When you’re out and about, check in to unlock specials and score deals, to let your friends know what you’re up to, and to catalogue your experiences!

Tap the Check In button (says, 'check in') in the home screen to check in to the venue you’re perusing, or to load places nearby. Tap the place you’re at, then add a shout, upload a photo, and share to Facebook/Twitter if you so desire before tapping ‘check in.’

To check in privately, tap the icon that looks like a group of people so that it changes to a lock icon on your check in screen. Private check-ins won’t count toward mayorships and check-in totals on place pages, but they’ll still show up in your check-in history. You can only make a check-in private before tapping ‘check in.’ You cannot retroactively change a shared check-in into a private check-in, nor vice versa.

Mentioning your friends  
When you check in to a place or comment on a check-in, you can ‘mention’ one or more of your friends. Start typing your friend’s name and you should see their full name and profile photo pop up in the bottom left corner of the shout box. Tap the box to ‘mention’ your friend (if he/she is friends with the person who checked in, this will send them a notification that you have mentioned them in your check-in). If you mention your friends and share the check-in to Twitter, their Twitter handles will automatically be added in place of their names, if they’ve already linked their Twitter and Foursquare accounts.

Note: when you mention a friend, you are *not* checking him/her in. Likewise, when a friend mentions you, he/she is not checking you in, either.

When a friend ‘mentions’ you in his/her check-in, only his/her friends can see your name and tap through to see your public profile. You can opt out of being mentioned on Facebook or Twitter by going to ‘My Settings’ in your app, then ‘Account Settings,’ and ‘Privacy Settings.’ Uncheck the box next to, “When my friends check in with me, it’s okay to include my name on their check-in tweets or Facebook wall posts.’

Checking in to events
If a place has an event going on (like a Jay-Z concert, or if a movie like “Magic Mike” is playing), when you tap the Check In button, then the place you’re checking in to, you should be prompted to check in to one of the events happening at that place. You can tap the event to check in to it, or choose, ‘just check me in.’ If you opt to check in to the event, the name of the event will show up as a part of your check-in in the Friends feed.

Deleting a check-in
If you want to delete a check-in from the app, you can do so by tapping through to the check-in detail. On iPhone, tap the 'send' icon (to the right of the comment box), then tapping the red ‘delete’ button. On Android, tap 'Delete' just above the comment box.

You can also do so by going to https://foursquare.com/history when you are logged in to the website and hovering to click on the arrow of the check-in you wish to remove. Once you’re in the check-in detail view, click ‘Delete check-in’ on the bottom right corner remove the check-in from your history.

Please note that a deleted check-in cannot be restored. If you delete a check-in that contributed to a badge unlock or mayorship, you will lose the badge and/or mayorship. Any photos attached to the check-in will also be removed.

Some guidelines 

You should check in when you go to a place and spend some time there. We don't set limits on check-ins, but if our system thinks you're checking into too many places in a short amount of time, checking into places that are too far to reasonably travel between, or consistently checking into places that are far from where your device thinks you are, we won't award points, badges, or mayorships for your check-in. 

Some good rules of thumb: Only check into a place that you are actually at (and not places you're just walking by). Only check in or add places that other people would actually want to check into, for example: cafe, restaurant, bar, park, grocery store, office, the gym in your apartment building, your dry cleaner. Examples of venues that you should *not* check into (nor add to our database): your cubicle, your car, your bathroom, your friend's mom's house.

Foursquare is meant to be a social utility that helps you connect with your friends and track your own personal history, so keep your check-ins real for maximum fun and usefulness. Nobody likes fake venues or someone who checks in on every single corner they walk by, or every metro station their train passes through.  

You can also read our House Rules here.