Announcing the Ride Request Widget

By Chris Saad

In December we introduced the Ride Request Button. The button provides a quick way to deep link into the Uber app, bringing the promise of “Tap a button, get a ride” to users everywhere, in any app.

Since then we’ve dug in with developers in India, China and Australia to learn how they engage with the API and what tools they need to be successful. One of the things we heard from Chinese developers specifically is that they love the easy deployment and smooth handoff to the Uber app, but in certain cases they’d like to deeply integrate the Uber rider experience into their own apps without investing heavily in a custom Uber API implementation.

In response to their feedback we’re announcing the all new Ride Request Widget, a simple, beautiful way to bring the entire Uber experience — from ride configuration and request all the way to drop-off — right inside your app.

We also heard from developer partners in China and India that the widget needs to work well in areas with limited GPS coverage and bandwidth. We’ve optimized our approach for those situations, so instead of waiting for a map to load, riders get a simple, visual indicator of their ride request and trip status. This means that no matter where your users are located, they’ll get the same reliable Uber service.

Just like the Ride Request Button, developers can add the Ride Request Widget to their app in a few minutes. When users load the widget, they’ll see a full featured Uber experience, including a product selector (E.g. uberX, UberBLACK etc), estimated time to pick-up, and estimated time to destination. All local payment options are also supported. Requests made from this Widget are trackable via the API and vice versa — making this beautiful experience part of a suite of possible implementation options to deeply embed Uber into any app.

The Ride Request Widget will be available to all developers globally through the Uber Developers site in mid-April.

This article is also available in Chinese:

https://medium.com/p/550c6a190a41

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