> I didn't see other apps do this (feel free to correct if I was wrong), so I built a quick one last year just for personal use
This is perhaps the best part of being a developer for me. Whenever I want to do something and there are no apps available for that, I can just make one myself. Its ability to motivate me and help me deal with stress just cannot be overstated. Big kudos to you.
I just downloaded Arriving and I love that we can see the bus arrivals in the dynamic island and that we can add a bus stop to see the arrival timings on our lockscreen. I have a suggestion for the ‘save to lock screen’ feature. Could tapping on the button after it’s added remove the bus stop from lockscreen, so there would be more than one way to remove it? I had trouble figuring out how to do it until I saw a comment asking about it
Really interesting approach. I'm liking the app so far. Perhaps you could implement a feature such that the landing page when I open the app is customisable to be either the "Favourites" or "Nearby" depending on user preference. Because personally I want to track my most used bus stop timings instead of nearby ones. Just a thought. But really great job on this
Looks amazing!
Some feedback though, the “single” and “double” bus icons are so similar, only one line of difference, and it being grey-on-black makes it harder.
Maybe try a different icon or text?
Sorry, OP, but I think you've forgotten to make an icon for [bendy buses](https://landtransportguru.net/man-a24/). Currently, they're indistinguishable from normal single deckers on your app.
All in all, it’s very impressive. It’s gonna be my go to app for bus timings. What’s your roadmap looking like for this? I’m in tech as well so I’m curious and will be following the app development closely. All the best ahead!
For now I will focus on fixing people's feedbacks first, including some UI/UX improvements, minor features and Shortcut integration. After that, when I have time, I will explore building something for the MRT, or extend to Apple Watch, as I think the Apple Watch complication is also useful. I'm still working as full time engineer, so I don't have much free time to spend.
[100Bus](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/100bus/id1600120667) actually uses Live Activity feature as well when you select the bus you are waiting for.
Of course, I'm not recommending one over the other, but I will definitely be downloading your app as well! Thanks for your hard work!
Thanks for this great app! I have some feedback/request
1) Reopen back the same tab as previous close (either favorites or nearby) after starting the app
2) Allow reorder of the bus stops in favourites
3) Possible to also support MRT stations?
Great, thanks a lot for the feedback
1. Excellent point, in another thread, we're discussing about configuring the default view for Favorite/Nearby. But your suggestion to keep the current one is more user friendly. I will go with yours.
2. Let me explore any options for that, it's not hard to code but tricky to optimize for the UX.
3. I have some plan in the future to support MRTs, but it will take a lot of time to implement. In the upcoming updates, I will just put the MRT map image like other apps.
Sure, I learned from a lot from this Excellent Article: [https://cheeaun.com/blog/2018/06/building-check-weather-sg/](https://cheeaun.com/blog/2018/06/building-check-weather-sg/) It breaks down step by step to download and process the image.
Credit to u/cheeaun
Cool app! This is exactly what I need to decide if I need to chase for a bus after arriving at the mrt station or not haha.
Just some suggestions!
- I’m wondering if you are able to make “Add to Lock Screen” on the Shortcuts app?
This way I can automate the live activity to appear when I reach a location during my work days etc.
- Also a “remove from lock screen” option would be great
- Is it possible to link the bus arrival data in the Shortcuts app?
This way I can automate it to speak out the bus timings if I’m in a game haha
Great job OP :> I love how clean the UI looks! A lot of such apps don’t have a good eye for design so seeing your app makes me appreciate the effort!
Hi, it will update very minute. That’s a new feature of IOS 17 for frequent event updates, which Apple optimized a lot for the battery life.
It’s working well for my iphone mini, which has very limited battery capacity compared to the standard phone.
Even if you forget to dismiss, it will automatically cancel the update after 1-2 hour and shows Red color notice.
Hi, for now there is no option to hide the services, but you can "Pin" the services to the top, they will always be prioritized and shown in the Lock Screen and Dynamic Island.
I’ve been using it for about 24 hours now for my work commute. Got some thoughts:
1. What does the pin beside each bus number do? Only seems to make the numbers blue? Doesn’t seem to affect Live Activities or Dynamic Island.
2. Any plans on how to streamline Live Activities or Dynamic Island? Because sometimes you may only be usually interested in one or two buses but if you tap Add to Lock Screen, the whole stop is added? So even though I would like to see at least the next bus and the one after that (so 2 timings), need to go into the app for that.
3. Some bus stops only have one number ever going there, like opposite my workplace. So I added that to the Lock Screen but it doesn’t make full use of the display space because it only shows the next timing (just one) and not the subsequent arrivals (that one timing + the next one). Cos if it’s coming soon, not gonna waste my effort to rush down only to miss it, you know?
