Foursquare Founder Launches AI DJ App for Local Updates

4 hours ago7 min read

Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley has unveiled his latest venture, BeeBot, an AI-powered DJ app that delivers contextual audio updates directly to your ears as you navigate your day. This isn't the check-in culture Crowley popularized over fifteen years ago; it’s a more intimate, ambient layer of digital interaction, designed specifically for an era dominated by wearable audio.Imagine your AirPods—or any headphones, really—transforming into a personal guide that whispers snippets about nearby people, places, and events, all powered by a TikTok-style algorithm but focused on the physical world around you. Crowley describes it as an app that activates the moment you put your earbuds in and silences itself when you take them out, creating a seamless, almost subconscious flow of information.To make this magic happen, you’ll grant BeeBot access to your location and feed it keywords about your interests, and optionally, your contacts, so it can alert you if a friend is serendipitously nearby. The AI DJ, with its synthetic voice, then curates a soundscape of your immediate environment, pulling from local Substacks, newsletters, and friend updates to paint an audio portrait of your neighborhood.In many ways, Crowley is attempting to recapture the playful, serendipitous spirit of the original Foursquare, but stripped of the gamified mayorships and badges, and instead, woven into the very fabric of your daily auditory experience. There’s even a hint of DNA from Marsbot, Foursquare’s underrated, proactive recommendation bot from 2016, which sought to anticipate your needs before you even voiced them.BeeBot operates on a similar principle of proactive discovery, though it’s broader in scope, aiming to surface not just restaurant tips but also local gossip and happenings. The app, the first project from Crowley’s new Hopscotch Labs, is available now, though he openly admits it’s a work in progress, comparing its current state to Foursquare’s initial launch at SXSW in 2009—a promising vision awaiting user input to fully blossom. For designers and creatives, this represents a fascinating evolution in user experience, moving from screens we stare at to soundscapes we inhabit, a subtle but profound shift in how we interact with technology and our surroundings.

#BeeBot

#Dennis Crowley

#location-based app

#AI DJ

#neighborhood updates

#AirPods

#Hopscotch Labs

#featured

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