Swarm just made its location-based social network a lot less awkward

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.