Version 7.0 of the Yelp app was released yesterday, with the notable inclusion of the ability to submit reviews of local businesses from within the app itself. The new update has been released first on iOS with Android set to follow soon.
The upgrade marks a change in policy for Yelp compared to back in 2009 when their VP of Consumer and Mobile products Eric Singley explained that the company deliberately wanted to avoid people making reviews via mobile devices to keep the quality of reviews high, citing a desire to avoid ‘text speak’ style reviews.
The new version of the Yelp App does address this concern though, allowing users to jot down quick notes on a location and save them as a draft before completing a full review later and listing short submission on a business as ‘tips’ rather than ‘reviews’, though users will still be free to go back and expand on these ‘tips’ later to transform them into full reviews.
It’s likely that this change in policy regarding the Yelp App comes as the company is feeling the competition from FourSquare and Facebook, both of which allow users to post their feelings on a business they’ve just used from their mobile device, without having to follow up on their review later.
So far Yelp has made no mention of when (or indeed, if) Blackberry or Windows Phone users can expect to see a version for them.
