Swarm had an interesting and potentially successful idea with its location-based social network. The app allowed users to post ideas for what to do that day, such as going to a bar or just hanging out, which was cool and all but there was no way to filter certain people out. That meant that you’d basically be inviting everyone to hang out, including people you didn’t want. Fortunately the app addressed this issue in a new update and now allows for direct, private messaging.
Swarm has today launched private messaging within its location-based social network, ditching options to hop out of the app for a call, text message, or a Facebook message. With this update also comes the elimination of the Plans tab, where users would be able to post ideas (let’s get a beer) to their friends publicly. Turns out, that whole system is really awkward. Of all the friends you’d like to keep track of on Swarm, only a small handful of them are people you want to hang out with at this very moment. Limit that again by proximity and users are left asking 100 people to dinner when they meant to ask one or two. Direct messaging solves that by offering a private way to ask someone to hang out, as well as a private way to turn someone down. This eliminates any chance of a friend responding to your public plan when you didn’t actually want that specific friend to respond, and also eliminates the possibility that you might be the unwanted friend, responding to a message that was never really intended for you.
