RSBC Unseen
For nearly two centuries, the Royal Society for Blind Children (RSBC) has been supporting blind and partially sighted children, young people, and their families. RSBC Unseen amplifies the voices of the RSBC Youth Forum, a group of young people who want to bring about positive change for other vision impaired young people and raise awareness of vision impairment. Join us and listen to blind and partially sighted young people's real, lived experiences.
RSBC Unseen
RSBC Unseen Podcast | Travel Apps with Rufus and Kaya | S.04 E.08
What apps are useful for VI people when out and about? Kaya and Rufus tried a few out then came and reviewed them with us. They considered accessibility, reliability, usability and noteable features of the apps. We reviewed Good Maps Outdoors, Soundscape and Railboard which are all available for free.
Juliette Parfitt 00:08
Hello and Welcome to the RSBC Unseen Podcast. My name is Juliette and I work here at RSBC. Today, we're going to be talking about some travel apps that we use to navigate around. And I've got three people joining me today.
I've got Alex, who works here with me at RSBC and I've got Rufus and Kaya, who are two of our young people. Guys, Do you want to talk a little bit about how you access your devices? Primarily, we're going to be looking at phones today, really for our travel apps, because it's usually we're out and about. So Ally Pally, how do you access your phone?
Alex Man 00:38
So I use VoiceOver and sometimes some larger text as well, like invert colours, some visual stuff, but mainly VoiceOver. And I use it all around London and beyond London as well. I've used it all around the world when I travel to America and even Asia.
Juliette Parfitt 00:56
Oooh, Get you Jetsetter! Kaya, how about you? How do you access your phone?
Kaya 01:00
So I mainly use a screen magnifier and I use VoiceOver every now and then this to help me travel again all around the world. Really.
Juliette Parfitt 01:10
God, I need to go on Holiday! Rufus, what about you?
Rufus 01:15
So I'm a full time VoiceOver user. Again, I kind of use it too when I'm out and about, like riding around London
Juliette Parfitt 01:22
Cracking! I too am a full time VoiceOver user. So we're going to be talking about three apps today, Good Maps Outdoors, Railboard and Soundscape. And we've got some sort of criteria we're going to review them against.
So we'll be talking about the accessibility for each app. So how does it work with speech software, with enlarged font, magnifiers and maybe high contrast things like that. And then we'll be looking at the reliability. Is that, is it always accessible? Does it glitch? Does it break? Is the information up to date? We'll be looking at usefulness as well. Do you use it a lot? Is it something about it that like makes you bother or not bother with it and then we'll be thinking if there's any fun notable features that it has or that we would like it to have. So shall we jump straight in, everybody starting with Good Maps Outdoors. Alex, give us a bit of an overview.
Alex Man 02:15
So Good Maps Outdoors is a turn by turn based app, which means it's a bit like a sat nav in a car, but on foot, so it will tell you to turn left, straight and or turn right. And it's very similar to apps like Google Maps and Apple Maps, which we'll probably talk about a bit later on as well.
Juliette Parfitt 02:38
Cool beans. So should we dive straight in and talk about the accessibility of Good Maps? So Kaya, from a magnification standpoint, how did you find it?
Kaya 02:49
So, from a magnification, using a screen magnifier, I found it that it wasn't very accessible at all actually. I opened the app and I had no idea what was going on, because also, like with the menu, like at the bottom of the screen, it doesn't actually tell you what each you know button does, or anything like that. It doesn't have like words underneath each of the sections. So I found that really difficult. So then I decided to turn on a VoiceOver and it was much more accessible
Alex Man 03:19
so it was labelled correctly, but visually, it was difficult to see physically.
Juliette Parfitt 03:23
Yeah, I think that's common with a lot of apps. I used to be a magnification, large font, girly and I used to find some apps was just so impossible, like, you can't get everything on screen. It's very confusing. So, yeah, I feel your pain Kaya
Alex Man 03:38
That's quite funny. Actually, as a blind user I didn't know that the settings app, settings icons as a hamburger. I thought, why is that a hamburger? It's weird like that.
Juliette Parfitt 03:48
Why is it a hamburger?
Alex Man 03:48
I don't know.
Juliette Parfitt 03:49
Rufus, how did you find Good Maps Outdoors?