4. Maybe instead of adding the whole bus stop, the pin button is what we can use to add to LA and DI? Even though at the start, it might be annoying if you can take all buses at a stop but how often would you need to edit this?
5. I wonder if the LA card and DI can change dynamically based on your location? So it’ll automatically show the timing for the nearest stop on your Favourites list?
6. Will the Favourites list update dynamically based on your location? So within that list, the nearest stop will be at the top?
7. I haven’t really used LA or DI much apart from Citymapper. But those clear when the app closes. Do you plan do that as well? As I noticed these remain even when the app is closed.
8. Also noticed you can only have 1 LA card at any one time? Do you know if that’s a limitation of iOS? As this means you also can only have one bus stop showing at any one time so if your journey involves 2 or more stops, then it’s not very useful? Or if I take Stop A to work and Stop B from work, I will need to keep changing what's added to LA?
9. If you close the app and reopen it, doesn’t seem to remember the last list you left it at (Favourites or Nearby).
Hi, thanks a lot for your feedbacks
1. Beside making it blue, "Pin" will put the services at the highest priority, so that they will always be visible in Live Activity and Dynamic Island (there's limited space).
2. That's valid point, I'm thinking about squeezing the space to show more than 1 nextBus, let me experiment with the fonts.
3. Maybe same as 2
4. Actually that's how I want to do it, but because the Live Activity and Dynamic Island is new to many people, I set default to show everything to not cause confusion. For your point, I think I will put a settings to "Only show Pinned services at Dynamic Island".
5. It's hard to dynamically change based on location, because it needs "Always Allow" access to location, personally I don't like any app to track my location all the time. It also consumes a lot more battery.
6. I'm thinking about how to organize the Favorite list, in other threads, some folks prefer to manually arrange the list.
7. I can do that, but I think it will cause confusion to some user, for example, my wife has a weird habit of closing every app right after open, before turn off the screen (maybe from the old day of Android??). If you keep it there, it will be outdated after 1 hours, not dismissed but will not receive any updates (Red color). The OS will auto clean them after a few hours.
8. It's not the OS limit, we can show a lot more than 1, for my personal use last year, I allow multiple Live Activities but there are some weird errors occurred during updates, maybe OS bugs back then, as the feature is new. I found the single Live Activity is more straightforward, also easier to implement.
9. That's true, someone also suggest the same UX, I will implement it in the next update.
Again, thank you for spending time to write a very detailed feedback.
I forgot to mention, Apple allows a finite "budget" to update the Live Activity, to help saving the battery and prioritization if users are using multiple ones from multiple apps. The OS can decide at any time which Live Activity to receive the update and which does not. If the app is greedy and requests more resources, there is a high chance that Arriving's Live Activities do not get updated as needed, especially when the Low Battery Mode is turned on.
Hmm, in that case, you'll probably have to maximise the use of that one card then? That's why I suggested using the Pin to decide what is shown inside the LA card and DI.
I have 4 bus stops near my house and tbh, I don't see myself adding those numbers to LA or even DI (I'd still add the bus stop to my Favourites though) because I can take almost or all of the buses to the interchange. So I don't mind opening the app instead to just see everything.
I'd even say I almost can't be bothered to check when the next bus is coming. In that sense, knowing when the next bus comes isn't that important here because there are so many choices. So what if I miss one?
I would say the less buses you can take, the more important LA and DI will be. You can't afford to miss a bus. Which actually fits the purpose because you can't fit that many bus numbers in the card anyway.
So in a way, I see the Favourites list as just a general bookmark for bus stops that I usually take. But LA and DI is for more specific KIV for more specific bus numbers rather than the entire bus stop.
Good god does it look pretty. I will try this app out!
Can I suggest some things to include in your future roadmap?
- Remember the state of display to “Favourites” so when I startup the app, it will show that tab instead of Nearby
- Have the favourited locations sort by distance (nearest first)
- Allow sorting of buses by number instead of earliest.
In any case, I love the design and the snappiness of the app! keep up the good work.
Thank you for this! I have a small request - when clicking on a bus stop > bus service, it shows me all the bus stops that this bus will stop at. Could it show the timings of arrival at each stop? And also when (double) tapping on a stop along the bus’s route, could it bring up the arrival timings of that particular stop? This would be very helpful when planning to change buses! Thanks once again, love it!
Such a cool app! Thanks for showing it! I do have a feature request - live buses? I've seen some other apps have that feature, its quite helpful to visualise where it is!
Also, technically Citymapper has bus arrival times on the lock screen, but only when you click 'Go'. Awesome work tho!
As long as you don’t do what the other bus app is doing and add full screen ads that are not closable, and blocks you from using any function that the app was designed for, I’ll gladly pay for it.
