Which has the better app experience?
Before we get started, let us make a few assumptions:
Uber and Lyft for our area have the exact same rates. It will cost us the exact same amount to get from Point A to Point B.
In addition, the waiting time for a car for both is identical as well!
And finally, there are no differences in the cars offered by both — the car itself as well as the person driving it.
Having put that aside, which of these two apps (on Android) delivers the better experience? Which would you open first before the other? Let us take a look.
The Main Page
This is the page we see and use most often on both these apps — to check which cars are nearby and what is the ETA for the closest one. Let us do a side by side (top to bottom instead!) comparison for both:
1)A nice big map — Undoubtedly, as one of the most important parts of a ridesharing app requiring your location, the map is given its due importance in both apps.
2)ETA of car — While this information is clearly visible in both, I think that the font size and appearance of the time is not given due importance in both Uber and Lyft.
In Uber, it’s present in a tiny circle in a very small font (I could not see it once without my glasses on and I do not have far sightedness) where as in Lyft, the dark gray font color is a total mismatch for the lighter gray background!
Both can do a better job and display the ETA in big and bold colors as the ETA represents, in my opinion, the most crucial piece of information in a real time ridesharing app.
3)Car Options Available — Both apps show the different options available very well. The car image on the map changes accordingly (when you move from uberX to BLACK CAR or Lyft to Plus) and that’s neat! However, there is one small difference here:
While the circle around a car type in Uber looks like its meant to be pressed to get more information, the same cannot be said for Lyft.
In reality, both can be pressed to show the rates in detail. But the shape of the button for ‘Lyft’ and ‘Plus’ in Lyft seems more like something to be dragged, rather than be pressed.
4) The Rates pop-up window — This part is nearly identical in both. But
Uber displays the ETA as well here, unlike Lyft. I find the placement of this piece of information here very useful as this pop-up is meant to give you all the details you need to make a decision — should I request this car or not?
So, along with price, knowing the ETA is also important to make the choice. Some may say that for Lyft you can still see the time in the background, but it is very faint.
4) Pickup Location textbox — This feature is identical in both apps and I don’t have anything more to say about that!
5) Request a ride — Finally, it is the most important thing you do on the app — request a ride. And Lyft does a brilliant job with this!
It has a big button which does what you expect it to and nothing else! Just a single press and you are done. Simple, quick and elegant!
On the other hand, Uber just tries to do too much here. First, you need to click ‘Set Pickup Location’. Then, you have the following options:
- See which card of yours will be charged
- Perform a fare quote by specifying a drop-off location
- Enter a promo code
While these three are useful functions to be able to perform, one needs to ask if they really need to be present at this stage when all you want to do is request a ride.
It increases the number of steps to request a ride by one more when compared to Lyft.
Instead, what Uber could do is retain the “Set Pickup Location” button on the map but instead call it “More Info” where the user can obtain all this if he wants to. And just like Lyft, it should have a big Request button near the available car options.
Your car is on its way
Once you have requested a ride, both apps display a lot of relevant information —
- Driver info — Name, picture and rating
- Enter Destination — so that the app can guide the driver once you sit in the car
- Your location and the car’s location
- ETA for car
- Contact driver
- Cancel trip request
The above six pieces of information are available in both apps and they both do a good job with it. There are a few minor differences in a few of the six features as follows:
- Uber’s car icon looks more realistic than Lyft’s. It actually seems like a car is moving on the road rather than Lyft’s icon which normally spans more than a block unless you zoom in.
- Uber allows you to even text the driver as a form of contact.
While these are minor, there are a few more pieces of information that one of the two show:
Uber
- Change Payment Mode — I like the option to change payment mode at this stage as when I request a ride, I may not necessarily look into so many details.
- Split Fare — Personally, I haven’t used this feature ever (I just resort to Venmo to charge my friends) but it’s a useful one to have nonetheless.
- Number plate information of the car — Really vital to be able to see this on this page!
Lyft
- Car Appearance — The small thumbnail image of the car which, when clicked, shows a larger image with the number plate information is one the best pieces of information that Lyft provides. It has come of use in various scenarios (especially at night) when just knowing the number plate of the car is not enough and a visual aid is of utmost importance.
I would like to see the number plate information below the image and not just when I click the image. But besides this small complaint, Lyft does a really good job of providing the users with pictures of the car that is going to pick them up. Uber definitely needs to figure out a way to provide this visual information to its users.
I am not getting into the Payment and Rating page after a trip as it is mostly identical, barring the ability to add a tip in the case of Lyft. But this ventures into aspects of the business far beyond just the product and so it is better left untouched here!
To end, I would like to bring your attention to two aspects of the Uber app, one of which is annoying and the other extremely useful:
- Location needs to be ON — I find this extremely irritating as I normally disable Location to preserve battery on my smartphone. But, the Uber app refuses to open and does not go beyond the landing page unless Location is enabled. Lyft does not have this requirement and I prefer it that way as many times I would just like to get a sense of the ETA for a pickup by providing an explicit approximate location. Unfortunately, this is not possible on Uber.
- Notification Panel widget — Uber has a useful widget which appears when you pull the notification bar of your Android phone down. It tells you the Car type, its number plate and its ETA without needing to have the app open!
That were my thoughts on both the ridesharing apps. Which one do you prefer?