Rufus 03:52
I love it. I've been using it for about eight years. I think it's really good with speech. Like Alex says it's turn by turn. It will also tell you where you are. It also tells you what's around you as well. So if you're going past a shop, then it will say, I don't know, like, Superdrug on the left and Sainsbury's just ahead to, like, two o'clock. So it does, like, sometimes, like the sort of face of a clock sort of thing.
Alex Man 04:17
I think that's, that's the great thing about this, that is built for blind people, right? So a lot of the instructions are very detailed, instead of, like, turn east or whatever. Yeah, where's east?
Rufus 04:28
To be fair, most of them are doing that now and they the whole term right, turn left. They're not doing that. I mean, I've heard Good Maps do this sort of, walk north
Alex Man 04:36
the clock thing as well. That's useful
Kaya 04:38
also, like, compared to other maps, like Google Maps, what I, like, you know, when you first start your route, it's so difficult to actually find your location on the spot, like, which, which direction you're facing, yeah, and I found this app was so much, you know, more helpful from that point of view.
Juliette Parfitt 04:56
I have not tried it. So do you find it good for like, routes that you Either don't know or are less familiar with?
Rufus 05:02
Yeah, generally. So I, I mean, sometimes I'll do it on a I don't like to put it on route mode if I'm walking a route that I know sort of thing, because often I'll have been taught a route, and it will think it wants me to go one way. But I do often use it like, back when I lived with mum and dad, then I used to walk back like our then local station was with about sort of 5 or 10, minutes walk of our house. There was a bus that you could take to get to the station from our house. But sometimes it wasn't that you'd be waiting for a while. So I used to walk sometimes back from the station, and I would use it then, because they were like, you walk down, you're generally going down like residential roads for the whole thing, so there's not really any traffic noise.
Juliette Parfitt 05:46
Nice. And I guess Rufus, this mainly is aimed at you as the long time user. Is it always reliable? Do you find does it glitch or anything, um, or is it like, usually pretty solid?
Rufus 05:58
it doesn't generally play up. I mean, in that sense, it's pretty good, but in the other sense, it's about as good as any GPS apps gonna be. So it's never gonna be 100% brilliant. And the problem is that, because obviously when you're walking, if you're anything like I am, then I keep my phone in my pocket and I put a pair of AirPods in so I can use the phone just by putting my hand in my pocket. But then also, what that does mean is, I mean that could be because the phones in the pocket, or just because the GPS is playing up, it won't always get the directions 100% so it might say something's on the right when it's on the left sort of thing
Juliette Parfitt 06:35
I have heard that it's a bit of a thing
Alex Man 06:37
because your phone's not pointing in front of you
Juliette Parfitt 06:39
No, they want your phone pointing, like, out at chest height. It's like, yes, but I don't want to get mugged.
Kaya 06:45
And it's like, you have to get it like, at the right angle as well sometimes
Rufus 06:49
yeah, thing is like, if you're walking around, especially well anywhere, really, but especially London, you don't want to be doing that, because there are so many people on bikes that will come up and they will take your phone and if you've got it unlocked. And I didn't realise this until quite recently, I always sort of thought if they took your phone, they'd sell it on and get a few grand for it, but they can actually and they will get into your phone and basically get your contact details.
Juliette Parfitt 07:17
So what about usefulness? So Ru, clearly, you use this or not. You've been using it a long time. Kaya, would you use this app, like, a little bit more regularly?
Kaya 07:26
No, no, definitely. I think it's very helpful. I like the fact that it tells you what's coming up, you know, on your left and right, you know, when you're like at Town Centre. I think it's really helpful.
Rufus 07:36
Yeah.
Kaya 07:37
What about you Ally Pally?
Alex Man 07:38
so I think I'd still need more time with it. I grew up with Apple Maps, but I've been using Apple Maps for probably the same amount of years as Rufus. Using Good Maps. It's sort of like stuck and it's really difficult to change.
Juliette Parfitt 07:55
Sometimes you're just like, I know this I'm gonna,
Kaya 07:57
yeah, definitely.
Juliette Parfitt 07:59
And it does sound good
Alex Man 08:00
sound good. You know, if, if I use it more, maybe I start replacing, I mean, I already replaced one of the apps, which is the train one, which talk about later on. So I'm easily swayed.