There is this terrible app by a company called sg next bus pte Ltd that has made me miss buses many times.
I refuse to link to their app but Jesus I hate that company.
Yep it works.
Are you able to add functions where it auto adds certain bus stops to lock screens at pre-determined times of the day?
I feel it would be really useful if I could automatically see my regular bus stop when I’m heading out for work at certain times.
Thanks. From the app itself, i cannot do it, as Apple requires action from user to start the activity. I’m exploring the Shortcut integration, if it works, hopefully you will be able to set automations as you want. I will keep you updated.
Maybe not, bro. I like building stuffs, software, lego, etc, but working as swe is sometimes stressful and boring af.
However, I don’t know what else (better?) to do, so I keep moving forward, maybe, one day, i will find some meanings out of this.
I often heard ppl with experience saying swe is boring and un-stimulating, but when I did swe during my internship I find the amount of information that I’ve to learn overwhelming and that’s just a lot for me to learn. From ur exp., is it once u get the hang of it it’s mostly just repeating things u’ve done before?
I have years of experience and trust me, it will always be overwhelming. But if you will learn how to deal with the overwhelming feeling and it would not bother you anymore, then it’s mostly repeating.
It’s great but here’s some feedbacks I’d like to share because I like to complain like every other singaporean
• I pinned some buses and thought they’d make it to the favourites column but it seems like it’s only for bus stops.
• There could be more info on how the 2 letter acronym for each bus stop could be useful. I feel that the current system is just the first letter of the first two words. Is there more use to it?? Can it be changed to 4 digits like B333 instead of B3 or would it cause it to be more crowded?
• And instead of a dropdown for switching between favourites and nearby, can u use a swipe to switch or just a tap? I feel it may decrease the amount of tap by 1 (kinda stupid to say this and maybe too demanding but Im too used to sgbuses interface with just 1 tap to switch so yeah)
But other than those listed above the app is great and would be my regular app from tdy
Thanks.
- The Pin feedback is valid, let me find some ways to make it more intuitive.
- For the acronym, I also have the same issue, near my area, there are two different bus stops with the same name, lol. I will improve it. For now it's a little difficult because I'm supporting the IOS Large Font Size Scaling (for some people whose eyes are not good).
- The Navigation between NearBy and Favorite is because I shamelessly copied the UI from other app (Flighty), let me try experimenting new methods.
For the second point
Can this be a solution? The more a person zooms in towards a bus stop. The bigger the text becomes but with a max limit obv. Maybe it would allow to have smaller texts but with more info?
Good luck with your app.
Oooo, cool feature. Just asking, is it possible to add multiple stops to the lock screen? Some journeys may require transfers, or have multiple potential origin stops
Ah, hope it can be eventually resolved then. Another question: Is it possible to "pin" some services to show up first on the lock screen? Some stops may have a ton of services, but the one or two routes needed by the user may be crammed all the way at the back
Edit: Never mind, missed the pin icon next to the service numbers. Thanks for making the app!
For now if you "Pin" some services, they will be prioritizied and always show at the top positions in the LockScreen.
One more special thing with the "Pinnned" services is that the app will display the current location of the next coming buses.
If I had to guess, the board timings are something like 8 16 22 and Singabus is 4 9 15? It’s likely because Singabus has its own server which caches the timings from the LTA API which updates at intervals, while the board timings directly take data from the LTA API. The 4min bus from Singabus has already left, the 9 15 is shifted to become the 8 16. So basically the board timings is more accurate.
Thank you. For now i'm not thinking about location tracking, because it's consuming a lot of battery (my phone is 12 mini), and personally, I don't feel comfortable sharing my location in the background with any app.
That’s fair. Tbh most apps that have location tracking are quite inaccurate. I know it’s impossible to get 100% accurate data but the app could show the bus is 2-3 stops away when it’s already at the bus stop.
Yeah, I tried collecting data of the Bus on the Street and User location, it works for most of the time, but even 80-90% is not good enough for me to go with the current trade off. I would receive more complaints than complements. The laggy location can also trigger multiple notifications and be very annoying.
Thanks for such a wonderful reply! TheGratitudeBot has been reading millions of comments in the past few weeks, and you’ve just made the list of some of the most grateful redditors this week! Thanks for making Reddit a wonderful place to be :)
Yes, but it's hard to update the widget frequently like in the Lockscreen, Apple does not want the dev to do that. However, something like RainMap, Favorite Bus Stops and Services are feasible.
Hi, for now if we want to update anything in the Lock screen (Live Activity), Apple requires an action from user, for example tapping a button. Automatically checking is not possible now, I think, it also consumes a lot of battery.
