Seriously though, how good is the new Brighton bus app?
We are not worthy
The gods of Brighton and Hove buses smiled down on us mere mortals this September when they made the hottest drop of 2018, an overhauled app. This may well be the greatest thing to happen to the Brighton area since Casas. Here's a rundown of everything great about the update:
New look
The immediate change you notice upon opening the new app is its updated look. No longer looking like the the graphic design project of a 90s high-schooler, the app now boasts a sleek minimalist look.
In the past week the app has undergone a further revamp, doing away with the increasingly random word of the day and charming 'driving bus' animation in favour of a QR code. While it's claimed the change is to combat ticket sharing and fare-dodging, we know it's really because they ran out of words to use.
'Live' bus times
The swanky new app took the initiative to integrate the 'bus ticket' and the 'live bus tracker' apps of years gone by into one. All you need to do now is click on the orange flag at the stop you want to check times for, and a live tracker pops up telling you how long the wait is until the next bus. Thank you.
Don't get me wrong this is a truly useful feature, but I've turned up to a stop with a bus arriving in "two minutes" only to see it pull away – more than once.
RELIABILITY
By far the greatest feature of the new bus app is the fact it actually works. Gone are the days of closing it, putting your phone on airplane mode, taking it off airplane mode, praying to every god you can, opening the app, and then sheepishly apologising to the driver in order to load your ticket. You open the app and *BAM*, instant ticket. Isn't it great when stuff works like it's meant to?
Keeping with the theme of updates, it's not just the app that's been dragged into 2018 kicking and screaming. All buses are now equipped with charging points, and free WiFi as standard. Truly, the sardines in a can-esque morning commute to campus will now feel like an Uber Lux, thanks B&H buses .