Juliette Parfitt 08:11
So any particularly notable features about Good Maps, I like what you guys were all saying about the clock face. That is really, that is like key in the blind world, even though I find it really confusing
Alex Man 08:25
is it useful anymore? Because I think kids, like kids know,
Juliette Parfitt 08:29
with our digital watches, it's not the most useful,
Rufus 08:34
Its not the most useful but its better when it says, walk more.
Alex Man 08:36
You don’t even know what a clock looks like
Alex Man 08:38
Yeah, right
Kaya 08:39
yeah.
Juliette Parfitt 08:39
I'm like, sorry, have I got an internal compass?
Alex Man 08:42
You guys are too young
Juliette Parfitt 08:43
and it's quite good for like, I guess if you're already facing something, it's like, 12 O'clock from where you are. So it's like, yeah, it's relative to you.
Kaya 08:51
I think it definitely takes time to get used to, because when you hear it, when you first use the app, you're like, what? What's going on here?
Juliette Parfitt 08:58
Can you all rate that out of 10. So 10 is good. One is rubbish. Set it on fire, throw it away. Delete it from the internet.
Rufus 09:07
I'll give it an eight, I think just because. Well, two things, first things, first, obviously, is GPS, so you can't trust it 100% to get you where you want to go. The other thing I wish it would do, which Soundscape does this, which I will come to in a minute, but it doesn't tell you when you get in there an intersection. It just says, Turn left, turn right. And obviously, when you've got two crossings next to each other, so like at my now local station, then you have like a little car park. You've got, like, a little side road that you've got to go across, so you just walk straight across that. But then you've got two Island crossings right next to each other. One of them takes you towards Costa. The other one takes you to the station. And it doesn't tell you that there's a crossing. It just says you've gotta make a turn in. And it would be good if it did that, just because then you kind of, I mean, okay, you kind of know. Anyway, if you know what direction you're walking in and you know that, Oh, you. To the right, there's traffic, and it's telling me to turn right, so at some point I'm probably going to have to cross the street. But it doesn't actually warn you that you're getting near to one, so you just kind of walk in straight forward with your cane until you actually find it
Juliette Parfitt 10:14
Kaya, how about you?
Kaya 10:15
I would say a five, because if I had not had the idea of using VoiceOver, I literally wouldn't be able to use the app whatsoever, because just using like a screen reader, it doesn't really work at all.
Juliette Parfitt 10:29
Yeah, very fair.
Rufus 10:30
That's interesting.
Juliette Parfitt 10:31
What about you, Alex?
Alex Man 10:33
Seven, oh, I mean, it works really well for me. It's just certain things that I like about Apple Maps.
Juliette Parfitt 10:41
So now we're going to talk about Soundscape, which is another sort of navigation app, but it's a little bit different to Good Maps. Alex, tell us about it
Alex Man 10:48
Right, So Soundscape, it's a app that shows you certain hotspots around you, so shops and stations and things like that That's interesting, parks. But then what's interesting is that you can make your own hotspots as well. So if you have a location that's not mapped out, you can set one, for example, your home or whatever, or a certain spot in the road.
Juliette Parfitt 11:15
And something it does as well is you are supposed to use it with headphones in, yes, and it gives you, it does it in, like, surround sound, so it will read you the road name of something. And if it's on your left, it won't say on your left, it will just put it in your left ear
Alex Man 11:29
Yeah. So that's what you need, is you actually need headphones.
Juliette Parfitt 11:32
You can use it without. But if you, if Yeah, and you're not getting the point of it, and you can tell this is the one that I've actually used, so yeah, I might even rate it
Alex Man 11:41
So its like 3D map audio, 3D audio mapping,
Juliette Parfitt 11:45
yeah, like surround sound and everything. So let's talk accessibility. How did we find it, access wise? Rufus, What about you?
Rufus 11:49
I thought it was pretty decent, actually. I mean, I like that It again We were talking about obviously, Good Maps doesn't alert you when you get near a crossing. This one will, which I did quite like, I didn't think it would be about quite as good as, like, planning a route on good map as Good Maps is even but I did like that it would, you know, you press a button there. It had separate buttons for where are you, What's it, What's in front, what's behind, what's the left, what's to the right, sort of thing. And again, I like the surround sound feature was pretty cool as well. Yeah, I think the only thing that I would say is, again, it's GPS, so it's not going to be 100% correct, but it was, I mean, I was walking with it this morning, when I got off the bus outside the station. I was walking with it, and it was
Alex Man 12:35
outside this station?