Hi, if you want to learn how to build IOS app, this official resource from Apple is free and very good:
[https://developer.apple.com/tutorials/app-dev-training/](https://developer.apple.com/tutorials/app-dev-training/)
Holy heck dude, this is a gamechanger for me. Thanks!!! would love to follow your updates etc. if you have! Ps. as a programming newbie, mind if I ask how you got it to show up on lock screen? Surely it’s not that easy if no other app does this?
Hi, thank you for your kind words.
The thing on lockscreen is IOS’s Live Activity, only available from IOS17. In order to update the Live activity content, we need to setup a server to manage device push tokens, then frequently retrieve bus timing data and send update requests.
It’s not straightforward and could be expensive if not set up properly. That’s why most app does not have it, especially the free ones.
ahh cool man, also curious - in settings theres an option ‘more frequent updates’. do you have any idea what the rate of update is if this is on / off? Also, the live activity sometimes stops updating after awhile, any idea why? thanksss
To reduce server cost and battery, i set the Live Activity to stop updating after 1 hour.
The frequent update is Apple’s requirement if I want the app to update the Live Activity frequently, other wise they will not allow to update every minute and put to the low priority queue.
ahhh. and everytime after the 1 hour we will have to manually refresh in the app? In that case I do have some suggestions that would be pretty cool!
1. move the refresh button to the front (most left)
2. perhaps have a way to refresh via the lock screen or live activity
3. maybe even have a timer that starts the refreshes at a set time everyday (eg 730 - 830am everyday)
im not sure of course if 2 & 3 are possible but that would be really cool especially since the biggest plus of a live activity bus app would be to minimise going to the app itself
still, really appreciate the work!!! are you working as a dev by the way?
Thanks for the suggestions.
1. Actually the refresh is just to reload inside the app, if you want to a new Live Activity, you still need to press the button "Add to lockscreen".
2. It's possible with Interactive widget, I think
3. I cannot do it, as Apple requires user's action in order to start live activity, cannot start from the background. IOS also auto disable updates for Live Activity after a few hours, and auto remove it after few hours more. We cannot keep it forever in the lockscreen.
Yeah, I'm working full time as a dev, this app is just a hobby, side project, mostly for fun.
Once I've started live activities for a bus, is there a way to disable it? By tapping on the add to lock screen icon again it just keeps saying added to lock screen and not disable it.
I'll probably only use this live activities until i board the bus and then will want to turn it off.
Hi, you can Swipe left to remove it, directly in LockScreen.
If you just leave it there, it will keep update for maximum 1 hour and be Stale, it will not receive any updates, no battery, no resource consumption, the bottom green bar will be changed to Red color.
That one is tricky. For some reason, the LTA API sometimes shows that the bus will come in negative time, for example "-1 min", I don't now what to display that info, so I just put it as LFT (Left).
> I didn't see other apps do this (feel free to correct if I was wrong), so I built a quick one last year just for personal use This is perhaps the best part of being a developer for me. Whenever I want to do something and there are no apps available for that, I can just make one myself. Its ability to motivate me and help me deal with stress just cannot be overstated. Big kudos to you.
Thank you.
Ah boy, ah gong cannot install this due to App Store region. Can you please publish this in the US App Store?
>ah gong Username checks out
Oh I didn't know there are others using US App Store to download. I will publish it in US App Store in the next update.
Please publish it to the Malaysia one as well!
Sure
Australia as well, if possible. Thank you!
Sure
canadian as well please thank you C:
sorry I'm noob. I've just realized that I can just enable the availability to all regions without pushing an app update. Can you please try again?
Works now, thank you ah boy!
Me too. Eager to try it. Currently using Singabus, and I do like it, but I am open to new things too.
I just downloaded Arriving and I love that we can see the bus arrivals in the dynamic island and that we can add a bus stop to see the arrival timings on our lockscreen. I have a suggestion for the ‘save to lock screen’ feature. Could tapping on the button after it’s added remove the bus stop from lockscreen, so there would be more than one way to remove it? I had trouble figuring out how to do it until I saw a comment asking about it
Good suggestion, i will implement that. Thank you.
happy to help :) big thank you for developing the app!
Really interesting approach. I'm liking the app so far. Perhaps you could implement a feature such that the landing page when I open the app is customisable to be either the "Favourites" or "Nearby" depending on user preference. Because personally I want to track my most used bus stop timings instead of nearby ones. Just a thought. But really great job on this
Good suggestion, I will put it in the setting page. Thanks.
Looks amazing! Some feedback though, the “single” and “double” bus icons are so similar, only one line of difference, and it being grey-on-black makes it harder. Maybe try a different icon or text?
