Google Maps has just stepped up its ride-hailing game by adding Lyft and Gett to its list of ride-hailing services.
This announcement was made on Thursday, adding that the service will be live in the U.S. for starters, with other regions set to benefit later. When inside the Google Maps app, you will now be able to see a button for calling a Lyft ride. There will also be a similar button for ordering a Gett ride when in New York City, which is actually the only city in the U.S. where you can get a Gett ride.
This will now make sure that users of the Google Maps application have more options for hailing cabs than just Uber. Before this move, Uber was the only viable transportation option alongside the likes of public transit, driving or walking. If you are already using any of the three services on your phone, Google Maps will now display fare estimates as well as pickup times whenever any address is searched for. Once done, there is room to pick any ride-hailing service you wish to and the mapping application will redirect you to the specific app, be it Uber, Gett or Lyft, so that you can request for your ride.
The addition of Uber to Google Maps was a move by Google to make the mapping app more useful to users. However, the decision by the search engine giant to add Lyft and Gett is aimed at making the ride-hailing service ample.
Google’s move to add Lyft and Gett to its ride-hailing services comes at a tricky moment when a top Google official stepped down from Uber’s board citing increasing conflicts of interest, something that is believed to have everything to do with the current tests of Google’s carpooling services. Nonetheless, more competition between service providers has always had the best results for consumers – be ready for the best offers from these three.
Still, you need to make sure that you are running on the latest version of Google Maps so as to enjoy the best of this mapping app.