Gogobot is a popular Travel website. Known for its clean, simple interface, it also is a social network in itself, allowing you to follow your friends using the service and vice-versa. It also has this neat profile page dubbed “My Passport” that documents the number of countries and cities you’ve been to. Today, we’re taking a look at the Gogobot app for Android. For you iOS users, there is an iOS app available as well.
Upon launch, the app requires you to login, either using Facebook Connect or manually signing up for an account. We know that this has become a bit of a menace with apps these days; as they won’t let you in unless you divulge your details. But we give Gogobot the benefit of doubt since it is going to need your credentials to help you connect with your friends. The app is based on the Holo guidelines — simplifying navigation within the app using swiping gestures. The “Explore” tab gives you a choice of categories that you can view either close to your current location, or by typing in the name of a place. You’ve got listings for Hotel, Restaurants, Things to do, Cafes, Bars, Nightclubs, Children’s activities, Shopping etc. Choosing any of these shows you a list of cards stylized like the ones on Google Now. You can filter content as per the distance, rating, price. It shows distance in miles by default, though we would have also preferred a mode to switch it to kilometers. Same goes for price the filters that shows price ranges only in dollars, local currency conversion would have helped here.
Next, we have a “Featured” tab which will work great for people who just want to see what’s buzzing around the world with Gogobot users. Each featured item has photos of the place for your eyes to feast on. Clicking the ‘i’ button fetches you the address, phone number and location on a map. You can also directly book a hotel or reserve a table at a restaurant, thanks to OpenTable integration. One neat feature is that under every point of interest, there’s a nearby menu for Restaurants, Hotels and Things to do. So let’s say you’re reading about a Hotel you’re going to be staying in, you can instantly know what’s around that place. The app can also act as your trip planner, just add what you like using the ‘+’ button. The next tab lets you invite friends to Gogobot, or connects you with ones that are already using the app. It will tell you if your friends have been to a place you’re checking out, so you can ask them for feedback. Finally, at any point within the app, you can “Check-in” and even click a snap to create a “Postcard”. Who knows, it might be put in the “Featured” hall of fame.
Overall, Gogobot is fast, its simple design goes easy on the eye and might just come in handy. A good app worth having installed on your phone, we say. You can grab it Free on Google Play using the link below.
Masthead via Breezi