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Rider App 4.0 Release Notes

Descriptions of what's changed in the latest rider app release

Nick Milum avatar
Written by Nick Milum
Updated over a week ago

We're excited to roll out a number of new features and improvements. This release includes an updated design to a number of pages throughout the app. Read on to learn what's changed!

What is the release timeline?

The general release date for Rider App 4.0 is June 9. Please note that in order to roll out this update safely, we use a strategy of a gradual rollout. This means that a greater and greater percentage of riders receive the update over the course of one week. This means that 100% of riders will have access to the 4.0 version around June 16-17th.

If you're interested in being part of the beta release for this app, please contact your Spare Representative.

Changes to Design

Below you can see a number of before and after screenshots for particular pages. These changes were made with two principles in mind:

  1. Accessibility, especially as it relates to screen readers and text resizing and

  2. Simplification of common workflows, especially in the settings menu.

The Home Screen

home screen changes are mostly to simplify the UI and add a clock icon as the schedule button

The Settings Menu

settings menu changes help organize settings into clear groups like my trips, payments, and general settings

The Profile Screen

profile screen has been updated to a more modern UI and responsive forms

Single Trip Page

we've added a map to the single trip page and cleaned up the timeline to make it more consistent

Trips Page

scheduled trips page is now just "my trips" and it includes scheduled and past trips

In-Trip Page

the in trip page has a clearer message at the bottom now and riders can still swipe up to see the improved timeline

In-Trip Page 2

this photo is of the swiped up view with the improved timeline

Favorite Locations Page

the favourite locations page and others have a more modern UI now

Payments Page

all payment methods can now be accessed in one place

Agency Search Screen

there's a search bar on the agency search page now, for apps that are for multiple agencies

New Features

Show the Live Location of Fixed Route Vehicles

If your agency 1) uses Spare as your multimodal trip planning tool and 2) publishes GTFS Real Time data, this update is for you! You can now show the live location of fixed route vehicles directly in the Spare app. Help riders make connections between your on demand and fixed route services with greater ease.

Customize the Home Screen with Fixed Route Lines

If your agency 1) uses Spare as your multimodal trip planning tool and 2) shares GTFS Schedule data with Spare, this update is for you! You can now customize the home screen of the app to choose which fixed route lines to show.

Head to Settings -> General -> Rider Interface -> Fixed Route Shapes Configuration and you'll see an ability to choose by agency and route type. Here's an example:

This photo shows where in Spare Operations you can configure the fixed route shapes and then has an example in Vancouver shown on the right

Interactive Map & Stops

Riders can easily set a pickup and dropoff location from the home screen by just tapping on it:

This photo shows the UI for a stop, with "set as dropoff" and "set as pickup" as the buttons

If it's an address, it'll look like this:

same as image above

Or riders can select stops and learn more information about them:

  1. From Spare Operations, set the stop as "Visible to Rider App"

  2. If you'd like to add an icon to the stop and make it more prominent to riders, mark it as "Important"

  3. Choose an icon and add an optional image:

this photo shows where to configure stop information in Spare Operations, as per the instructions above

Customize the Account Menu

Agencies can now add URLs, phone numbers, and email addresses to the account menu. To do this, navigate to Settings -> General -> Rider Interfaces -> Custom Links. Here's an example of a phone number:

This photo shows an example of a Phone Custom link, where the rider presses on it and it opens up the calling app to make a phone call

Agencies can also remove certain items from the account menu if they're not utilized by riders. For example, Fleet Agreements are useful for agencies utilizing Open Fleets and sending trips to other providers. But this menu item might not be useful for your riders, so you can choose to remove it. To do so, navigate to Setting -> General -> Rider Interfaces -> Hidden Account Menu Items and choose what to remove.