Rufus 12:35
no outside Forest Hill.
Alex Man 12:37
Right.
Rufus 12:37
And then I took it for a walk into work the other day. Then I was walking along and I had it going, and it again. It was pretty decent.
Juliette Parfitt 12:45
It's good for exploration. Yeah, I think it won't. It's not one where you can input a route. Um, it is more just so I used to use it. I don't use it loads now, but I used to use it when I moved and I had learned my couple of routes to like the bus stops and the station, but I wasn't fully confident. Yeah, it's because I liked it telling me the road name, so I knew I was on the right track. Yeah. So it's good for that, or, I've used it for what you've used Good Maps for Ru where I've been on a bus and it's gone quiet and I've stuck it on so I know where I am.
Rufus 13:15
yeah
Juliette Parfitt 13:16
so it's good for that as well. I mean, I’d probably use Good Maps if I ever remember to it's just because it's one of the ones that's like on my home screen
Alex Man 13:23
you can also share different routes, can't you? So if you had noticed that if you had a route that you already mapped out
Juliette Parfitt 13:30
what on Soundscape?
Alex Man 13:30
Yeah, maybe not Soundscape but Voice Vista but that is similar.
Rufus 13:31
I thought that was the same thing.
Alex Man 13:37
There's two
Juliette Parfitt 13:40
Functionally they’re quite similar
Alex Man 13:42
Yeah
Kaya 13:42
because similar to, similar to the Good Maps, I found this app, like, didn't work very well with like screen magnifier, so I had to use the use VoiceOver instead, which was good, but like when I was using it and I had my headphones on. I found the sound beacons really confusing.
Alex Man 14:06
I think for someone who doesn't use speech software, it's completely different because there's no visual maps
Kaya 14:13
yeah, exactly.
Alex Man 14:13
They're more buttons.
Rufus 14:14
I think the problem is all of these apps that we're going through, certainly the first two, they're designed kind of with blind people in mind. So if you don't use speech software, they're always going to be a little bit alien, because you're not used to having that sort of input.
Kaya 14:30
Yeah, exactly
Rufus 14:32
Does anyone else kind of get where I’m coming from?
Juliette Parfitt 14:36
Yeah, I do, yeah, because Soundscape is, it is for someone with little to no vision. I would say that as a speech user. I know some people that use Soundscape and something like a turn by turn map
Rufus 14:45
yeah, people doing that. I have heard of that happening, yeah. My thing then is, you know, you can, I mean, I suppose, again, like what I was saying about the crossing points, part of me thinks, Well, you can do that on Good Maps Outdoors, where you literally just got one out and you've got a route on one tab. And you've got your location on another but then, actually, I suppose, if you're being told a route off, say, Good Maps or Apple Maps or whatever, and then you've got everything else just being told, Oh, this is where that is, and it's there whatever sort of thing on Soundscape. I haven't actually managed to try that yet, but maybe one of these days I'll give it a go
Alex Man 15:19
Like you guys said, it's for exploration, right? So, yes, good to have Good Maps, slash Apple, slash Google Maps, telling you turn this turn, instructions, what to do, and then having VoiceVista or sound Soundscape to just say, Oh, you're passing this. You're passing that.
Rufus 15:35
Yeah.
Juliette Parfitt 15:35
So how did we find it reliability wise? Again, how was everything? Did it always work? Did a glitch, was the info correct?
Alex Man 15:42
So for me, I did try this out in Hong Kong when I was dropping those little audio beacons that I mentioned earlier on to map out a route that I wanted to do because it was a station to downstairs of an apartment, I found the most of it was pretty good, but then at one point, it didn't know if I wasn't sure if I should go left or right, because the audio wasn't, it wasn't that stark. So it was just like, Oh, I'm not sure if that beacons on my left or my right.
Kaya 16:14
Yeah, I found the same.
Alex Man 16:15
It's more like, oh, in front of me. So and I know this is turning so that I can't go through someone else's wall or whatever.
Juliette Parfitt 16:23
So it's a little bit more fiddly. Maybe you've got to be careful how you input stuff to get what you want out of it. That's very good to know. And usefulness. Would we use it?
