There are many people in the world without cars. And those who have this luxury face several issues in big cities like London and Los Angeles like finding a parking spot, traffic, maintaining a vehicle, and all other car-related stuff. People who own a car also many times go with ride-hailing services to avoid such situations. No doubt, in this ride-on-demand domain, Uber is ruling. Started as a small MVP project, it has revamped the way the world commute. Many entrepreneurs find this niche and concept attractive to begin their ventures.
If you are one of them, thinking of investing resources in developing a mobile application similar to Uber, then you are at the right place. We need to set some building blocks first to understand how Uber works in the practical world.
Uber-Like Mobile Application
For delivering phenomenal service to customers, an application similar to Uber is the force that can drive business all the way up. It can provide convenience to users to avail services right from their comfort zone. However, keep in mind to include all the features necessary to build a robust user experience, along with essential modules. There must be options to let them earn more by accessing more ride requests on the driver side.
PROCESS:
Number of Apps Required
Connecting passengers with drivers is the purpose of the ride-booking app. Three applications serve as ingredients to complete this dish.
Passenger Application
This application allows users to book a ride. Real-time car tracking, connecting with the nearest driver, route updates, driver profile, and payment channels are some of the features to include in it.
Driver Application
The driver app lets drivers share their current location and accepting rides. The feature set of this app is a schedule or real-time ride requests, tracking payments, and confirming trip details.
Admin Panel
Admin panel is usually is in the form web, accessible from browsers. It is like the backstage of the app where all crucial things take place. You can generate reports, visualize analytics, and modify features from it.
Along with these three mentioned applications, a backend is also the requirement to control all these.
How to Make it Perfect?
The perfection not only lies in hiring the best programmer or mobile application development company; it is all about the seamless performance of the app that makes it a winner. If we put things together and establish a connection between them, we get five working principles. Let’s see how you can develop a similar mobile application by adopting the following steps.
Step # 1: Customer Request a Ride
After users install an app on their smartphone, they use it to book a ride when they need it. The app makes customers visible to all the registered nearby drivers and shares the contact details as soon as any driver accepts the ride request.
Step # 2: Matching with the Right Partner
When the driver receives the request on their mobile application, they can either accept it or decline. It will pass to the other driver if the one does not accept it.
Step # 3: Confirming a Ride
The user can view the location of the cab driver once its contact information becomes visible to the driver. They are also given the estimated time of arrival (ETA).
Step # 4: Confirming a Payment
While booking a ride, the Uber app shows the estimated ride cost, which is nearly accurate. Besides, an option to perform cashless payment make the process struggle free for driver and customer.
Step # 5: Review and Rating
In the last step, when the ride gets complete, both rider and user can rate each other and provide feedback based on their experience.
So, whether you think of hiring Mobile app development services in London or any other state for Uber-like app development, adhere to these five steps to achieve a seamless, trouble-free operation.
Technological Stack for Developing an App like Uber
Functionalities and features are not the only things to focus on. We need enough powerful technologies to power up the app and bring it into action. This part will tell you the technical requirements specific to develop an on-demand cab booking mobile application.
Geolocation
As apps like Uber rely mainly on location, Map, and navigations, the necessity of geolocation service prevails. It is the main ingredient of the entire dish.
For identifying the location correctly, Google’s API locators come into play on Android devices and CoreLocation on the iOS side. However, the implementation of Map in the shape of Google Maps is available on both iOS and Android devices. You can go with the purchase of other mapping software projects as well as an alternative.
For iOS, you can use MapKit to provide precise directions to drivers, and in Android phones, Google Maps API replicates the same process.
Push Notifications
Another significant feature after geolocation is the push notification system and message exchange service inside the application. It is paramount to create a reliable interaction channel for riders and drivers to share their details. From accepting a ride to the competition or cancellation, every update is apparent in the notifications, making it an integral part of the service.
Alternatively, you can implement push notification and geolocation more straightforwardly using the backend as a service (BaaS). BaaS already has these two features on the platform, which tends to minimize the development effort.
Short Message Service
Improving communication further can be done by integrating a short message service (SMS). Users, due to poor network connection, unable to receive notifications from the app. So, in that case, SMS service can do the job as a secondary option. It will send the user an updated status of their ride in the absence of notifications.
Payment Channel Integration
On the development side, the integration of payment modes is a significant and challenging task to handle. There is a need for card payment in a cab booking app to avoid any problems later on. Compliance with the regulatory bodies, legislation, and state policies for securing digital and transactional data is vital to proceed with the payment channels integration. If you aim to release an app globally, you must understand different regions’ policies and implement functionality accordingly.
COST:
The mobile application development cost relies on multiple factors. Geographical location, set of features, complexities, company profile, technological stack, development type, and platform are some of them. The primary factors which affect the price heavily are as follows:
UI Designing
Module integration
App type
Developers’ skill and rate
On-going Maintenance
TIP:
If you assume that it is enough to know the entire Uber app structure and technologies to begin with the app building, you are mistaking.
To be able to survive in the competition, taking a reputable app development company onboard is foremost. They understand the market tactics better than you and adopt the proven working mechanism with innovation to develop and deploy apps in the market.
Closing
People who are stepping into the tech world to start their business journey are majorly focusing on the ideas like Uber. The idea is exceptional, no doubt, but comprehensive market research, robust strategy, and the best development require to bring this idea into reality with success.
So, if you aim to be successful, let Cubix make this possible for you.