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Bored during your commute? Uber wants to change that with entertainment for your ride

By Julian Chokkattu January 12, 2016

uber bug bounty program — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Maybe you chat up the driver when you get in an Uber, or perhaps you stare out the window. More likely you’re perusing through a few apps on your smartphone. Well, Uber wants to be your in-ride infotainment service, not entirely unlike what you’d find on a flight.

The ride-sharing service just launched a developer tool called Uber Trip Experiences, which lets third-party apps provide notifications, music playlists, news content, or ads to passengers during their trips. Uber says this content will be customized to the length of the ride, and will require permission from the user.

Some examples include smart home appliance apps popping up notifications that will remind you to turn up the heat in your home before you arrive; receiving a five-minute news update for a five-minute ride; music apps providing playlists for you to listen to during the ride; and ads with points of interests and offers cropping up as you make your way to your destination. Of course, as more third-party apps choose to make use of this feature, there will be more choices and varied options of what exactly will be offered to you during your ride.

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uber trip experiences — Image used with permission by copyright holder

uber trip experiences — Image used with permission by copyright holder

uber trip experiences — Image used with permission by copyright holder

If none of that appeals to you and you just want to drive in peace, Uber says users will be able to turn the feature off on an app-by-app basis. We’ll have to wait until developers start using this new feature to see if it will really be a welcome addition to Uber drives, or if it will be an ad-ridden nuisance.

Available at: iTunes

The company says the update is its biggest since it released the Ride Request API in March of 2015, which allowed third-party apps to implement a Ride Request Button so that users could save a few clicks by not having to open the Uber app.

If you’re a developer, you can check out the Getting Started page for Uber Trip Experiences here.

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Julian Chokkattu

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Julian is the mobile and wearables editor at Digital Trends, covering smartphones, fitness trackers, smartwatches, and more…

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