Getting a ride from services like Lyft are already pretty easy to do with the way their app is set up, but the company wants to make setting up a reservation for a ride that much easier. To do this, they have just announced a new developer toolkit that would see the possibility to get a Lyft ride from within any application you’re using on the phone including Facebook’s Messenger application. This possibility doesn’t seem too far-fetched considering that Messenger already allows you to reserve Uber rides within it, and should it end up a new function it’ll end up following other recent changes to Messenger like today’s Material Design UI update, and sharing Spotify links within the application to friends so they can check out songs.
According to Lyft’s blog post about the developer program, Facebook’s Messenger is the lead partner on launching this tool, but it isn’t the only communication platform which will gain the capability as Lyft reiterates that Slack too will allow users to request a Lyft ride anytime they need one, a feature which they launched in partnership with Slack last November. Since this is an open Dev toolkit, any other messaging apps will be able to integrate the Lyft features as well, meaning it could show up in other popular platforms.
As for Messenger, users will be able to request a Lyft from within Messenger next week, although no specific time was given as to the exact date, so users will likely just have to watch for more specific details on that. It’s worth noting though that next week’s availability applies to all Messenger users, and that there are particular cities in which Lyft and Facebook have already launched the functionality. There are eleven cities in total which already have access to it which include San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Austin, and New York just to name a few. At the time, there aren’t any other partners for the new developer tools, or at the very least they haven’t been mentioned by Lyft, but the possibilities are virtually endless and any developer that is interested in integrating Lyft rides into their app should be able to do so.