Facebook has introduced ‘Place Tips’, a new feature which is expected to give competition to location-based service Yelp.
Place Tips will operate on the devices GPS, which will trigger a pink colored notification on users’ News Feed if the user is near a location that they might like or a friend has visited.
Upon clicking the notification, users will be presented with virtual cards that will give details of the nearby location including reviews to photos and posts.
Place Tips is not an app and will be a default feature. Users unwilling to use the feature will have to turn it off through the "Location" settings.
The company has also confirmed that tapping into the feature will not disclose location or post things on to the wall, and it will not track GPS and Wi-Fi.
The company is also planning to use Bluetooth beacons to facilitate the operation of the service for offline use.
Facebook product manager for Place Tips Mike LeBeau said: "In certain places, we’re also testing place tips using Facebook Bluetooth beacons, which send a signal to your phone that helps us show you the right tips for the right place."
"We’ll be testing these in a handful of businesses in New York such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Dominique Ansel Bakery, Strand Book Store, the burger joint at Le Parker Meridien Hotel, Brooklyn Bowl, Pianos, the Big Gay Ice Cream Shop and Veselka."
Presently, Place Tips has been rolled out to high-traffic areas in New York City like Central Park, the Brooklyn Bridge, Times Square, the Statue of Liberty, and JFK Airport, reported Business Insider.
