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Zomato Pushes New Update To Their Android And iOS Apps. We Take A Look.
Zomato has introduced a major app update for its Android and iOS apps which brings them more in sync with features in their service. The new update bring about a new design and UI aesthetic which is seeks to give the user maximum information about food and restaurant discovery. The apps are now completely full featured and can deliver a complete Zomato experience for its users.
Let’s get into the details. I will be testing the app on Android.
Landing and Home-screen:
On launching the app you get an elegant login screen which asks you to provide your credentials using Facebook, Google or your email ID. You can also choose to skip this step and use the app without giving all the details. I think this is awesome as it doesn’t force you to sign up for the service.
The home-screen packs in all the features that we have come to expect from Zomato. All the features are accessible from the Zomato home-screen. Take a look at it below.
The app has a ticker which shows all the best restaurant in your city so that you can get the best recommendations.
Settings:
The app puts this button at the top and thus makes it easily accessible instead of pressing a physical button. When you click this, you get a very Facebook like screen which has options for City, Review drafts and logging out. The draft functionality helps you save the reviews on your phone and edit/publish them later.
Explore:
This is the most important feature of the app as this is basically what the core service of Zomato is all about. When you go into this screen, the app will automatically pick-up your location/city using network information or GPS.
Once your location is acquired, the app offers you a list of restaurants nearby thus simplifying and automating the ‘search’ process as much as possible. Another option is to get an instant recommendation which works randomly and selects restaurants in the neighborhood.
If you really want to check out restaurants manually or by using accurate search criteria, you can look for places to eat depending their location and the type of cuisines they offer. I think this is good as it takes care of all the possible use-cases and works for any kind of situation.
Social Discovery features:
Zomato releases some new and interesting features some time back like Trending restaurants, top foodies and featured reviews. All these features have been faithfully recreated in the app. Interactive features have also been added to these new sections which full use of the mobile phone.
The trending restaurants section has a ‘call button’ next to them thus making it easy to call these places instead of clicking/tapping contact numbers in the restaurants description.
The top foodies section has an option for you to follow them and get all the latest review and information. The Featured Review section allows you to see the top reviews for restaurants. You can click on these reviews to read the whole everything but even if you don’t, the previews give you some quick information like the rating given by a Zomato user and their ‘social rank’ which ranges from ‘foodie’ for beginners to ‘Connoisseur’ for those established ones. You can also share restaurant information with your friends using SMS, Facebook and Twitter.
Your Zomato Profile:
With this update, the apps are focusing increasingly on your profile information and social activities on Zomato. Your profile now has information about your followers and who you follow in addition to to your lists and your reviews all in one place.
Final Thoughts:
The update improves the app’s functionality rather well. There is a lot of information and functionality that has been crammed into this app and that is quite a feat when you think about the design and UI decisions that they have gone with. Frankly, the UI and Design look nice but I wondering if they could have fixed upon a better UI framework. I am sure a lot of trade-offs were made to make the app look consistent on both the platforms which are so wildly different from each other. Also, using the app on smaller Android phones (I used a Motorola Defy) is not exactly comfortable. The app looks awesome on the larger screen variety like HTC One X. On the smaller phones, the content and spacing look a little cramped. Even if that is the case, the app works rather smoothly and showed no bugs at all.
Zomato has once again delivered a very good app for these platforms and I am impressed by how full featured it is.
Rating | 4/5
Take the updated app for a spin and let us know what you think about it in the comments.
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2012-09-12 05:16:54
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