redBus App Review

Those who often hit the road will know how redBus, an online bus ticket seller, adds to the convenience, be it planned or last minute trips. Last year, we saw the redBus mobile site and now it has launched two new mobile optimised apps for Android and Windows Phone platforms. On the move ticketing is definitely a good move by redBus and it features bus services running across the nation for more than 10,000 routes and over a thousand bus operators. After laying our hands, rather fingers, on the app, here’s a quick review.

Design and Layout
On installing the redBus app, it greets you with the usual redBus logo and a light reddish-pink background. It directs you to the main page imprinted with “Search Buses” page with a layout  as simple as it could get. It shows three simple input options to select route (starting city and destination) and the date of journey (directly opens the Calendar). It neatly lists out the buses available on the route with some details like time, rating of the bus service and the price. You can even move back to change the route. Hit on the icon on the upper right corner and it shows further options to filter your bus search. The layout showing the seats is also neat and enlarges as soon as you tap on it. Overall, the user interface is very neat, simple and to the point. You won't be struggling to navigate across the app and booking the ticket is extremely simple.

Slick UI

Features and Performance
We could quickly download the 3.7MB app over Wi-Fi. Firstly, it takes you directly to the Search buses page, which is extremely neat with options limited to just entering the route. For instance, we have selected “From Mumbai To Ratnagiri.” The city name auto complete is quite handy and the app has covered all the major cities in the nation connected via the bus route. Moreover, as you go ahead to select the date, a complete calendar pops up, wherein you can choose your date of journey. A huge red button reads search buses and as soon as we clicked it, the app took less than 30 seconds to list out the buses available on this route.

It displayed the bus name, type of the bus – AC/non-AC, Sleeper, arrival and departure timings, seats left and the price per ticket. All this is so neatly placed that you can indulge into all the details you need to know at a glance. It also shows ratings awarded to the buses depending upon the services they offer. You can easily streamline this list of buses as per your preference. There are three tabs on the upper side of the screen – Bus fare, Time and Ratings. Tap on Bus fare and the app automatically rearranges the buses according to the ascending order of the bus fare. Similarly, tap on time and the buses will be listed according to their departure time, starting with the bus leaving the earliest, followed by the next and so on. Hit the icon on the upper right corner and you can further filter the options like bus service you want to travel, buses with specific starting or boarding points, type of the bus and so on.

View the seats before booking tickets

Just like the online site, it shows the seating arrangement in the bus and a slight tap enlarges the image to give you a clearer view. The tickets already booked are greyed so that you can choose your seat position depending upon the available seats. just tap on the seat you want to book; it's that simple. As soon as you select your seat/seats, it will also display the payable amount right there and then you can continue to the payment gateway. Before the payment, you will have to add some personal details like email ID, mobile number and name. Once you book the ticket, you will be informed via email and phone. redBus adds a Cash on Delivery option but will charge Rs. 40 for delivering the ticket to your doorsteps.

Verdict
This seems to be one of the coolest travel apps. What we liked is the app makes the ticketing process flow in a straightforward manner, without any hassle or confusion. The UI is slick and navigation is smooth. Although it isn't loaded with features, it is sufficient for booking tickets with ease. It's quite slow when used on EDGE, but great over Wi-Fi. Nevertheless, we think this free app is quite efficient and worth a try.

Click here to download redBus for Android.

Click here to download redBus for Windows Phone.