Quick Summary 

It is common to assume that you have various taxi-booking apps like Uber on your phone right now, which indicates the popularity of on-demand applications across the globe. So, if you are a business or startup having a taxi business, more and more tech companies are offering on-demand app development services to get your dream project developed and compete in the market. However, in this blog, we will talk about the top Uber app features that you should include in your app to stay competitive in this cut-throat industry.

Introduction

The taxi Uber app has become the definition of a premium ride-hailing experience. Over the past few years, Uber has expanded its operations from 300 cities to 10000 cities worldwide. By emphasizing the safety and security of both the rider and the driver, the Uber app has helped its customers lower their ground transportation charges by up to 10%.  Since when Uber started in 2010, its features have strengthened its technological presence, helping it achieve the first 20,000 rides in just six months of its launch. Reports suggest that Uber Taxi App UK has maintained a significant lead over Bolt in the UK in terms of user engagement. As of early 2023, Uber's monthly active users (MAU) on Android devices were around 1.7 million, compared to Bolt's 378,000, giving Uber a considerable advantage of over 342% in this metric. When developing a taxi booking app like Uber, businesses should prioritize providing an enriching experience to the riders. Uber continues to promote itself among customers by providing incentive features through word of mouth and a promising social media strategy.  If you are planning to develop a ride share app UK similar to Uber app, this blog has come up with some of the best features for your app.  Although, we are going to discuss the core Uber features in brief, below is the list of features you might need to incorporate while developing an app like Uber taxi app. 
Simple Features  Advanced Features
Ride Request  Real-Time Tracking
Fare Estimate Safety Features
Upfront Picking  Rewards Program
Ride Sharing  Driver Performance Metrics
Scheduled Rides  Surge Pricing
Split Fare  Advanced Analytics 
Driver Rating  Advanced Matching Algorithm 
In-App Chat  Personalized Ride Recommendations 
Payment Options AI-Powered Features
Uber Pool
UberX
UberXL
Now we will talk about all the Uber app features that you must include while taxi booking app development to give an enriching user experience to the riders, who are your end users. The idea is to make ground transportation easy, safe, and affordable for the people. 

App Features That a Taxi Company Like Uber Must Include in Their Application

1. Book a Ride for Now or Later

When you book a taxi with Uber, the very first feature it offers is Book a ride for now or later, which is a primary feature that your taxi booking app must incorporate. With this feature, people can easily book a ride and travel to their desired places with ease. On the other hand, book later feature enables people to book a ride in advance for their future trip. The how-to book or a booking tour is an important consideration while developing the app.  Pickup location,  drop location, type of taxi, and time and date of travel in case of future trips is a must to be included in the app.  If a rider has to leave from office, see a doctor, and don’t want to get late, the ride scheduling option is the best for them. Therefore, this is the most important feature of a cab booking app like the Uber cab app

2. Real-Time Driver Tracking

When users are not informed about their driver’s location, they get frustrated and cancel the ride if the waiting time is long. This can reduce the user’s overall satisfaction level and also affect their overall experience of traveling in your cab. The ideal way to deal with this situation is to include real-time tracking in your app through GPS integration. This feature will help the users in tracking the live location of the driver and which way he is heading. In case the driver has not moved from a particular location, or has taken a long route, the user can call him and guide him to the pick-up location. This makes traveling easy and satisfactory for both the driver and the rider. 3. Allow Others to Follow the Ride in Real-Time Safety always comes first and you should always make the riders feel safe while they are traveling with your ride-booking service. The riders will always feel safe when they are able to share their location with someone dear to them. If you have included this feature in your uber like app, you have won the trust of your audience. The idea backing this feature is to let someone know where the driver is ensuring and also to know if the passenger has reached home safely or not.  This feature is mainly helpful for the newly settled riders in the city who are unaware of the routes. Sharing the location with the closed ones will also help them know whether the driver has taken the correct route or not. Also, the person tracking the location will be able to provide insights into the route taken by the driver.  4. Incorporating Multiple Payment Options Not every passenger is comfortable paying with cash or a card for the ride they take. Some people do not frequently cash along, while others are unsure about adding their card details in the app. The ideal way to make it easy for the riders is to add multiple payment options and let the rider choose among the available ones. If the passenger wants to pay using the mobile option, that should also be an option available.  An uber like app that you are developing should also offer online and offline payment options to the user. Also, you should allow users to avail of pre-paid and post-paid options in some cases and choose the payment options most convenient to them. The idea is to make the ride of the users very convenient. 

