The global pandemic has changed behaviours in so many different ways, but humans are resourceful and will face challenges by looking for solutions. When it comes to resuming normal everyday activities like going back to the office, attending meetings, travelling to school or using public services, they are looking for apps that can help them get safely and reliably to their destination.
Huawei recognises this, and is enhancing the HUAWEI AppGallery with a wide new range of popular navigation and mapping apps that will prove indispensable to Huawei smartphone users on the move.
Over recent weeks, the company has added well-known and respected providers including the web mapping and navigation service HERE WeGo, the car satnav giant TomTomGo, the mobile offline maps tool Maps.me and GPS navigation tool Sygic. Last week, Huawei announced that the award-winning #1 urban mobility app, Moovit, would also be joining its portfolio. In fact, twelve of the top downloading mapping apps in Europe are now integrated with Huawei Mobile Services (HMS) ecosystem, Huawei’s open software, hardware and cloud capabilities platform for developers and content providers looking to build next generation all-scenario apps.
“We recognize that navigation apps, which are always high in demand, are particularly important now as people around the world look for the most efficient, reliable and safe ways to move about and get on with their lives,” said Wang Heng, Vice President, Global Partnerships and Eco-Development at Huawei Consumer Business Group, CEE and Nordics. “We have proactively expanded our app portfolio to deliver customers with a range of very high quality, proven and popular digital navigation tools that they can feel confident about using.”
Many of these new navigation apps are free for users, but Huawei is also welcoming apps that charge because they suit the needs of users who have privacy concerns and would rather their location data is not monetized. This means that there is a choice of travel and map tools to provide a great experience, without compromise.
Moovit enhances AppGallery’s growing portfolio
The addition of Moovit, an Intel company, to the HUAWEI AppGallery is particularly significant as the world adjusts to making safer and reliable public transport journeys during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The free Moovit app guides people around cities effectively and conveniently using any mode of transport. Already in use by over 865 million people in 3200 cities across 106 countries, Moovit combines information from public transport operators, micro-transport operators and transport authorities with live information from the user community. As a result, the app provides an accurate, real-time picture of the best route for any journey with urban mobility options such as bus, metro, train, bikes, e-scooters, car-sharing, ride-hailing and more. It also includes innovative features such as a WayFinder, which leverages augmented reality, to make it easier to locate key travel landmarks such as stops and stations, to increase users’ confidence using public transport.
While other apps may use only official transport data, Moovit’s accuracy comes from using a combination of official and crowdsourced data from its community of users. Moovit also has a close working relationship with cities, agencies, regional and local authorities and transport operators in thousands of global locations. Moovit is working with them in tandem to meet the new expectations of passengers due to COVID-19, to ensure they can ride, or walk, with confidence.
Following the outbreak of COVID-19, public transportation ridership decreased significantly in major cities around the world. With many working from home, avoiding public transport to minimize their exposure to the disease, and vast changes in local services, the way people travel within their cities has been altered. Seeing this first hand, Moovitsurveyed thousands of global commuters to see how urban mobility trends were evolving and to see what riders need in order to feel safe riding public transportation. Moovit looked at how people commuted pre-pandemic, post-restrictions easing, how they say they plan to get around in six months from now, and reasons that would encourage them to use public transport more. What is clear from the findings is that services and capacity levels need to be planned proactively to encourage citizens back on to public transport. Passengers are looking for transport to run more frequently in order to reduce crowding and they want real-time information so they can avoid waiting in queues or at crowded bus stops. Disinfection of vehicles and carriages, and contactless entrance, exit and mobile payment options are also high on the agenda.
Moovit is enabling riders to have all the tools they need to more easily plan and ride efficient, accurate, and safe journeys – right from the palm of their hand. Moovit also acted on its survey’s findings by helping, guiding, and providing Mobility as a Service (MaaS) solutions to transport agencies and private companies so that they can gain back rider loyalty and trust.
Consumers downloading the Moovit app from the HUAWEI AppGallery can now get a real-time picture of the best route for any local journey and even with the myriad of changes to transport arrangements as a result of the pandemic, they can be confident that the app will always provide verified, accurate information. Moovit’s community of 700,000 local ‘editors’ have been instrumental in helping to maintain the app’s accuracy during the pandemic. This input also assists in ensuring that the app is accessible-friendly. Moovit empowers people across the disability spectrum and includes screen reading features for low vision users, including TalkBack and VoiceOver capabilities, and identification of wheelchair accessible routes and stations. Moovit’s app is also designed with optimised menus and buttons for those with hand-motor disabilities.
As travel patterns continue to shift and different countries around the world adjust their guidelines for safe commuting, people will be looking for travel apps that they can rely on to return safely to public transportation. City leaders and transit operators will also need to earn the trust of commuters’ by working with real-time transportation and navigation tools, such as Moovit, and the wealth of complementary apps that can now be found in the HUAWEI AppGallery. The Moovit app is now available to download from the HUAWEI AppGallery on any Huawei smartphone.
