On Wednesday, Google secretly launched a new App for India on Google Play Store named – Areo. The app basically aggregates all the different service providers in your locality under one roof. For example, you can order food from Faasos or search for a service on Urban Clap all inside one app. The service is currently available only in some parts of Bangalore and New Delhi and currently we only have services like Faasos, Box8, Freshmenu for food and UrbanClap for all kinds of services. However, we can expect Google to add more services and enable this service in more locations in coming future.
Regarding the user interface, Google Areo is as simple as any other Google app on Play Store. The app is fairly light weighing at only 6.95 MB. Opening up the app, Areo will ask you a bunch of permissions accepting which will greet you with a map screen where it will ask you to enter or PIN your address. Save the address and the app will then show you what all services are available nearby your area. During our testing, we got Food Delivery, Beauty, Home maintenance, Repairs and installation and Fitness. Once inside a category of service, you can apply filters to make your feed more relevant.
The overall user interface of Google Areo is fast, responsive and to the point. There is no over the top animations or ads going on although that might change with time. Moreover, you can add items from different services to your Areo cart. For example, you can add your lunch along with foot massage from UrbanClap under the same order. Once you checkout the payment process, the delivery of all the services under an order will take place as it usually does.
Google Areo is a brilliant idea considering how it can reduce the need of installing multiple apps for the same service. There are a lot of times when we navigate to different apps for ordering food to find the best deal possible. Even in an initial phase, Google Areo looks far more promising than other similar apps. However, the search engine giant would surely need to bump up the services integration and also spread out the service soon to a lot more areas.
Previously, the closest to something like this was Tapzo where you could shop, order food or even book a taxi. On the other hand, Trivago does something similar as well, but only when you are required to book a Hotel.
What are your thoughts on this new app from Google? Have you tried Areo yet? How much will you rate it? Let us know in the comment section below.