5. Preferred Driver

A regular Uber who books a taxi with Uber for their office comes across several drivers in a very short span. Therefore, they should have the advantage of choosing their preferred driver based on their experience. Adding this feature to your lookalike taxi Uber app will give you an added advantage.  If a driver comes to book a ride, your app should ask them if they have any driver preference. This feature will attract them and allow them to choose a driver from their previous travels. If that particular driver is available, the app will automatically assign the ride to him. This is an important feature when planning to develop an app like the Uber mobile app as it offers drivers an incentive to behave well and drive safely, improving the overall riding experience. 

6. Add Multiple Drop-Off Points

Traveling with your friends or relatives? Each of you live at different locations along the same route? Allow the rider to select multiple drop-off points to make their travel easy. When the user books a ride, they will have to add different stops that the driver will have to stop at along the route. This can be added to the destination.  In case, the user has to change any drop-location, make sure that you allow that too. This is the Uber app feature that calculates the fare accordingly. Also, include a “split fare” feature in case the passengers want to split the amount among themselves. Another feature you can add is “adjust as you go”, which will calculate and update the fare when you change the drop-off locations while traveling. 

7. Driver Review and Ratings

Why a driver’s story is important for the user? Because a user gets to know about the person who is driving him/her to the destination. For example, a review tells you a lot about a driver’s behavior, what kind of experience the driver offers to the user, and a lot more. The drivers who have traveled with the driver before will share their experiences and that will help the users what to expect.  As an app like Uber apps, this is an important feature. You should allow the riders to give their honest feedback about the drivers, which will also help you know what made the experience good or bad. In case if you want to improve something as a responsible business, you can do that with the help of these reviews and ratings. The reviews and ratings are an excellent way of improving your business.

8. Trip History

Suppose if a past traveler wants to know how and what amount they were charged, or if they want to know their past travel route along with the driver details. Well, a trip feature is an important feature for any such user query. You can also see the Uber history of a passenger in the Uber application. Ensure store the user’s travel history and show it on their profile. At the same time, trip history should also be part of the driver’s app, which will help both parties to check the details as and when required. The driver will also be able to track the total earnings with the help of this feature. 

9. In-App Chat or Calling

In case the driver wants to connect to the driver in order to know their whereabouts or to direct them to the route, or the user wants to connect with the driver through chat, this feature helps. There will also be times when the driver wants to confirm the address, then they can make a call or chat with the customer to know the details or get the directions. 

10. Save Destinations

In case the passenger is traveling to the destination where they will travel in the future too, then they must have the option to save the destination instead of typing it again and again. This will help them book rides faster. Including this feature will improve the experience that the passenger gets with the app.  Allow the passenger to save the destination by giving specific names such as home, work, office, second home, etc. They can just simply save the details and select it as and when required. Your app will recommend these destinations to the user. 

11. Built-in Fare Collection

Drivers must be able to make the payments to the administration without the need for physical cash deposition. The ideal way to make this possible is by asking the drivers to sign a contract and choose a billing period. There is no need for manual documentation as you should integrate a payment mechanism in your app like the taxi app Uber that allows drivers to pay directly from their earnings. This will eliminate the unnecessary need for contact between the drivers and the administrator for fee collection. 

12. Payment and Profile Authorization

Apps similar to Uber should allow the creation of user profiles, ensuring smooth and secure transactions. User authorization is important for enabling legal online payments for each ride, as ePayments without proper authorization will be declined. Additionally, the app should also allow storing useful driver information such as license number, car’s registration number, contact details, etc which helps build trust among passengers. 

