Has anybody tried the latest release of the Uber app?

What you've just posted sounds nearly identical to the response I received on Thursday. In fact, just for giggles, I will post the text of the response I got here. Please note that I used the feedback form that Uber wants us to use.

RESOLVED
CONTACT US

Thanks for the feedback, Melissa.

We're sorry to hear about difficulties you may have experienced using the new Uber app. We designed the app experience to make Uber even easier to use and to unlock new ways to save riders more time and money. The app redesign also allows us to build even more features that mean the most to riders like you.

Your feedback is valuable and will be reviewed by our team. We’ll be sure to reach out if more information if needed. Stay tuned for future product updates. Visit uber.com/whereto for more information.

Sent by Yogesh on Thursday, November 3, 2016 at 10:52:04 PM
Continue this conversation by replying to this email or going to help in your Uber app.

PREVIOUS MESSAGES
Did You Have An Issue With A Trip?: no

Are You Experiencing An Account Issue?: no

Are You Having An Issue With Payment?: no

Share Details: There seem to be a few accessibility issues with the newest version of your app. I've encountered a couple of unlabeled buttons using Voiceover on my Iphone 7 plus. The biggest problem, however, is that I no longer get the screen popping up asking me to rate my driver. I like to thank drivers who have been exceptionally helpful, and while I do this in person when they drop me off, I enjoyed being able to thank them in the app too. As of yesterday's update, this no longer seems to be possible. On an unrelated note, it seems that a new fee has been added. Before today, my trip home from work always cost $5.60, and today, the same trip cost $7.55. This increase is almost significant enough to render Uber cost prohibitive for my daily situation, although I would definitely continue to use Uber for less routine trips. Anyway, if you could please look into the issue regarding the inability to rate trips, I would sincerely appreciate it.

Sent by Melissa H. on Thursday, November 3, 2016 at 8:26:53 PM
In closing, I'd like to add that although the @uber_support twitter account incourages us to dm them with issues and our account info, the DM I sent this morning has yielded absolutely no response.

I wonder, if there's a phone number to reach Uber in any way? I'm not even talking about uber's support team, i'm talking about Uber as a company in general. Someone needs to contact them and let them know that their app is usable but not as nice as the previous version was. If we need to contact the driver we may not even be able to.

Yep. Those two responses are practically the same aside from the change in name. They probably have an autogenerated template the just fills in the name and stuff. Ugh.

No I don't think there is a phone number for uber We'll just have to keep trying. The response I got today was better but not by much.

I actually got another response, and this time it actually asked me some relevant questions i.e. which platform I was using, version number of said platform, and version number of the Uber app. I gave them all that information and again, explained that the app is certainly quite usable but the interface could be easier to use especially on the trip screen with rating the driver. I explained that the buttons are not properly labeled so that a VoiceOver user can tell which rating we're giving the driver. All VoiceOver says is button, for each button that represents a rating. I even told them that I'm not comfortable rating my driver if they do an excellent job, but due to the unlabeled buttons, I accidentally give my driver a 1 when he or she deserves a 5. That's not fare to them because if they do a great job, they deserve the proper rating. I also gave them links to the Uber app directory entry and this discussion right here. They did write back and said thank you for sending that information and that they would send it to the proper team. That last part i'm not sure about because that seems to be the usual canned response we get when reporting these issues. So, i'm hoping that the next version has some of these accessibility issues fixed.

It might help if all the issues that we are having with the app are listed in the first post so that anyone from Uber that looks at this topic can easily read and understand the issue. I just contacted them and linked to this topic.

So for the past 2 days I have had very sluggish times with the thing. Got a quick problem though. About 3 times so far I have put the destination in , selected x, and hit request but then nothing. It says optimizing and a thing comes up about am I sure I don't want to see my fare. I've hit continue but then it just sits and does nothing. If I try to cancel, both buttons are dimmed. If I close it and reopen, I basically am back on the main screen to get the ride again. Any suggestions?

hello their, as I've stated previously with this thread, I can't make my apple pay option stick when i select it in the new app, and I get no indication when I have switched to it when I request a ride to pay with touch ID. can you guys please take a look at this as well? also, while I'm on the subject, when requesting a ride, I notice when a trip gets accepted, no push notification or sound comes through letting me know that my request was taken. this needs fixing as well. I too would love to see more improvements with the unlabeled buttons on the trip screen.I like many others cannot rate drivers when done with a trip my self. I have to wait until my emailed receibt comes in to do this from the email, please make it so we can rate a driver with in the app and put comments like in the old version of the app.