Kaya 16:34
I found like when I was using it, I literally had to guess which direction the beacons were, um, you know, and was just playing a guessing game after a while. I had no idea which way it was, so I found it quite difficult from that point of view.
Juliette Parfitt 16:50
I think sometimes when you're navigating, when you can't see that well, you're already having to concentrate quite hard. Yeah, you want something that's going to help you not put more on your plate.
Kaya 16:52
Sometimes you literally just wanted to say, turn left, turn right, you know?
Rufus 17:02
Yeah. I mean, I think I would say kind of what I said about Good Maps, because it's GPS, you can't 100% trust it. And again, I would notice with Soundscape, not quite as often, probably because my phone was in my pocket, it would tell me something was on the left when it was on the right. But then equally, I suppose my thing is, well, it's actually quite nice in some way, to be told what's around you, because at least then, you know, you're getting the same sort of input that any other sighted person would get, whereas, if you're just doing a room, then you're just walking passing, you don't necessarily know what they are. But then equally, if say you're meeting somebody, then it's a lot easier to say to them, Oh, can you meet me by the Sainsbury's or, you know, outside Burger King, then, oh, can I meet you at, like, the electric box outside?
Kaya 17:44
Yeah, literally.
Rufus 17:45
Or even at, like, say, the station today, because it's
Juliette Parfitt 17:50
good if you've not got a sighted person, or it's not somewhere, you know, you could be like, right? What's around me? Yeah, I call my friend. Okay, I'm by this shop on this traffic, and they'll be able to find you, yeah, where?
Rufus 18:00
Or even, like, if you ping your locate, like, I like, somewhere, like, somewhere that's not like massive, like a station, it's all right. But if you're at a station,
Alex Man 18:07
very complex exits and things like that
Kaya 18:09
yeah, no, definitely.
Rufus 18:10
At least with Soundscape or Good Maps, if it gives you a POI, then you at least know that you can either ring somebody and say, Oh, I'm outside here, or you can even say to someone, oh, by the way, do you know where I don't know Burger King is
Kaya 18:23
and the fact that actually gives a an actual place, yeah, you know, helps a lot.
Rufus 18:27
Yeah.
Juliette Parfitt 18:28
Okay, so, yeah, we would maybe use this a little bit. What do you think in terms of usefulness? Um, because if you already use Good Maps, it's like, does it give you anything that you don't get from that?
Rufus 18:37
I definitely would going forward. Actually, I think, I think it's a good act for exploring, like, I would like to because, like, certainly, since I've moved I've always sort of thought about just going for a walk down, like the local high street, and then just using the app to see where I'm kind of at and then just kind of getting an idea of what's around, sort of thing. Yeah, you know, I always, sort of, I've never really got around to doing it, because I'm always at work, and then it's, like, the weekend I just kind of can't be bothered by that point.
Kaya 19:03
So I think that's a thing, though. Like this app, I do use it for exploring, but I wouldn't use it like to try and find a place if I'm, like, in a rush, for you know what I mean?
Juliette Parfitt 19:15
Yeah, for sure,
Rufus 19:16
I generally don't walk anywhere. Or if I'm in a real rush, unless I really know the area
Juliette Parfitt 19:19
Cool. Any notable features?
Alex Man 19:25
So with the VoiceVista, which is still Soundscape anyways, the one of the features I really like is that you can control what's being read out to you by pressing your headphones, like if you was playing music, so a single tap will read what's in front of you. Double tap on your headphones, like a going back a track will read what's around you, and maybe another one will do show you where you are. So you know it's completely hands free.
Juliette Parfitt 19:53
That's really cool.
Alex Man 19:54
So you don't need to pull your phone out. So that's a really cool feature. And the Developer is pretty responsive. So I think there's a support group on WhatsApp that one of our young people actually well ex young people Tony has created with the developer. So he's always up for feedback and stuff as well.
Alex Man 20:16
So yeah, VoiceVista, very similar to Soundscape, though, maybe slightly better.
Rufus 20:22
I'll give that one a try.
Juliette Parfitt 20:23
Yeah i might switch over.