13. Contact Channel

By creating a contact channel in your taxi booking app, you can notify the users about various deals and offers. You will be able to send push notifications or keep them updated by in-app updates just like uber in app update feature. This will help you stay engaged with the customers. This in-app feature can also be used to keep the passengers updated about any vital information or policy changes.

14. Fare Calculator

Taxi companies like Uber are trying to reduce customer frustration by adding a rate card to their apps. Incorporating a fare calculator in your app for booking taxi like Uber would mean higher customer satisfaction and greater reviews for your app on the app store. A fare calculator will help the passengers calculate the travel amount before taking a ride in order to avoid any payment-related dispute with the driver. 

15. Smart Analytics System

Apps similar to Uber UK get numbers, analyze them every month or day, and monitor how their business performs in order to keep track of and improve their business. With details in the form of reports on every aspect of your company, you can know where your business is lacking and where it is performing well. Incorporating a smart analytics system will help you keep track of daily requests, issued versus missing requests, reservation sources, etc to streamline your taxi app booking system. Ensure that you make decisions backed by the data by incorporating the right analytics system for your taxi booking app like Uber. 
Let Us Know Some Uber Facts Two friends, Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp, who created Uber, the World’s biggest ride-hailing service company in the ride-sharing industry.  Uber invested highly in marketing by sponsoring various events and giving free rides in San Francisco to create much exposure. Currently, the service is accessible across the globe under both Android and iOS operations, out-competing several other rivals. Uber achieved 47,000 active drivers as of February 2023. While ride-hailing was its business that had declined in the period of and subsequent to the pandemic, food delivery under the brand name Uber Eats as a business did quite well. In the second quarter of 2024, gross bookings in the worldwide business for Uber Eats was more than $18.1 billion, compared to the first quarter of 2022 at $13.9 billion. Uber does not actually own cars but is simply a platform that connects passengers with drivers.

How Does Uber App Work?

Uber mobile app connects the passengers with the drivers who either own a vehicle or has it on rent. It allows user to register to the app by entering their name and contact number. Once a user has registered, the app sends an SMS to verify their number.  Number verification is the very first important Uber app feature during the registration process as it allows for further communication. The users can then explore the application in different languages.  Users can pay off using their preferred payment method for the rides they have booked. This application along with cash, has other online payment methods using which both the rider and the driver can process payments very easily after each trip. It earns the profit by cutting off 25% of each driver’s payment. 

Uber’s Ride Booking Process

1. Arrival and Pickups

Uber app uses machine learning (ML) algorithms to estimate the arrival and pickup time along with the location. It assesses the earlier trips, processes the information, and uses it to show the result as an Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA). It used Michaelangelo, a Machine Learning Algorithm platform, which helps engineers by automating data management, training, analyzing, and predicting. 

2. Identifying User Location

To identify the user’s location, the CoreLocation framework is used for the iOS platform. Similarly, the Uber app uses MapKit for iOS and Google Maps for Android to provide information to the rider and driver. 

3. Notifications

Uber app commonly sends three push notifications to its users 
  • When any driver accepts the ride request 
  • When your booked driver arrives at the location 
  • When the ride is cancelled 
Once the ride has arrived to your set location, the taxi’s number, driver’s name and contact number, trip amount, OTP, and ETA are displayed. 

Conclusion

If you are among the taxi service companies like Uber planning to develop apps like Uber UK and expand it globally, this blog is for you. Building an app like Uber involves careful planning and strategy. First, you need to identify your target audience and determine which segment your app will serve. Beyond setting a clear business goal, it’s essential to outline the core features your ride-sharing app will need to function smoothly. If you aim to develop an Uber-like app, including features such as real-time tracking, payment integration, and rating systems is fundamental to replicating the Uber experience. If you have an idea for an Uber clone and need end-to-end app development, reach out to us. As a leading mobile app development company, we’ve successfully built so many on-demand service apps, each customized with unique functionalities. Still wondering about the costs involved, how to hire mobile app developers, build an MVP, or monetize your app idea? Fill out our contact form, and one of our representatives will provide a free consultation to address your questions about on-demand app development services.