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TTC: Best Smartphone App

Johnny Au

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Let's discuss what is the best TTC smartphone app.

I use the paid version of the Transit Now Toronto for TTC for Android (it is my favourite app and I find ads both annoying and cluttering; the paid version also has voiced countdown timer and couuntdown vibrations as well). That $1.99 is worth every penny, as the money goes into the development of new features. Yes, I have tried the free apps and none are as good. I use a Sony Xperia Z Ultra smartphone, which I bought today (note that it is a Bell exclusive).
 
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I used to use TTC Watch for my iPhone. It worked pretty well. No major complaints.

I moved away for a bit and installed Rocket Man since it came up first in the App Store. I haven't used it as much yet, but on the surface I like it. The interface is more consistent with iOS7, but it's the only TTC app I've used since iOS7 came out. It also has GO arrival info, which is kinda useful.

Aren't all of these apps more or less identical?
 
I use both Android and iOs.

For Android, Transit Now is a great app. It's worth paying $2.00 to get rid of the ads. I don't like the Mississauga Bus app for android. To find out the next bus time, you have to reload the data every time you want to see the next available bus, and you can't save your stops.

For iOs, you have much more apps to choose from. My favourite is Rocket Man. The interface is nice, and easy to use. Nextbus is OK, but I like Rocketman better.
MiWay's app is actually pretty good. You can save stops, and the GPS is decent. The downside is, the app downloads the entire schedule to your phone, so you'll need at least 200MB of space.
 
I use iOS and there are 2 really great apps that I use very often


Rocket Man
- Maps showing all bus/streetcar stops
- Favorites tab
- Realtime location and arrival time of all transit vehicles
- Search by address, location, or stop number
- Also supports other transit agencies like MiWay, GO, YRT
- Extremely good reviews in the app store
- Free, can remove ads for 99 cents

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TTC Navigator
- Maps for all TTC bus, subway, streetcar routes
- Schedules for streetcar and bus routes
- Streetcar and bus connections to and from each subway station
- Free, no ads

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This app is quite useful for me since I take transit all over the city. In fact I've been to every single subway station, and used over 90 different bus routes.
 
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On iOS, I'm a fan of Transit App, by Samuel Vermette. https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/transit-app/id498151501?mt=8

It'll automatically find whatever route is near to your location, with arrival times for each.

What's nice is that it works seamlessly in a whole bunch of cities all over the world. I've used it in San Francisco, Portland, Chicago and New York and the routing feature was invaluable in helping me get around.
 
On iOS, I'm a fan of Transit App, by Samuel Vermette. https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/transit-app/id498151501?mt=8

It'll automatically find whatever route is near to your location, with arrival times for each.

What's nice is that it works seamlessly in a whole bunch of cities all over the world. I've used it in San Francisco, Portland, Chicago and New York and the routing feature was invaluable in helping me get around.

I'm not a fan of it using gps locking everytime you open it. Really slows it down when you can just load favorites in Transit Now and it loads times in under a second. Although the design is pretty, it's also difficult to differentiate between routes. It really lacks contrast.
 
I use TorontoBusMap on Android. It runs off google maps and I like how it knows where the bus is via GPS tracking.
 
I must perform thread necromancy here. Much has changed in the seven years since I started this thread with regards to the transit apps with new features added and bugs fixed.

I got myself an iPhone 12 Pro Max (yes, I can afford it) and am using Freedom Mobile.

I am thinking of either the Transit App or Rocketman.

For either, yes, I will pay to remove ads, but I prefer a one-time payment.

We now use it as a Chromecast remote control. The phone is physically larger than the iPhone 12 Pro Max, but the iPhone 12 Pro Max has a larger usable screen than the Sony Xperia Z Ultra. I had two other smartphones in between.
 
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