The mobile social network Brightkite announced back in September that it would be focusing more on its group texting feature, but today the company announced that it will be officially dropping the check-in function altogether from its service. One of the earliest companies in the location-based social network trend, Brightkite calls today’s announcement to move away from check-in to focus on messaging “the next stage of our evolution.”
Brightkite’s new Android app will roll out with a number of new features, including the ability for the service to be the default text messaging app, focusing on group messaging as well as photo and location sharing. But the new Android app will not have check-ins, posting or stream viewing, and Brightkite says that beginning next week these features will start disappearing from all its apps.
Brightkite was an early mover in the “location” space, even coming first in a poll that asked ReadWriteWeb readers this spring which location-based service they planned to use at SXSW. One of the key features readers said they liked about Brightkite was its attention to privacy, allowing users to finely tune what location data they revealed and to whom. But since as location-based networks have taken off in popularity this year, Brightkite’s name has not made headlines quite like its competitors Foursquare and Gowalla have.
According to Brightkite, this pivot will allow the company to focus on becoming “the default text messaging application on all phones” – which one might note, is a field no less crowded than location-based check-in services.
For those who want to get their check-in data from Brightkite, you have until December 31 to download it via RSS.