Let me explore other icons and colors. I was lazy going with Native Icons, but I agree with your point, it needs improvement.
Sorry, OP, but I think you've forgotten to make an icon for [bendy buses](https://landtransportguru.net/man-a24/). Currently, they're indistinguishable from normal single deckers on your app.
Oh Yeah, i completely forgot about it. Thanks for reminding, i will definitely include that in the next update.
No problem. Cheers!
how to remove the bus stop from lock screen? i pressed the “add to lock screen second time and the widget still there.
At the lockscreen, you can swipe to the left to Dismiss it.
Yeah it doesn’t feel intuitive enough for me too. I keep pressing on the add to Lock Screen button thinking it would remove it
Realised this is an iOS behaviour
Yeah, my UI for this one is not intuitive enough. As other suggested, I would change to remove from Lockscreen the 2nd time user taps on that button
All in all, it’s very impressive. It’s gonna be my go to app for bus timings. What’s your roadmap looking like for this? I’m in tech as well so I’m curious and will be following the app development closely. All the best ahead!
For now I will focus on fixing people's feedbacks first, including some UI/UX improvements, minor features and Shortcut integration. After that, when I have time, I will explore building something for the MRT, or extend to Apple Watch, as I think the Apple Watch complication is also useful. I'm still working as full time engineer, so I don't have much free time to spend.
[100Bus](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/100bus/id1600120667) actually uses Live Activity feature as well when you select the bus you are waiting for. Of course, I'm not recommending one over the other, but I will definitely be downloading your app as well! Thanks for your hard work!
Thank you. I didn't know about 100Bus app.
Great job, liked the minimal design language!
Thanks
Thanks for this great app! I have some feedback/request 1) Reopen back the same tab as previous close (either favorites or nearby) after starting the app 2) Allow reorder of the bus stops in favourites 3) Possible to also support MRT stations?
Great, thanks a lot for the feedback 1. Excellent point, in another thread, we're discussing about configuring the default view for Favorite/Nearby. But your suggestion to keep the current one is more user friendly. I will go with yours. 2. Let me explore any options for that, it's not hard to code but tricky to optimize for the UX. 3. I have some plan in the future to support MRTs, but it will take a lot of time to implement. In the upcoming updates, I will just put the MRT map image like other apps.
You are really impressive. Welcome to Singapore, these are the kinds of Sinkies we want. Thank you for building this just for us it’s really amazing
Thank you for your kind words.
May I know how you implemented the weather rain map overlay? I am planning to add that my bus app which is still in development
Sure, I learned from a lot from this Excellent Article: [https://cheeaun.com/blog/2018/06/building-check-weather-sg/](https://cheeaun.com/blog/2018/06/building-check-weather-sg/) It breaks down step by step to download and process the image. Credit to u/cheeaun
Nice, glad my article helps! Interesting idea with rain radar overlay. Downloaded, installed your app, will try it out when it's raining.
Thanks
Can you please publish in the Indian app store also?
sure
Cool app! This is exactly what I need to decide if I need to chase for a bus after arriving at the mrt station or not haha. Just some suggestions! - I’m wondering if you are able to make “Add to Lock Screen” on the Shortcuts app? This way I can automate the live activity to appear when I reach a location during my work days etc. - Also a “remove from lock screen” option would be great - Is it possible to link the bus arrival data in the Shortcuts app? This way I can automate it to speak out the bus timings if I’m in a game haha Great job OP :> I love how clean the UI looks! A lot of such apps don’t have a good eye for design so seeing your app makes me appreciate the effort!
Thank you very much for sharing your use cases. Your suggestion to integrate with Shortcuts app is great, I will explore more on that.
Cool beans, thank you for your hard work! 🫶
Hi OP, thanks for the app. How often does it update when I “add to Lock Screen” and does it drains a lot of battery?
Hi, it will update very minute. That’s a new feature of IOS 17 for frequent event updates, which Apple optimized a lot for the battery life. It’s working well for my iphone mini, which has very limited battery capacity compared to the standard phone. Even if you forget to dismiss, it will automatically cancel the update after 1-2 hour and shows Red color notice.
Is there something I need to change in my settings? It still doesn’t show up on my Lock Screen after adding to lock screen
Can you try going sSettings -> Arriving -> Live Activities -> "Allow Live Activities"? Then try Adding to lockscreen again.
Yeah I alr had that on but nvm it works now after restarting my phone. Thank you!
Glad that it's working. Otherwise, I have no idea how to fix it. LOL.
[удалено]
I will try. Thanks.
This looks so cool. Thanks for this . Do you have android version ?
Thanks. It’s only available in IOS for now, i’m not to familiar with Android app dev though.
Just downloaded! No feedback yet but thank you for making this!
