You Can Now Align the Yelp App to Your Lifestyle, Diet, Interests & Other Preferences

People are becoming more and more conscious not only about what they eat, but also how they spend their time. Yelp is in a unique position to address this need. Today, we are rolling out a new experience that allows people to tailor their Yelp app based on their interests, diet, lifestyle, and things they love to do most. We’re starting an open conversation with people to genuinely get to know their preferences, giving them the control to transform the Yelp app — turning it into a personal concierge for all things local, saving them time and energy. By surfacing information that represents the unique flavor of every neighborhood, we are making it easier for people to meaningfully connect with great local businesses. 

With this new update people can make Yelp their own. 

For the first time, when two people with different lifestyles open the Yelp app from the same time and place, their homescreen and the entire search experience will be organized and personalized for them. For example, a gluten-free pet owner who likes hiking and brunch will see a very different homescreen and search experience than a vegetarian parent who loves donuts, farmer’s markets and breweries. How it works

After indicating your preferences, which takes less than two minutes, the app will update in real-time, surfacing businesses and things to do you’re most likely to care about. Your preferences won’t be locked in either. If you decide not to keep halal anymore, or if you want to eat more salads next week, all you need to do is update your preferences and you’ll see these changes reflected in your app.

After your preferences are updated, we’ll do the heavy lifting — you’ll immediately see a new personalized homescreen and search experience. You’ll also see featured shortcuts that surface helpful filters and personalized highlights that tell you why a business is the right fit for you. A uniquely designed Yelp heart symbol will represent how the experience has changed, serving as a thread that brings the whole experience together in a transparent way.

Let’s say you’re a vegan/vegetarian who loves to hike — here’s how your results on the Yelp app might appear:We’re making it easier for you to meaningfully connect with the right businesses based on:

• Dietary Preferences: 32 million¹ Americans have food allergies and many more care about what they eat. Yelp is now surfacing information that helps people discover which restaurants have options for those who are gluten-free, halal, keto, kosher, pescatarian, vegan or vegetarian. Personalized highlights within their search results will identify if a restaurant has some or many food options based on their dietary preferences.
• Food and Drink: People can choose from more than 30 food and drink categories — from brunch to happy hour, and Chinese to pizza — letting Yelp confidently recommend cuisines they’ll enjoy most.
• Interests: The new personalized Yelp experience will suggest more than just restaurants. People can also select their favorite things to do, so Yelp can recommend activities most relevant to them — including surfacing live music bars, farmers markets, date night spots, suggesting kids activities, hikes and more.
• Lifestyle: Parents and pet owners can better plan their next outing with personalized shortcuts to filters. We’re also helping people find their next go-to business, whether that’s a new hair salon, massage spot or landscaper.
• Accessibility: People who need wheelchair accessibility or gender neutral restrooms will benefit from greater visibility of relevant search filters and personalized highlights within their search results.

The preferences you share with Yelp will only be visible to you, and the information will never be shared with a third party. Watch the video below to see how you can personalize your Yelp, and share your personal preferences using #YelpForYou on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook — don’t forget to tag @Yelp.

Personalizing Yelp is now an option for millions of app users, with all iOS users expected to have access this fall. To start personalizing your Yelp experience, download the latest version of the Yelp app in the App Store. Android users can currently access the new search functionality, the full experience will be available over the next year.