UK Bus Checker – hugely useful & convenient app for residents or travelers in the United Kingdom
by Paul Wilks
Dec 11, 2012 11:54 AM –
Install
UK Bus Checker is a hugely useful app for UK-based Android users who travel by bus. Whether you live in the UK permanently or plan on visiting and using the bus service, this is the app to have. It displays a healthy list of times when the bus is due dependent on your location and even displays the bus route so you know exactly where you are going. It offers a fresh interface, is easy to use and even a handy widget.
Price: Free for the Lite version and £2.49 (around $4) for the full version
Tested on: Nexus 4
Content Rating: Low Maturity
Pros & Cons:
Pros
- Easy to use!
- Responsive and fast!
- Widget!
- Displays entire bus route!
- Let you choose favourites for access to all your most-often used stops!
- Immaculate user interface!
Cons
- Every time you open it for the first time it crashes.
It works absolutely fine after that. 
Features:
I commute by bus. They’re mostly regular and if it’s just myself travelling, pretty economical. However, there’s nothing worse when buses are running late and the service where I live can be very sporadic. Thankfully, each bus has a tracker of some kind inside it, so their depot know exactly where they are. Additionally, this information is available to the public and there have been one or two apps which let you check out bus times while mobile. While in the past I’ve hesitated to cover these apps- they were just too simple to provide a in-depth review of, I’ve now discovered UK Bus Checker.
UK Bus Checker provides lots of useful things to help you catch the bus you want and also save you waiting in the rain for long periods. Now, when you fire the app up initially it nearly always crashes. Launch immediately again, however, and it runs great. This blip aside, the app does practically everything you could want it to do.
UK Bus Checker – Landscape mode
The stand out features as far as I was concerned included: Favourites. This lets you star each and every stop you might regularly use. It means you can quickly see how the buses are running via those stops. Once you’ve done that you can add the Widget to your homescreen. It allows you to flick your your favourite stops and see what time buses are due from your homescreen. If you’re unsure about what bus to take, the app lets you check out an entire Bus Route to ensure it’s going where you need it to! The app regularly updates so the bus times you see are live and adjust accordingly. If a bus is held up, you’ll know about it.
What I love about this app is that it lets you transcend the knowledge of your fellow passengers. If I check out the times from my house and there’s some 20 minutes to wait (typical!), then I won’t bother standing in the rain for 19 minutes waiting, I can time my leaving home with a bus arriving.
The app is brilliantly presented and offers a clear and easy to understand user interface. It’s very responsive too and navigating around the application is simple. While many people might not need an app like this, it’s a lifesaver for those of us who do. If you live in the UK or visit it regularly and use the buses, this is an essential app.
-
-
UK Bus Checker – Lists all the buses that stop there
-
-
UK Bus Checker – Live bus timetable
-
-
UK Bus Checker – View the map for all local stops
-
-
UK Bus Checker – Find your nearest stop
-
-
UK Bus Checker – Favourite stops list
-
-
UK Bus Checker – Follow route (1)
-
-
UK Bus Checker – Follow route (2)
-
-
UK Bus Checker – Follow route (3)
-
-
UK Bus Checker – Explore local stops (1)
-
-
UK Bus Checker – Explore local stops (2)
-
-
UK Bus Checker – Explore route
-
-
UK Bus Checker – Highlight which bus route to see data on (1)
-
-
UK Bus Checker – Highlight which bus route to see data on (2)
-
-
UK Bus Checker – Crashes when you launch it. EVERY TIME,
-
-
UK Bus Checker – Widget
-
-
UK Bus Checker – SMS codes
-
-
UK Bus Checker – Settings
Usefulness:
It stops you getting stuck in the rain, it tells you when your bus and the next several are coming, it shows you the route that bus will take, lets you save all your favourite stops for quick access and you can check everything out from your homescreen. Other than provide you with a comfy warm seat, the app pretty much does everything a bus rider might need.
Ease of Use:
The app is blissfully easy to use. The interface is smooth and polished. It provides a slew of user-friendly features that are incredibly simple to use.
Frequently Used:
This will depend on how much you use the bus, but regularly most probably.
Interface:
The interface is extremely well designed to make it easy to access the information you need in a quick and efficient way. The data displayed is clear and updates frequently.