5 Popular Taxi and Ride-sharing Apps for Android Users in the U.S.
If you are residing in the United States, you will find all the taxi apps that we are going to talk about here. Those from other countries may not find what they’re looking for. Here are the 5 Popular Taxi and Ride-sharing Apps for Android Users in the U.S.
Hailing a ride is going through a Renaissance phase now. There are several companies like Uber and Lyft that are making their taxis cool again and tons of new companies are venturing into the segment. You will find many of them out there. They all promise the same thing. To use or hail any of such services to enjoy a ride you need to use the app, it shows up, takes you where you need to go, and then you pay them money for the ride.
However, many of them aren’t all that great yet. Let’s have a closer look and compare the best taxi apps and ride sharing apps if you are an Android user.
1. Uber
Price: Free / Ride costs vary
This is undoubtedly the biggest name in the ride-sharing segment. They operate all over the world and often get in trouble for their strategies. This service works like most other services, though. You book a ride, go places, and pay for it when you’re done. This app supports payments from Android Pay and PayPal and Android Pay. You can also review drivers, plan your rides for the near future, and there are a few ride options also. It has similar complaints as others, which includes pricing, various charges, and stuff like that. Still, people trust Uber a lot more than smaller companies.
2. Lyft
Price: Free / Ride costs vary
Lyft is also a popular ride-sharing app available for Android users. Most people know how this app works. You can find a taxi, hire it, and pay the driver once it’s done. Lyft will display the price of the ride upfront so you know in advance. Also, you can split the cost with friends directly in the app. It also has a driver ranking system, liability insurance for its passengers. Although, people complain a lot about cancellation fees and surge charges where rides are more expensive than normal because of the high demand. The app works nicely, though, and the service is usually reliable.
3. Curb
Price: Free / Ride costs vary
Curb is also a popular taxi app. It runs in 65 U.S. cities with a combined total of over 50,000 taxi cabs. It works as you would expect. You schedule a ride, they pick you up and then drop you off at your destination. The app can schedule rides immediately or schedule a ride up to 24 hours in advance. This app also supports PayPal, cash, credit cards, and the Curb app itself. Of course, they send receipts also. The app and its service have a few issues here and there. But most of them are customer service issues and not necessarily app problems. It doesn’t work with international phone numbers so you might have issues with it as well. It’s not the best, but it’s serviceable.
4. TaxiCaller
Price: Free / Ride costs vary
TaxiCaller is yet another fairly popular taxi app that works pretty well. Having all the basic features that you expect, like booking a ride immediately or sometime shortly, it has many nice features also if you want a more typical and less expensive than Lyft or Uber. It also has a location bookmark feature for ride hails later down the line. You can also hire different types of vehicles for things like extra luggage or pricing. This hails a regular old school taxi cab. Prices vary, as they do with all apps in this category. You can also use this app through your Facebook account in case you need that.
5. Local taxi apps
Price: Free / Ride costs vary
A lot of local and smaller companies service specific regions or areas of the U.S. There are benefits to using services like these. They are a little difficult to find, though, and there are a lot of them. Juno is one such app that is pretty decent for New York. Via works in NYC, Washington D.C., and Chicago. Bay State Commute is available only in Massachusetts. These little startups are found in many places and they are occasionally difficult to find. However, they could ideally not be half bad. Of course, the costs vary from state to state and service to service. Bellhop is yet another local ride app using which you can share the ride and taxi services in your area so you can compare and use the one you want.
Synopsis
If you are new to the U.S. and looking for decent or popular rides there, these are the 5 Popular Taxi and Ride-sharing Apps for Android Users in the U.S. that will help you find the best one for your use.