Apps I liked in 2015 —

• Swiggy — When I first heard about Swiggy from my boss, Gokul Nath Sridhar, I thought it wouldn’t be different from the popular food-delivery startups like Foodpanda, Tinyowl or a standalone app like Zomato Order. They stand out because the control the logistics, amazing UX in their mobile and web apps and the over-the-top consistent delivery experience, which is the most important thing for a food-delivery startup.
• RedBus — Limited bus services have tracking enabled in them so you can know where they’re before you board. This was especially useful for me when I left for Chennai from Bengaluru on Christmas eve considering the fact that ‘traffic jam’ is a usual phenomenon. Periodic text messages about the location of the bus after it crossed bus stops (4 stops before your boarding point) with the ETA mentioned and apology if it is delayed. Best of them is the phone call to inform that the next stop for the bus is your boarding point.
• Pocket — The introduction of recommending articles and a separate recommendation feed in which you can even follow people, is a good (albeit expected) product update!
• Tenreads — To be honest, the product has come a long way in the course of the whole year, with the introduction of local editions, to the unveiling of mobile apps (iOS and Android), to Project Octopus and the latest UI changes in our web app. Some users have told us that they use our product everyday and that’s what we strive for (in a bigger scale). We still have a long way to go!