Rufus 20:24
I always been led to believe that VoiceOver was that VoiceVista was like the re-brand because I know they tried doing away with Soundscape, didn't they? about three years ago
Alex Man 20:31
Yeah, they got rid of it, and then, and then two companies came back with it
Rufus 20:34
Yeah and I sort of was led to believe that VoiceVista was the new Soundscape, yeah. So I
Juliette Parfitt 20:40
It was and then Soundscape came back. So then it was, but actually, I
Alex Man 20:43
I don't think someone just came back with this with a similar name, like it
Juliette Parfitt 20:47
It was the same app.
Alex Man 20:48
Oh yeah
Juliette Parfitt 20:49
It was basically the same. I don't know how to recreate it from this scratch.
Rufus 20:52
I'll have to download that one
Juliette Parfitt 20:53
I was gonna sayI might swap
Juliette Parfitt 20:55
Uhm Ru, I think you were gonna say, was there any useful, um, notable features?
Rufus 21:01
Yeah. I mean, again, I like that it kind of tells you when you're approaching a crossing. I did like that about Soundscape, because that is the one thing that is really dumb eyed. And about Good Maps, it won't do that.
Juliette Parfitt 21:10
Fair. Kaya, anything on your end, notable features that you liked about it?
Kaya 21:15
I liked the fact that I found it fairly easy to use after I got around the like using it with the VoiceOver. That was good.
Juliette Parfitt 21:24
It's not always clear what it is. I remember the first time I opened it up, and I was like, right, what's this again?
Kaya 21:30
That's exactly what I found it. When i opened it, I was like, What is this?
Juliette Parfitt 21:34
Think I listened to a podcast with other people talking about it, and I was like, oh. And then I kind of got it
Rufus 21:39
yeah
Kaya 21:41
that's the thing. I actually, I actually like search from YouTube, like the the app, and like how to use it. Because I had no idea it's not very clear. That's the thing. Like, when you first open it, you think, what is this like? How do you know? Like, how to use it, like, you know, because when there's some other apps you open then the first time in, you know exactly what to do.
Rufus 22:00
Well, when I first downloaded it, I had to get past about five different apps that were like white noise, like sleep apps and they're all from Soundscape
Juliette Parfitt 22:09
Yeah, Soundscape is, I see what they do with the name, but it's not ideal. So shall we rate out of 10? I'm actually gonna rate this one because I've used it.
Juliette Parfitt 22:17
I would give it a I'd give it a seven. It's pretty good for what I've used it for, but I think VoiceVista sounds better to be honest
Alex Man 22:17
If I’m rating VoiceVista. It will be an eight.
Kaya 22:30
Mine would be five. I find that there are better apps for like mapping, with maps and routes and things like that, which I find it easier to use.
Rufus 22:41
I'm gonna give it an eight just because it's GPS, and you can't, like, 100% trust it unless you kind of hold your phone out, which I refuse to do. So yeah, it's a difficult one, because it does look like a really good app. And, like, again, I don't really know it that well. Like, Good Maps I've been using for years. Like, I've been using that since before it was good mapped and when it was RNIB navigator, but Soundscape, I've literally only started using that in the last week, so, but it does look pretty decent. I'm not gonna lie, like it looks alright. Like, for like, just going around, like, to go for a walk around your local area and, like, see what's about.
Kaya 23:12
I think it is also an app that take it does take time to get used to.
Juliette Parfitt 23:16
I think you're right, cool. So now we're going to talk about our final app, Railboard. Alex?
Alex Man 23:23
Railboard is basically a timetable app that tells you upcoming trains. It also does planning as well. So if you don't know where to go, it will tell you what train or what line to catch, but most people will use it for checking on timetable. You can also purchase train tickets as well.
Juliette Parfitt 23:43
All right. Well, I know that Kaya is a big fan of this app. To be honest, I only know about it because of Kaya, yeah, now because of you. I downloaded it this morning. I'm gonna use it I've been using for a month. Um, Kaya, talk to us about the accessibility.
Kaya 23:59
So I find this app really accessible. I like the fact that it has good colour contrast, and also it's actually really easy to use. I like the fact that it actually tells you what platform the train's going to be on, and it pretty much tells you everything that a departure board would tell you at a train station which is not accessible so.
Juliette Parfitt 24:20
Amazing. Rufus, have you had much of a chance to play around?
