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The BookMyShow App Just Got A Makeover But iOS Users Need To Wait Up

BloombergQuint’s Aayush Ailawadi checks out BookMyShow’s new app with its design chief...

At BookMyShow’s Mumbai office (Photographer: Aayush Ailawadi)
At BookMyShow’s Mumbai office (Photographer: Aayush Ailawadi)

BookMyShow, India’s largest online entertainment ticketing platform has finally revamped its application- and it’s about time. The new app is supposed to be cleaner, faster and swankier. But for now, the company has only rolled out this version on the Android Play Store. The company’s design chief, Anish Tripathi says that iOS users will have to wait a little while longer. He adds, “The iOS Platform is going to have all the same features that Android is going to have.” And why Android first? “We just took a bet on it since we have a lot more users on it.”

Tripathi is Vice President, Product Design at BookMyShow. And if you spent a few minutes talking to him about design, UI and aesthetics, you can’t help but spot some sort of resemblance to Apple’s chief design officer, Jony Ive.

But, snapping back to reality- not only does the app look a lot neater, but the company has also tried to make the booking experience a lot less cumbersome. For instance, it has introduced a feature called Mini Maps where users can get a birds’ eye view of the entire layout of what’s on offer. To aid faster checkouts, the company has reduced the number of booking steps by more than half in the earlier version.

The app also learns from the user’s past behaviour and then recommends relevant options to the user with a new “Just For You Section”.

The BookMyShow App Just Got A Makeover But iOS Users Need To Wait Up

In light of the government’s demonetisation drive, a lot of companies seem to be tying up or endorsing e-wallets. But, BookMyShow’s MyWallet now has some added functionality as well. Customers can now split the cost of the tickets with friends on the app itself. Friends can simply pay for their share instantly using the app’s wallet.

The BookMyShow App Just Got A Makeover But iOS Users Need To Wait Up

Tripathi explains that in this way the company can keep the social payments transaction economy of exchanging money on its platform, and its wallet always remains active as well. He adds, “This is just a base for social e-commerce interactions in the future.”