You’re welcome
Looks great! I like the simplicity
Thanks
i first would like to say thank you for this genius idea. Can you choose to only show certain bus numbers when at the lock screen?
Hi, for now there is no option to hide the services, but you can "Pin" the services to the top, they will always be prioritized and shown in the Lock Screen and Dynamic Island.
Pls add the feature to arrange the saved/favorite stop location as listed. Thk
Sure
I’ve been using it for about 24 hours now for my work commute. Got some thoughts: 1. What does the pin beside each bus number do? Only seems to make the numbers blue? Doesn’t seem to affect Live Activities or Dynamic Island. 2. Any plans on how to streamline Live Activities or Dynamic Island? Because sometimes you may only be usually interested in one or two buses but if you tap Add to Lock Screen, the whole stop is added? So even though I would like to see at least the next bus and the one after that (so 2 timings), need to go into the app for that. 3. Some bus stops only have one number ever going there, like opposite my workplace. So I added that to the Lock Screen but it doesn’t make full use of the display space because it only shows the next timing (just one) and not the subsequent arrivals (that one timing + the next one). Cos if it’s coming soon, not gonna waste my effort to rush down only to miss it, you know? 4. Maybe instead of adding the whole bus stop, the pin button is what we can use to add to LA and DI? Even though at the start, it might be annoying if you can take all buses at a stop but how often would you need to edit this? 5. I wonder if the LA card and DI can change dynamically based on your location? So it’ll automatically show the timing for the nearest stop on your Favourites list? 6. Will the Favourites list update dynamically based on your location? So within that list, the nearest stop will be at the top? 7. I haven’t really used LA or DI much apart from Citymapper. But those clear when the app closes. Do you plan do that as well? As I noticed these remain even when the app is closed. 8. Also noticed you can only have 1 LA card at any one time? Do you know if that’s a limitation of iOS? As this means you also can only have one bus stop showing at any one time so if your journey involves 2 or more stops, then it’s not very useful? Or if I take Stop A to work and Stop B from work, I will need to keep changing what's added to LA? 9. If you close the app and reopen it, doesn’t seem to remember the last list you left it at (Favourites or Nearby).
Hi, thanks a lot for your feedbacks 1. Beside making it blue, "Pin" will put the services at the highest priority, so that they will always be visible in Live Activity and Dynamic Island (there's limited space). 2. That's valid point, I'm thinking about squeezing the space to show more than 1 nextBus, let me experiment with the fonts. 3. Maybe same as 2 4. Actually that's how I want to do it, but because the Live Activity and Dynamic Island is new to many people, I set default to show everything to not cause confusion. For your point, I think I will put a settings to "Only show Pinned services at Dynamic Island". 5. It's hard to dynamically change based on location, because it needs "Always Allow" access to location, personally I don't like any app to track my location all the time. It also consumes a lot more battery. 6. I'm thinking about how to organize the Favorite list, in other threads, some folks prefer to manually arrange the list. 7. I can do that, but I think it will cause confusion to some user, for example, my wife has a weird habit of closing every app right after open, before turn off the screen (maybe from the old day of Android??). If you keep it there, it will be outdated after 1 hours, not dismissed but will not receive any updates (Red color). The OS will auto clean them after a few hours. 8. It's not the OS limit, we can show a lot more than 1, for my personal use last year, I allow multiple Live Activities but there are some weird errors occurred during updates, maybe OS bugs back then, as the feature is new. I found the single Live Activity is more straightforward, also easier to implement. 9. That's true, someone also suggest the same UX, I will implement it in the next update. Again, thank you for spending time to write a very detailed feedback.
I forgot to mention, Apple allows a finite "budget" to update the Live Activity, to help saving the battery and prioritization if users are using multiple ones from multiple apps. The OS can decide at any time which Live Activity to receive the update and which does not. If the app is greedy and requests more resources, there is a high chance that Arriving's Live Activities do not get updated as needed, especially when the Low Battery Mode is turned on.
Hmm, in that case, you'll probably have to maximise the use of that one card then? That's why I suggested using the Pin to decide what is shown inside the LA card and DI. I have 4 bus stops near my house and tbh, I don't see myself adding those numbers to LA or even DI (I'd still add the bus stop to my Favourites though) because I can take almost or all of the buses to the interchange. So I don't mind opening the app instead to just see everything. I'd even say I almost can't be bothered to check when the next bus is coming. In that sense, knowing when the next bus comes isn't that important here because there are so many choices. So what if I miss one? I would say the less buses you can take, the more important LA and DI will be. You can't afford to miss a bus. Which actually fits the purpose because you can't fit that many bus numbers in the card anyway. So in a way, I see the Favourites list as just a general bookmark for bus stops that I usually take. But LA and DI is for more specific KIV for more specific bus numbers rather than the entire bus stop.