Hi Pj. Thanks for at least offering a small window of answers. I haven't used Uber since you updated, giving us some crucial clues helps. However every week, when you release an update or i should say Apple does, you put absolutely no thought into what's changed. You just quote "Uber designs the app with great new features, update regularly so you can take advantage of the newest features." To be fair, your ompetitor does this as well. i'm not asking for a laundry list of changes and bug fixes, I'm just asking for maybe a simple acknowledgement. Something such as "We listened to your feedback, the rating of a driver has been fixed." This shouldn't take much more then a minute to get working. Am i the only one who's slihtly annoyed we just get the garden variety update and see what happens response? Thank you as i said for responding, I do hope the time of when a car might show up will be put back. As i live in a state with quite a lot of snowbirds descending upon us in the next three months, it would be very helpful if once the Uber X or whatever option I choose has been selected, ETA sixteen minutes, could flash. I also would like a sound played, as my phone is usually buried in mypurse, so feeling the vibration lets me know I have the request acepted. Thanks for reading.

Hi PJ, I just wanted to thank you for posting here, it does restore my faith in you guys. Now that I've gotten used to the new app's design it's not as terrible as I first feared. I do like the fact that you are told the same bits of information, just in different ways. My only concerns are ssplitting a fare with someone and contacting a driver. In the previous version you could find all this stuff under trip options. i'm not even sure where this stuff is because I haven't had a reason to use the app in a real situation yet. But I figured I would check here because it's good to know this type of information. I want to be able to contact the driver or do a fare split, lots of times my gf and I will do that if we're taking a longer trip so the costs aren't so high for one of us. Thanks for sticking around and I hope you'll keep posting here. Also, Siobhan is correct. It would be really nice if, when a new update comes out we could get some specifics about what's actually changed in the new version, not just for VoiceOver users, but for everything. You've worked hard on these new features and bugfixes, and as users of the app, we really do want to know what's fixed in the latest version we're about to update to.

Thanks for finally writing on this thread. It's not acceptable the fact that it took 5 days for your staff, to get back to us, plus all the non sense feedback we got back. I will if the problems and nonsense replies come back to us write to corporate and that will not e fun for any of us

You say you worked with the NFB. I'm president of said local chapter here and I got no word of this. The update does not show that you worked with the NFB. It shows a hodge podge of a mess for our users of said app. Please look into this or I will be writing to our national office to ask exactly what you guys worked on. If I don't see an improvement by 2 updates from now, expect a very unhappy person.

Thanks.

Thanks PJ it means a lot that you have gotten back to us and are willing to help! To the others that are putting blame on him this is no way going to help the situation. By telling him that this isn't acceptable and so on it is lessening the chance that he will want to help us. Feedback is good but when you word it in a negative way it doesn't do any good. I understand that this is a frustrating situation but the fact that an engineer from Uber is responding to us is a great step forward and it would be a shame if we took a step back. Thanks again PJ and I hope you will continue to work with us.

Hello PJ,

Given the accessibility issues with the most recent version of the Uber app, it is very hard to believe that your accessibility advisor and two blindness consumer organizations have signed off on this latest update.

Has Uber worked with the accessibility advisor, ACB and NFB during the development of this update, or are you referring to past contact for previous versions? Past contact does not cover Uber for currently-broken accessibility.

Your posts on this forum thus far seem only to defend your current app. Does Uber intend to fix the several clearly reported accessibility concerns?

Unfortunately, the Uber iOS app, as it stands right now, does not show that Uber has done anything to prioritize accessibility. When someone says they're accessible, then we ought to be seeing improved accessibility, not degradation of our ability to participate.

While we appreciate the instructions you have posted, please make sure they are appropriate for VoiceOver, since that is the audience with which you are communicating on this forum.

I look forward to Uber updating the app to restore and improve accessibility for blind riders, and, even more important, for the company to consistently make sure accessibility is a requirement for all the code it generates.

Regards,

Darrell Hilliker
BlindAccessJournal.com

I just heard from a representative from the American Council of the Blind on Twitter who confirmed the organization has not approved the accessibility of Uber's iOS app. The representative also said the organization does not endorse any app other than its own ACB Link. Let's all make sure we don't back down and that we are not pacified by claims an organization has approved something...

