Uber announced its in-app Calendar Shortcuts feature at the time of the app’s major redesign in November 2016, and the ride-sharing service has now finally rolled out the feature that should make travel to scheduled meetings a bit easier.
When Uber introduced the app redesign, it also unveiled “Shortcuts,” which predicts where you want to go based on the places you frequently travel. In the same vein, Calendar Shortcuts looks through your calendar app for an upcoming event, with the address for that event shown as a shortcut below the search field and alongside your “Home” and “Work” shortcuts, should you have them.
In theory, Calendar Shortcuts let you book rides without the need to type in an address or remember where your meeting is, which helps to cut down the amount of time it might take to get there.
To get the feature up and running, you will need to connect your calendar to the Uber app by going to Settings, then Calendar Events. After giving the app access to your computer, the app will then sync every upcoming event automatically, so long as your events mention addresses.
Calendar Shortcuts is sure to make some frequent Uber riders very happy, but others might be irked about giving up this degree of information to Uber. A similar division of opinion arose when Uber updated its app to track your location before and after your ride. Similar to Calendar Shortcuts, however, Uber passengers can opt out of the service, with the company needing to protect location data with encryption and multi-factor authentication.
Regardless of which side of the privacy fence you live on, the feature is currently available for iOS, with Android support coming sometime in the near future.