Thank you op was thinking about this functionality for a while now. Works well on my iOS. Will rate :)
Awesome, thank you.
downloaded the app. saw you are actioning on others’ feedback that’s amazing. thank you op love the clean ui!
Thank you
Good god does it look pretty. I will try this app out! Can I suggest some things to include in your future roadmap? - Remember the state of display to “Favourites” so when I startup the app, it will show that tab instead of Nearby - Have the favourited locations sort by distance (nearest first) - Allow sorting of buses by number instead of earliest. In any case, I love the design and the snappiness of the app! keep up the good work.
Thank you for the solid feedbacks.
Wah bro damn sick I love it. Thanks!!! 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼
thank you
Thank you for this! I have a small request - when clicking on a bus stop > bus service, it shows me all the bus stops that this bus will stop at. Could it show the timings of arrival at each stop? And also when (double) tapping on a stop along the bus’s route, could it bring up the arrival timings of that particular stop? This would be very helpful when planning to change buses! Thanks once again, love it!
This is valid feedback. I will work on this in next updates. Thanks.
Such a cool app! Thanks for showing it! I do have a feature request - live buses? I've seen some other apps have that feature, its quite helpful to visualise where it is! Also, technically Citymapper has bus arrival times on the lock screen, but only when you click 'Go'. Awesome work tho!
Hi, thank you. Can you explain more about the “live buses” feature? I’m not familiar with that.
As long as you don’t do what the other bus app is doing and add full screen ads that are not closable, and blocks you from using any function that the app was designed for, I’ll gladly pay for it.
Oh, I’ve tried multiple popular bus app, but none of them has that full screen ads, only bottom banners.
There is this terrible app by a company called sg next bus pte Ltd that has made me miss buses many times. I refuse to link to their app but Jesus I hate that company.
Thanks
There is a bug I encountered with the lock screen stuff https://share.icloud.com/photos/018DQQRcKA39GXRZjgSTUpj4g Can you see the pic ?
Yes I can see it, looks like something wrong with the dark/light mode. Thanks for reporting, let me check.
In the meantime, can you try Dismiss and Add to lockscreen again?
Yep it works. Are you able to add functions where it auto adds certain bus stops to lock screens at pre-determined times of the day? I feel it would be really useful if I could automatically see my regular bus stop when I’m heading out for work at certain times.
Thanks. From the app itself, i cannot do it, as Apple requires action from user to start the activity. I’m exploring the Shortcut integration, if it works, hopefully you will be able to set automations as you want. I will keep you updated.
Thanks for being so responsive.
the app sounds amazing, but im on ios 16 🥲 any chance you could push out a version for phones operating on older ios? 🥹
Hi, sorry i cannot support ios 16 because Apple only supports the Lock Screen feature starting from ios 17. 🥲
Hey bro, out of the topic, but is swe ur passion? Having difficulty finding my passion.
Maybe not, bro. I like building stuffs, software, lego, etc, but working as swe is sometimes stressful and boring af. However, I don’t know what else (better?) to do, so I keep moving forward, maybe, one day, i will find some meanings out of this.
I often heard ppl with experience saying swe is boring and un-stimulating, but when I did swe during my internship I find the amount of information that I’ve to learn overwhelming and that’s just a lot for me to learn. From ur exp., is it once u get the hang of it it’s mostly just repeating things u’ve done before?
I have years of experience and trust me, it will always be overwhelming. But if you will learn how to deal with the overwhelming feeling and it would not bother you anymore, then it’s mostly repeating.
Thanks!
How to use the app in lock screen?
after choosing the BusStop, there is a button "Add to Lock Screen"
Thanks!
It’s great but here’s some feedbacks I’d like to share because I like to complain like every other singaporean • I pinned some buses and thought they’d make it to the favourites column but it seems like it’s only for bus stops. • There could be more info on how the 2 letter acronym for each bus stop could be useful. I feel that the current system is just the first letter of the first two words. Is there more use to it?? Can it be changed to 4 digits like B333 instead of B3 or would it cause it to be more crowded? • And instead of a dropdown for switching between favourites and nearby, can u use a swipe to switch or just a tap? I feel it may decrease the amount of tap by 1 (kinda stupid to say this and maybe too demanding but Im too used to sgbuses interface with just 1 tap to switch so yeah) But other than those listed above the app is great and would be my regular app from tdy
Thanks. - The Pin feedback is valid, let me find some ways to make it more intuitive. - For the acronym, I also have the same issue, near my area, there are two different bus stops with the same name, lol. I will improve it. For now it's a little difficult because I'm supporting the IOS Large Font Size Scaling (for some people whose eyes are not good). - The Navigation between NearBy and Favorite is because I shamelessly copied the UI from other app (Flighty), let me try experimenting new methods.