It would be really nice if Uber could work directly with the blindness consumer organizations together, to make sure that the app is fully accessible. It is now, to a point as far as setting up a trip, but clearly, people are still having trouble rating drivers, which to me is a huge deal. We want to make sure that the people that drive us around get good ratings. If we can't, it could really send a bad message. I know it can be done via email and on the web, but we should be able to do it in the iOS app, just like sighted folks do. Clearly, PJ has an idea of how the app works with VoiceOver, because specific details about using VoiceOver were mentioned, such as setting your location and then swiping left once to make sure your pickup location is correct. It's as if the app is in the oven, but is not fully-cooked yet. I can't understand why developers do this thing where they make some parts of the app fully accessible, but don't finish the job and make the whole thing usable for everyone. Clearly, blind people rely on this app, so it's really really important that all portions of the app should be VoiceOver-friendly. The only thing i'm seeing is that people are having a problem rating drivers which, to me is important like I mentioned earlier. Lets hope that PJ and the other app developers turn on VoiceOver, and actually test out the screen where you can rate the driver, and bring it back to full accessibility like it was before. In the previous version all the ratings were clearly read out, and we could double tap on the rating we want, add any comments if necessary, and double-tap on submit and the rating gets sent. So, lets take it all the way and make this app fully usable to everyone!

I guess I'm one of very few people that like the latest version. I'm having no problems at all. Using an iPhone SE and the latest version of iOS 10, I'm experiencing no sluggishness at all. This includes the trip screen. I'm also having no problems with rating drivers. In my opinion this interface is a lot better than the old one. Yes, some buttons aren't labelled but this is minor. I think all the changes that were made are for the better. Just my thoughts. Keep up the great work PJ!!!

Hello,

Wow. You folks need to chill out a bit. A person from Uber comes in offering to help and he gets threatened, called a liar and treated as it’s all his fault. Heck, If I were him, I’d walk away.

Instead of jumping all over him, why not give him a break and see what he can do. Don’t expect problems to get solved within the next release or two. He will need to figure out what info you’re giving him and try to figure out how to fix it without breaking something else.

Again, chill out folks. You don’t want to scare off another developer.

I, personally, didn't liked the new Uber app, same others, I think the previous was better

I agree with you david this is a great thing that someone from Uber wants to help us. Let's not scare him away.

I didn't update my app as I had spotted this thread a couple of days ago and I hope all this gets sorted within the next updates for everyone else. I didn't like some of the negative feedback on here as all that is going to do is push devs away and I fear that this has happened already as I haven't seen anymore responses from him since the negative comments. Oh well the blind community does it again! If people are going to help us! We need to be positive when submitting feedback on here because some of the responses would want to make me stick 2 fingers up at the blind community and walk away.

What's sad is that the person making all the threatening comments claims to be super-smart and knows a lot about iDevices. Remember, Uber is not a little company, and PJ is only one of the developers. It's sad, we want people to engage with us and then we get crap like that, saying you better fix it or else! No. no no no. You don't talk to people like that if you want stuff done, especially when they are willing to actually read our comments and engage with us. Now if we didn't hear anything and if improovements weren't, and still aren't made with other portions of the app, then I can understand strongly-worded messages, but I hope PJ hasn't run away from us. At least he is willing to work with us to make the app better.

I really think that some people need to chill out!!! I saw a post where a person was complaining because PJ didn't give us his full name! I mean really? You are going to complain about something like that when all he's trying to do is help! I just don't know what's wrong with some people. I guess there are people who just need to complain no matter what! This version of the app is different but like I said previously, I personally like the new interface. I am having no problems at all. Especially now that I know what the 2 unlabelled buttons do.

Admittedly I haven't tried the update that was just rendered today but wonder if anyone has had problems with the new app leaving feedback for drivers. After the trip when I open the app rather than being brought to the feedback screen I'm just placed back at the enter location screen. This means my drivers can't receive feedback. is this a voiceover issue or an issue with the new app? Thanks.

If you hit the back button once the trip ends, I guess there's a way to rate the driver. btw, what do the unlabeled buttons do? just asking.

