Lyft is the pinker, friendlier car service that lets you summon a driver with just a few taps of your thumb. This might sound like every other car-service app, but the Lyft iPhone app is all about good vibes, and it offers an excellent interface along with a built-in system for tipping. But even with those bonuses, it can't match Editors' Choice Uber's sheer ubiquity or its wide range of options, such as child-seat-equipped and wheelchair-accessible vehicles.
Lyft is available as a free download from the App Store, and it's also available on Android. I had no trouble loading it onto my lovely iPhone 6 , and it is also compatible with iPads. As of this writing, it offers no Apple Watch compatibility. Unlike Uber, which has already spread to 63 countries, Lyft is only available in U.S. cities. With availability in over 200 towns and regions, there's a good chance that you'll be able to find a Lyft in the U.S.
Rev it Up
You can sign up for a new Lyft account with an email and password or, as I prefer, link it to your Facebook account. Lyft confirms your phone using an authentication code sent via text message. For payment options, you can use PayPal or enter your credit card information via your phone's camera. It's an excellent way to get credit cards connected to apps, and I wish it were more widespread.
I had never used Lyft when I signed up for it, and I was surprised to see that it offers so many promotions. Right off the bat, I had five free rides at up to $10 each. If I agreed to recommend the app to my friends, I and anyone who accepted my recommendation would each get an additional $20 in credit. Keen!
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Start Your Engines
Lyft comes in three flavors: Line, for splitting your ride, carpool-style; Lyft, for summoning a regular driver; and Lyft Plus, for vehicles that seat six people and cost a minimum of $12.00 per trip. That's a far cry from Uber ($0.00 at Apple.com) , which offers so many flavors of rides as to be a bit confusing. I appreciate that Lyft pulls up a quick description of each option with a long-press on the corresponding icon, something I wish Uber did. There's something to be said for being focused, but I'm disappointed that I couldn't find an option in Lyft for wheelchair-accessible vehicles, such as Uber provides.
Choosing a location for your Lyft to arrive at is straightforward. As with Uber, you can move the map to select a location, but you can also use the search box at the bottom of the screen. Below is a large, clear Request Lyft button. I prefer this to Uber, which makes it a little tricky to figure out how to actually request a car.
Lyft only lets you enter a destination after you request a driver. This bugs me, since years of using online mapping tools has trained me to enter my beginning and ending points at the same time. Uber includes a handy price-estimation tool, which not only gives you a clue as to how much your ride will cost, but which also lets you enter your destination before ever requesting a driver. That's a great feature.
A Lyft car request is just that: a request. Drivers can turn you down and your request can time out. This is true across all taxi and driver apps. But I like that Lyft automatically starts your search anew when that happens, saving you the trouble of tapping the button again.
Once a driver has accepted your request, you can see his or her name, face, and car. It also gives you the opportunity to see Facebook friends you have in common. This, along with an apparently rarely used profile page that lets drivers share fun facts like their favorite music, shows a sometimes over-the-top effort at friendliness on Lyft's part. You can also call the driver or split the payment with a friend before your ride even begins.
When your driver arrives, you hop in the car and say where you want to go if you haven't entered that into the app already. In a recent Lyft ride, I peeked over my driver's shoulder and noticed that his version of the app showed a handy map and preselected route. Disappointingly, my version of the app only showed my current location, starting location, and end point. The Uber app, on the other hand, let me see our route and gave me an estimated time of arrival. That's a big advantage for Uber. I'd like Lyft to do the same.
Upon arrival, you can simply bid your driver good day and hop out of the car. Lyft will process your payment. But unlike Uber, the Lyft app gives you the option to leave a tip for your driver. From this screen, you can choose the suggested tip amount, enter your own tip, or opt not leave a tip. It's a great feature, and it lets passengers make a meaningful contribution to the livelihood of drivers. It's also just plain polite. Note that you can also use the Lyft app to add a tip to trips you took previously.
If you're still feeling tap-happy, you can also rate your ride, leave comments, or select one of four skills you feel your driver could improve on.
Though I do take ride in every taxi service I've reviewed, the quality of the rides doesn't greatly affect my reviews. I get my drivers by the luck of the draw, after all. That said, I was surprised during testing to find that one Lyft driver was actually a registered NYC Livery Cab driver, and not a rando participating in the gig economy.
Cash Rules Everything
After your ride, an email receipt appears in your inbox. You can also look at your ride history in the Lyft app, which includes a breakdown of what your rides cost. There's no surge pricing, as there is with Uber, and you can even retroactively tip your driver, report a lost item, or request that your bill be reviewed.
Note that you cannot use Lyft to summon a taxi, nor can Lyft be used to pay for a taxi ride once it's started. Arro ($0.00 at Apple.com) and Way2Ride are two useful apps for those in New York City that let you hail yellow cabs. You can use them to pay for taxi rides, too. Uber can also call NYC yellow cabs, though it charges an additional fee for this service.
Though Uber gets a lot of bad press for its drivers attacking passengers and its insistence that the service's drivers aren't employees, I often wonder if Lyft is really that much different from Uber. Yes, Lyft does let you tip but then Uber drivers aren't contractually required to refuse cash tips from passengers, either. Furthermore, some people consider cutting the tip out of the equation to be one of Uber's benefits, though I disagree. And both benefit from operating as go-betweens for riders and drivers, neatly avoiding some regulations that apply to taxi services.
Tip-Tap
Lyft is clearly positioning itself as the kinder, friendlier car-service app. Some of the friendliness feels a bit much, but it's cheerfully designed, while it may be lacking some of Uber's options, it's easier to use. It's also clearer how much rides will cost, since Lyft does not include any of Uber's surge pricing. Best of all, you can give money directly to drivers with a tip feature.
But for all the flourishes Lyft provides, Uber wins the numbers game. It's available in 63 countries across the world and most major American cities. Uber also offers a wide variety of rides and services, including child car seats and wheelchair-accessible vehicles, a fare-estimation calculator, and the same route map the driver gets. For all that, Uber remains our Editors' Choice for car-service apps on the iPhone.
Lyft is the kinder, friendlier app for requesting car-service rides from your iPhone.
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