Rufus 24:23
So, yeah, I used it a couple of days ago for the first time, and it looks really good. Actually, I've always used I've always been a train liner for the last, like, six or seven years, but I know a lot of people are moving onto it, because I know a few people have, yeah, I don't know if it's from a magnification point of your speech one, but they're having issues with Trainline going up on them and whatnot. So a lot of people have moved over the Railboard. And it does look very good. I'm wondering, I actually did use it to buy a ticket to spend allof four quid on a ticket to London Bridge that I didn’t use just to see what it would do. And it looks really good I think. What I what I did, like about it is that it, there was a feature you don't see this on train line. It will show you direct routes only, so you can switch that on. I assume I didn't actually get a chance to see it in action, but you can actually go to, like, go route that is only direct. So if you want to, if you're one of these people, like I am, where you don't like to change trains as often as you have to
Juliette Parfitt 25:22
and everything's kind of welllabelled and like clear as to where
Rufus 25:25
yeah
Juliette Parfitt 25:25
I like in terms of access.
Juliette Parfitt 25:26
That's super helpful.
Alex Man 25:26
It's good for when, if someone's picking you up from the station and you say, Oh, I'll be on the 12:09, train
Kaya 25:26
One other thing I like, one of the other features I really like, is that, you know, you can check your train, and then it will show you, like you tap on it, and then it will show you all the stops that will be stopping at so times as well. So I found that really helpful.
Juliette Parfitt 25:32
yeah, and it's and it's coming in at this platform as well, in case they can come meet you
Kaya 25:53
or even when you're on a overground train and the announcementshave become out of sync, saying, you know, we're, you know, we arrived at Kings Cross, and it's completely different station.
Juliette Parfitt 26:03
Yes, yeah, that's really helpful. So we've covered, kind of, like, a lot of the criteria access, good reliability. I'm guessing the information is usually pretty up to date, pretty reliable.
Alex Man 26:15
Talking about reliability, it does actually tell you when trains are delayed as well
Juliette Parfitt 26:18
Oh, so that info is really up to date.
Alex Man 26:21
It uses, I think, TfL or whatever, API
Juliette Parfitt 26:23
that's amazing.
Alex Man 26:24
So it's quite up to date.
Kaya 26:27
I find it really reliable.
Kaya 26:30
I've been using it for quite a while.
Juliette Parfitt 26:31
I think we've even covered some notable features, like the train times and the platforms, any other sort of notable features or sort of usefulness
Alex Man 26:38
Talking about VoiceOver support, because Kaya uses screen magnifier as VoiceOver goes. Obviously, everything's labelled. There's even voice over rotor control reaction so you can pin a certain train.
Kaya 26:56
It's a brilliant app, actually, I think.
Juliette Parfitt 26:59
So they've actually designed it with accessibility in mind
Kaya 27:02
Yeah
Juliette Parfitt 27:03
That makes a change
Alex Man 27:05
It makes a really good change, especially withn mainstream apps, because obviously this is not a VI app, but it has all the VI shortcuts and stuff like that for VoiceOver.
Juliette Parfitt 27:14
So do we want to give it a rating?
Kaya 27:16
I'll go nine.
Juliette Parfitt 27:17
All right. Rufus, what about you?
Rufus 27:18
I think it's great. But a lot of the features you've got on there, you've also got on Trainline. So I would definitely use it again. It's like a backup. But because I'm more used to using Trainline, I suppose if I can get, like,cheper tickets off Railboard
Alex Man 27:30
I could give it a nine as well Its a solid app I like. It's part of my toolkit now. So yeah, because I use it to check, because one of my trains. I'm on Elizabeth Line which is a nice train, but it takes ages, but if I get to Greater Anglia, I can get to Shenfield really quick.
Juliette Parfitt 27:47
Cool. So I guess we whizzed through Railboard, but I think we're just a bunch of happy Railboard customers, so I'm gonna, I'm probably just gonna delete train line and start using that proper.
Juliette Parfitt 28:03
So that's all the apps we've got for you today, and we're going to put links to all of them in the show notes, so you can click on them and go and download them if you want to. I'm certainly going to be giving Railboard more of a go, and maybe Good Maps Outdoors as well.
Juliette Parfitt 28:11
Thanks Alex Rufus and Kaya for joining me, and we will catch you in the next one guys!
Everyone 28:17
Bye!