Yelp has launched a major new update to its app on iOS which includes the use of AI to provide a variety of new features to its users. The new feature was announced in a blog post today. The changes are across the entire app and bring in business summaries, a new home feed, and improved search functionality. Yelp confirmed on the blog post that while the iOS update will be rolling out today, Android is to follow in the future.
The main feature that Yelp is advertising with this update is the addition of AI-powered business summaries which display when navigating to a business page on Yelp. These summaries are generated by AI from recent reviews and pulls forward a short description of what users can expect when visiting a business.
Yelp has also changed the home feed that is initially seen when navigating into the app. It"s added AI power into this area of the app as well which helps to bring relevant photos from across the platform to the forefront of the home page. This can include autoplay video updates from businesses that use Yelp Connect posts as well as collections from Yelp Elite users.
Yelp also goes into further detail on a total of 20 updates that it has brought in today, which improve product reviews, projects, and feature improvements for professionals and business owners on the site. It has also announced a new Yelp for Business homepage which it states will "help business owners to make more informed decisions" and includes AI-driven insights during the onboarding experience for new businesses.
Yelp also says that it will be using LLMs in the future to further improve its feature set over the coming months, to "ease the discovery experience, facilitate more seamless connections with service providers and help local businesses succeed."