Uber has upgraded its in-ride offerings with a new ‘Trip Branding’ feature, which gives you useful content that’s meant to help or improve the journey.
From today, if you book a ride through one of Uber’s partner apps, you’ll start to see personalized content along the way. For example, Uber is partnering with Hilton, Citymapper and Zomato at launch, so if you’re staying at the Hilton and set a Ride Reminder for a car to get you to and from the hotel during your stay, you’ll be shown details of your reservation while you’re on the way.
You’ll also be able to check in to your room, which makes for a pretty efficient key collection when you get to reception.
Zomato lets you book a ride from any restaurant’s page within its app and you’ll then be shown the menu options while you’re en route. Similarly, Citymapper will help anyone with a commute divide their journey between an Uber and public transport by offering live train or bus schedules from nearby stations. This way, you can check if it’s quicker to get an Uber halfway and then hop on the train.
The content shown is decided by the partner companies, which means the offerings could get better in the future, like pre-ordering your meals or groceries. The only limitation is that the reminder or request must originate from a third-party app.
It’s the first time Uber will be making way for third-party content on its app, but will certainly act as a draw for more companies to integrate the service and take advantage of its huge number of users.
The feature is open for all app developers to integrate along with their request and Ride Reminder buttons from today.
Get the TNW newsletter
Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week.