Yelp has been around since the early 200s and has been through a few iterations already. However, the latest update to the mobile app is the first time that they are bringing personalization into the digital concierge for all things local. This means that each user will have a different experience of the app based on what their lifestyle and preferences are. Both the home screen and even the entire search experience will depend on what you tell the app you’re looking for.
The first thing you have to do of course is to set up your preferences on your profile. You will be able to “meaningfully connect with the right businesses” based on these different factors. You can now indicate your Dietary Preferences and choose restaurants that are gluten-free, halal, keto, kosher, pescatarian, vegan or vegetarian. You can also choose from among 30 food and drink categories to narrow down your options even more.
Aside from eating-related options, you can also now choose your Interests and tell the app what are your favorite things to do and they’ll show suggestions of places and events you can check out. You can also choose your lifestyle options like parents, pet owners, singles, etc. Lastly, you can also now include accessibility features in the places you’re looking for like showing only places where there are wheelchair ramps or gender-neutral restrooms.
Once you’ve toggled on and off your preferences, you can now let Yelp do all the work using machine learning and AI. You’ll almost immediately see your personalized home screen and search experience. There will also be featured shortcuts showing filters as well as personalised highlights. Businesses don’t need to do anything to fit in the right category since most of the information here is user-sourced.
Yelp assures its users that none of your preferences and information will be shared with a third party and hopefully that is really true. Update your Yelp app to the latest version to start your personalization.
