Uber rolls out new features in its rider and driver app

Uber, the US online taxi hailing company, on Friday rolled out new features in its riders and driver app, to make it a more personalised experience.

Features like shortcuts, calendar integration, and people search, promises to make the cab-booking a faster and personalised with an improved performance on 2G and 3G networks.

"We rolled out this new app, built ground up globally, with a strong focus on improving on all these fronts," said an Uber spokersperson.

Uber's new 'Destination first' feature lets users choose the destination first as the app asks "Where to?" as soon as the cab-booking process is initiated.

With shortcuts, the app learns from a frequent user's routine and predicts the destinations.

Uber's "Calendar integration", will allow riders to connect their calendar with the app which will mark the user's appointments and meetings as shortcuts.

Additionally, Uber will be soon rolling out a feature that would make the destination of a user not a place but a person.

"We know that people use Uber to meet friends, whether it is at a concert or a night out. This means the rider's destination is often a person," said the spokesperson.

The feature will enable riders to set their destination to a person instead of a place for which the riders will have to sync their contacts with their app, type their name in the search bar.

"Once they have shared their location, the rider will get moving," announced the spokesperson.

The new app rolled out November 2, 2016, and will be available globally all on iOS and Android in the coming days.

--IANS

qd/rn