Foursquare check-in photos go public

Foursquare touted yesterday’s updates for iPhone and Android strictly as improvements to Explore, but little bits and pieces keep getting discovered. The latest is a nice addition for anyone who shares photos on foursquare.
A new privacy option has been implemented when you add a photo to a check-in. You can now choose to leave it private, as check-in photos have always been, or make it public. This makes it visible right on the venue page for anyone to see.
It should help to increase the number of venue photos on foursquare significantly, since many check-in photos are also well suited to be venue photos. Photos of food, the building, etc. often have little reason to be private. Since the toggle is on by default, we’ll probably see an influx of photos that probably should be kept private, but at least everyone has the option to make them private.

The division between the two types of photos never made much sense. I often found myself adding photos to foursquare in two different ways, depending on the content on the photo. Family photos went up as check-in photos, while general pictures of the venue went up as venue photos. This left the more public photos less visible and less obvious to my friends since they weren’t attached to the actual check-in. With the new privacy option, I’ll be able to keep them all organized in one place.