What gets me is this PJ person says they were in cooperation with the ACB. The person at the ACB said they were not in cooperation with uber, so what's the story here? That to me puts up a giant red flag. I did not ask the NFBfolks at our national NFB office, but i get the feeling I'll hear the same thing.

At least they are willing to talk to us, we can sort out who they worked with later on. Please, Sarah, don't screw this up for us! We're finally getting some very valuable feedback. you've probably scared them away although I sincerely hope not.

I don't think that was the intent, but i too am spotting a bit of a red flag here. Two conflicting stories never helped solve anything.

Yeah so that's 3 of us that have spotted a red flag. Darrell, me and the prior poster My aim is not to scare them away, my aim is to try and catch them red handed in the false hood. No proof, just their word that say they were in cooperation with the 2 organizations and the two say they never approved this app and the one never approved uber in the first place, or so I read the reply as such

Another thing, why are some of us having issues and not all of us? I didn't update as I heard some not so good things on twitter. Plus I have not taken uber in a year. I don't need to as of yet. Let's hope they fix this.

Another red flag. We had odd ish replies from support, now PJ is here to tell us how the app works without using voiceover gestures and instructions, Oh and said instructions hardly work for those of us who tried them.

First of all, I did try using the Uber app again. Fortunately, at least for me, the ratings part did seem to work when I used it. It appears you have to flick past the where to and all of that, after your trip of course, and it is beyond all of that portion of the screen. I would imagine if you were to attempt to drag your finger around to find it, it would be in the bottom portion of the screen, though admittedly I did not try that approach.

Now, for the part that will probably make me widely unpopular on here, but that's an alright problem to have I suppose. I understand some of us are frustrated. I too was not happy with the canned responses I received from Uber, and I also don't enjoy seemingly not being heard. I also understand the frustration surrounding PJ saying he or she, (we actually don't even know for sure), worked with the NFB and/or ACB and figuring out that was, in fact not founded. To the person who was highly upset that the directions given were not specifically aimed at a voice over user... I realize this is 2016 and it would be nice if people just knew accessibility terms and/or the proper gestures to communicate in our language, but the reality is... they don't always know that. Instead of being upset that they came over here without proper knowledge of VO, can we be grateful they're communicating at all and perhaps request that when they give directions next that they try to explain it in voice over terms? In the meantime, we do have at least a starting point, and sometimes it is on us to take the directions given and translate them to our terms, being VO terms. Now, had PJ said they were specifically an accessibility developer, I would be more upset, but like has been stated several times here, let's not scare folks off. I'm not saying all of this is just okay, but I do think if we can educate and/or communicate instead of just immediately attacking we might receive a better response.

Just my 2 cents, I guess at this point more like 10.

Catch them red handed? Really? Like are you serious? That sounds threatening and not at all welcoming. It doesn't matter right now where they collected feedback from the NFB or ACB... Allot of people that use this app and are blind don't belong to either... What matters is there are accessibility issues with the Uber app and that hopefully Uber will still work with us to fix these issues. Also you just answered your own question obviously not everyone is having issues with the app because they didn't upgrade, they have a different phone it could be a number of reasons and this is in no way fishy. Trying to catch people red handed as you said is not going to fix anything.

I just saw that the NFB have put out a blog post on the comments made by Uber. They indicate that they did speak to two Uber representatives and briefly demo the app for about 45 minutes a couple days before the app started coming out, but had no discussion regarding the update before that point. They are calling for a formal apology from Uber for this and asking for greater collaboration.
The link to the full post is https://nfb.org/blog/vonb-blog/commitment-more-checking-box-uber-fails-get-it

I just a few minutes ago brought this to @nfb_voice's attention. They said on their blog with quotes from uber, uber falsely represented them in helping check for accessibility flaws in their app. Following is a lengthy excerpt along with a link to the blog article.

Recently, the following misleading assertion was posted on the AppleVis forum from one of the iOS engineers that built the new Uber app. “Making sure that the app was working for VoiceOver users was a key priority for us during the development, and this included getting feedback from our accessibility advisor. As part of our launch, we also collected feedback on our new design from the National Federation of the Blind…” (http://www.applevis.com/forum/ios-ios-app-discussion/has-anybody-tried-latest-release-uber-app). This statement was disrespectful, irresponsible, and manipulative. It is also the Case Study on How Not to Make Your Products Accessible.

