Traffline is an Android app designed specifically for the Indian market that delivers real time traffic advice; from other drives on the road right to your device. It’s not just an application to provide you with the quickest route to where you need to go, as it also features news feeds relevant to where you are, full of information from other users to help you on your commute and travels. You can communicate to other drivers quickly and safely with a little message, a feeling and even emoji to let other drivers know what’s going on. A real time route planner to help you avoid accidents, traffic build ups and more, Traffline is available in a number of cities in India including: Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi NCR, Chennai, Pune, Hyderabad and Kolkata. So, just how good is Traffline? Let’s take a look.
To get started with Traffline, all you need to do is download the app from the Play Store. Once you’ve done that, you can go ahead and take a virtual tour of the app if you’d like, or go ahead and sign up for an account.
Signing up is of course free, and you can do so using Facebook, Google+ or Twitter.
Let’s say you want to find out a quick route to get where you need to go; all you have to do is to search for a location near you (as long as it’s in one of the above cities and areas, of course).
Once you’ve chosen from either a search or one of your recent routes, you’ll be presented with a few options for you to choose from.
Up until now, the app sort of feels like Google Maps, but once you head to the News Feed part of things, it all changes.
In the News Feed, you can updates on traffic incidents happening nearby, and if you like you can hit thumbs up on these updates as a way of acknowledging that you’ve seen this or that it’s helped you. You can add your own message directly from the app. A short and to the point message along with an emoji does the trick to help fellow drivers steer clear of the traffic you might have heard about or come across.
All of these updates and such can be seen in the timeline as well, giving drivers a helping hand when they need it.
I can see now why Traffline has been receiving so much press in India, it’s a competent, easy to use application that does exactly what it sets out to do. It’s a nice way of not only giving users an easier way of seeing the quickest route to get them to work, a delivery or some sort of meeting across town, but also to utilize local knowledge. In India, knowing the roads and how they act at certain times, how local police deal with accidents, how big jams are dealt with and so on is key information. If you don’t know an area all that well, or you’ve found yourself in a jam or accident like never before, Traffline’s users will no doubt have some wisdom to share with everyone else. Like for instance, the ability to let users know there’s a “Super Cop” nearby that’s trying their best to clean up the jam quickly and efficiently to keep things moving. Little things like that are important for an app that relies on local knowledge, and my only one issue with Traffline is that there isn’t enough people using the app religiously, with more users it’d be even easier to avoid big traffic crunches and getting caught up in incidents on the road.
Ratings
- Speed (4/5) – The app runs nice and quickly, and it’s easy to get your message out there as quickly as possible.
- Features (5/5) – Finally, an Android app built to a high level of polish specifically with the Indian driver in mind. It’s easy to get a quick route to your destination, as well keep up-to-date with incidents and traffic jams that might delay a delivery or a meeting.
- Theme (4/5) – A good-looking app, Traffline blends into Android nicely no matter what sort of device you have and it looks nice and modern as well.
- Overall (4/5) – A solid app that many will have been waiting for for years, Traffline just needs more users actively using the app to become a must-have tool for drivers in India.
Pros
- Emoji and feelings make it easy to send a quick message from behind the wheel when stationary in traffic.
- News Feed is a decent place to start in the morning before heading out to see what’s going on.
- With Traffline you feel like you’ve got another driver on the road with you letting you know what’s going on before you get to it.
- Finally an application designed exclusively for the Indian driver, rather than an international affair with limited support.
Cons
- More users are needed to help take the experience further.
- Voice input would make it quicker to get a message out when behind the wheel, and safer if moving.
All-in-all, Traffline is a great application that offers driver in the Indian cities all the tools they need to keep things moving and how to stay out of trouble. The emoji are a nice touch here, as they get across a simple message without typing it all out and such. Traffline is a good app to pick up just before you go out to check the News Feed and see if there are any big traffic jams or accidents that would cause you issues. From there, you can go ahead and choose a different route now you’re armed with that knowledge. An app drivers that need to be at work on time, have to make deliveries on time or just hate getting stuck in traffic should definitely take a look at, Traffline can only get better as more users jump onboard.