of Yelp’s revenue last year was made from local advertising and the Pew Research Center found this year that 18% of adult smartphone users now use check-ins, thus the move seems to be sensible for both Apple and Yelp. So far neither Apple nor Yelp have commented on this.
We’d like to hear what you think about this latest iOS 6 development and whether you’d use Yelp check-ins so let us have your comments about this.