The following is a description of how Uber collected feedback from the National Federation of the Blind, and the feedback we provided. We received an email from an Uber representative on October 26 stating, “I'm reaching out because our engineering team is working on some really cool things with the Uber rider app that we'd love to demo with you in person in advance of their being rolled out to the public…Some users will start to see the changes as early as next week, so we'd love to come up and walk you through them beforehand. Are you by any chance free for a demo this Monday the 31st, and if not Monday, then Tuesday?” This was our first time hearing of the new design, and we had no previous input on the development or design of this soon to be released app. Although we are continuing to attempt to resolve the issue of discrimination against blind Uber passengers that use guide dogs, we accepted the October 31 meeting on behalf of the blind individuals that have come to rely on this ridesharing service as an affordable dependable means of transportation. (It is important to note that we have had several meetings with Uber representatives over the years to discuss various issues, but cannot seem to get Uber to recognize their fundamentally flawed approach toward ensuring accessibility.)

This most recent meeting consisted of a 45 minute conversation with two Uber representatives where we were informed of the pending launch of the new interface. We explored the basic new app design on the representative’s iPhone. During this short period of time we identified several problems with accessibility of the app, including unlabeled buttons and lack of conformance to fundamental VoiceOver gestures.

We expressed our on-going concern about their launching the app without really testing for accessibility. We further explained that they should be prepared for candid expressions of frustration from our members and others. Still attempting to be helpful, we informed them that they could monitor user experiences by subscribing to the AppleVis and Inclusive Android blog sites. We offered to push a notice out to our membership if they provided us with an ability to give feedback that would be addressed. The app went live on November 2. Unfortunately, we did not receive the information on the feedback loop until November 4, and by then individuals were already actively voicing their frustration.

So as you can see, uber really did so something wrong here. Here is a link to the full blog article.

https://nfb.org/blog/vonb-blog/commitment-more-checking-box-uber-fails-get-it

The importint thing is that Uber is reaching out to us now to help fix this. This is new for them so let's cut them some slack. The only way we can fix these accessible issues we are having is to work with them and not against them. Let the NFB do there thing but here on Applevis we should be focused on giving Uber good feed back so that they can address our issues. That is if they weren't already pushed away.

I am disgusted. So Uber comes on here and tries to engage with us and actually lets us give feedback to improve the app and some of you are too busy looking for red flags? I am beyond disgusted with some of you right now....how on earth do you ever expect them to work with us? If PJ is still even here i'd like to apologize for the comments made by others, we are very greatful to have you on here and we'll do whatever we can to help you if you are still here that is.

I've been following this thread very closely and have made several comments on it myself. For the record, I am using the latest version of the app on an iPhone SE running the latest public beta version of iOS 10.2: As I have stated previously I am experiencing no problems with the app at all. Now we have the NFB screaming that the app is not accessible. They are always complaining about something or other. I can only hope that PJ is still out here listening to those of us that are willing to give constructive feedback: Leave it to the NFB to spoil any chance of open communication with Uber.

Since the blog article gives details of what happened, then I am sad to say I'm siding with my own organization here, which doesn't happen all the time. I sure hope though that someone finds out about this and gets the story straight. Talking about accessibility right when the app is about to be released to the public and then not listening to advice is not what I call good customer service in m book, I should know. I run 3 businesses.

Anyway guys, Blessings and happy Tuesday. I have a lot of work to do tomorrow, all of it last minute. And no I won't be takin uber, not until these issues are fixed and dealt with.

[I strongly encourage all blind users to use the new Uber update. Over the past few days, rating drivers has not been an issue for me. Tonight, I was finally able to work out how to report a driver from 2 days ago who refused point blank to transport my work colleague's guide dog.

At first I thought I had yet again run into the rating issue last night, or more accurately lack there of, but it turned out it was just a delay in the system, as when I loaded the app a bit later, I was able to rate my driver and could've, if necessary, left comments on the next screen. There are still a few bugs to work out, (unlabeled buttons and changing destination during the trip), but otherwise, it does seem that things are working on improving within the Uber app.

I'm glad though that that blog post was written. I can forgive a mistake once, but this is normal behavior for uber. They will fix something, then it will brake about 6 months later.. Has anyone gotten any strange support messages back that had nothing to do with what we've ben tlaking about or has that also ben cleared up?

Take care all.