Changes to the Trip Options Page

Shows the new design of the trip option, which includes trip duration, earliest pickup, latest dropoff, and any walking distances, and price

We're bringing changes to the trip options that riders see. The intention is to make it easier to glance through multiple options and choose the best one. For the changes below, please remember there are three types of trips:

  1. Leave ASAP - the rider wants to leave right now

  2. Leave At - the rider wants to leave at a certain time

  3. Arrive by - the rider wants to arrive by a certain time

There are also two ways of displaying time information to riders:

  1. Show Windows - pickup and dropoff windows are communicated to the rider

  2. Show Estimated Times - just estimated times are communicated to the rider

In the examples below, you'll see combinations of all of these:

Leave ASAP

before and after of leave at using the new design from above

Leave At

Arrive By

before and after of arriveBy using the new design from above

Some of the core benefits of this change include:

  • Riders can see trip duration now, a key part of a rider's choice for which service to ride and helpful information on this apge

  • Riders can also easily see walking distance at a glance and compare options with this in mind

  • Lastly, riders can know the times they might be travelling between - the earliest possible leave time to the latest possible arrival time

For agencies, this change also comes with a helpful feature: Service External Names. When editing a service, you'll notice a new field for Service External Names. If you have lengthy names for your services, this is a good way of cleaning it up for riders. Now, you can have a name that helps identify services internally like "City-Hopper Microtransit in Vancouver" but just a short name that riders know like "City-Hopper" displayed to them.

Shows where in Spare you can configure the Service External Name, following the instructions from above

Lastly, this change is especially helpful when showing other trip options, like those utilizing fixed route services.

Here's an example

An example of multimodal trip planning options in the rider app

Changes to the Trip Timeline & Trip Pages

An image of the new badge shown to riders in the timeline that says "Pickup between 2:00-2:30, Estimated pickup time will be shown 45 min before your ride"

There are some design changes, as seen in the comparison at the beginning of this article above under "Single Trip Page". However, there are also some functional differences that we'll describe here.

Firstly, there are two ways of communicating pickup and dropoff times to riders, and you have the choice of which type to use: Windows or Estimated Times.

Showing Pickup and Dropoff Windows

When the rider is scheduling a trip, they'll see the pickup/dropoff windows only

Riders will see the new badge when scheduling in advance

When the rider is checking on a scheduled trip that's far in advance, they'll see the pickup/dropoff windows only

Riders will see the new badge when checking on a trip that is more than 45 mins away

When the trip is <45 minutes away, the rider will see pickup/dropoff windows alongside an estimated pickup and dropoff time

Riders will now see the ETA when the trip is less than 45 mins away

Showing Estimated Times

When the rider is scheduling, checking on a scheduled trip, or the trip is <45 minutes away, the rider will only see estimated pickup and dropoff times

With this service setting, riders will always see the ETA. This image shows this in the timeline view.

Email Login

Now, your riders can login with their email address in addition to their phone number. To do this, simply tap "Continue with email" and follow the prompts from there. For email login to be available for a rider, they must have that email address saved on their profile.

This image shows a rider logging in using email, receiving the verification code, and entering it.

Notifications for Rider Representatives (Caregivers)

You can learn more about how Rider Representatives works here. This feature allows you to designate caregivers for particular riders and allow those caregivers to book on behalf of riders using the app. Caregivers can track their riders' trips as well.

In this release, we've added the ability for both the rider and caregiver to receive notifications. Previously, just the rider received these notifications.

Changes to "Driver Arriving" and Trip page

This is another "Before & After" design change, but there are some functional changes to note:

  • The blue banner for the driver arriving now shows up 45 minutes before the scheduled trip time. Previously, it was 30 minutes.

  • And if it's <15 minutes before the scheduled trip time, the app will just automatically open up to the trip-page.

This photo shows the new driver arriving banner, which is now at the top and a lighter blue colour

We've also slightly changed the screen when riders are waiting for their trip:

  • We've removed the "see vehicle on map in X min" as we received feedback that this was confusing to users

  • We increased the time where the vehicle will show on the map from 8 minutes before the trip to 20 minutes before

  • And we've hidden the vehicle's location to users when the vehicle is on a break

This photo shows a before and after of the in trip page, where the "see vehicle on map in X min" badge is removed

Add Favourites from the Search Screen

Easily add new favourite locations from the new search screen by simply tapping on the heart next to the address:

This photo shows that you can now tap on a heart icon next to the address to set the address as a favourite

Auto Verification Code for Android

Users on Android can now benefit from a feature that has been available on iOS - auto verficiation code input. When a user goes to log in and receives a code via SMS, the Spare app now automatically detects that code and prefills it in the app.

Here's how it works:

This is a gif showing a rider logging in using Android and receiving the verification code automatically

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