Yelp announced a new deal today that will make its service the centerpiece of HTC's latest smartphone.
Last month, the HTC One M9 went on sale in the U.S. In a new integration deal, information from Yelp's mobile app will flow directly into the lock screen to serve up suggestions to users.
Using Yelp's Nearby feature and its search API, users will see recommendations for local businesses and suggestions for where to go for a meal depending on location and time of day. Yelp says the lock-screen service will be an opt-in choice for users.
The move is part of a broader trend to leverage data, location, and mobile devices to create predictive services that tell people what they might want before they know themselves.
"We're thrilled to be integrating Yelp content into the user experience of HTC's new flagship phone, giving M9 customers the ability to explore all of the great local businesses around them," said Drew Bamford, corporate vice president of HTC Creative Labs, in a statement.
In addition, Yelp will be part of HTC's BlinkFeed service, which also gives users the option of having a host of different service stream updates to the lock screen.
The deal has echoes of Facebook's ill-fated deal to be the default home screen on the HTC First a couple of years ago. But that deal involved a deeper integration and co-development of the phone between the companies that resulted in a gadget that almost no one bought.
Still, companies are clearly trying to figure out how they can become the primary experience for people on their smartphones.