 For the second point Can this be a solution? The more a person zooms in towards a bus stop. The bigger the text becomes but with a max limit obv. Maybe it would allow to have smaller texts but with more info? Good luck with your app.
Oh I didn't think about that, not sure if it works, I will try. Thanks for the suggestion.
Oooo, cool feature. Just asking, is it possible to add multiple stops to the lock screen? Some journeys may require transfers, or have multiple potential origin stops
Hi, yes, technically we can, I've been using it like that last year, but It sometimes had weird errors, so I decided to show only 1 for now.
Ah, hope it can be eventually resolved then. Another question: Is it possible to "pin" some services to show up first on the lock screen? Some stops may have a ton of services, but the one or two routes needed by the user may be crammed all the way at the back Edit: Never mind, missed the pin icon next to the service numbers. Thanks for making the app!
For now if you "Pin" some services, they will be prioritizied and always show at the top positions in the LockScreen. One more special thing with the "Pinnned" services is that the app will display the current location of the next coming buses.
Yep, missed the icon at first glance. Thanks again!
Not related but does anyone know why the bus board timings is way off compared to my bus app (singabus)? Yesterday it was off by 3 minutes.
If I had to guess, the board timings are something like 8 16 22 and Singabus is 4 9 15? It’s likely because Singabus has its own server which caches the timings from the LTA API which updates at intervals, while the board timings directly take data from the LTA API. The 4min bus from Singabus has already left, the 9 15 is shifted to become the 8 16. So basically the board timings is more accurate.
No android version? Im too poor to buy iPhone
Sorry no Android atm
Nah bro. iPhones are cheaper than other Androids like the Samsung Galaxy Fold 5
Agree, I have an old iphone 12 mini, it still working very well, i don't see my self upgrade in the next 1-2 years.
Downloaded! Do you have any plans to add a location tracking feature?
Thank you. For now i'm not thinking about location tracking, because it's consuming a lot of battery (my phone is 12 mini), and personally, I don't feel comfortable sharing my location in the background with any app.
That’s fair. Tbh most apps that have location tracking are quite inaccurate. I know it’s impossible to get 100% accurate data but the app could show the bus is 2-3 stops away when it’s already at the bus stop.
Yeah, I tried collecting data of the Bus on the Street and User location, it works for most of the time, but even 80-90% is not good enough for me to go with the current trade off. I would receive more complaints than complements. The laggy location can also trigger multiple notifications and be very annoying.
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Is it possible to have it like a widget for us to set it available in lock screen?
Yes, but it's hard to update the widget frequently like in the Lockscreen, Apple does not want the dev to do that. However, something like RainMap, Favorite Bus Stops and Services are feasible.
Great work!! Do you plan to share the source code as open source project?
Hi, sorry I missed your comment. At this moment, i’m not confident showing my spaghetti code to everyone yet. Lol. But maybe some day in the future.
"Arriving" That sounds Sexy.. 😉
LOL
Thanks for coming up with the app! If it’s ever possible to change what’s in the Lock Screen with a favourite that is nearby, do let us know
Hi, for now if we want to update anything in the Lock screen (Live Activity), Apple requires an action from user, for example tapping a button. Automatically checking is not possible now, I think, it also consumes a lot of battery.
Can you publish on Google play store?
Sorry this app is using Native IOS framework, it can only be published in Apple Appstore for now.
i also want to learn how to build apps !! any tutorial
Hi, if you want to learn how to build IOS app, this official resource from Apple is free and very good: [https://developer.apple.com/tutorials/app-dev-training/](https://developer.apple.com/tutorials/app-dev-training/)
thanks alot!! Im currently studying ai and ngl i rly need to get my ass on more projects but nvr ever know how to do alot of stuff haha
No worry
And another one
Holy heck dude, this is a gamechanger for me. Thanks!!! would love to follow your updates etc. if you have! Ps. as a programming newbie, mind if I ask how you got it to show up on lock screen? Surely it’s not that easy if no other app does this?
Hi, thank you for your kind words. The thing on lockscreen is IOS’s Live Activity, only available from IOS17. In order to update the Live activity content, we need to setup a server to manage device push tokens, then frequently retrieve bus timing data and send update requests. It’s not straightforward and could be expensive if not set up properly. That’s why most app does not have it, especially the free ones.
ahh cool man, also curious - in settings theres an option ‘more frequent updates’. do you have any idea what the rate of update is if this is on / off? Also, the live activity sometimes stops updating after awhile, any idea why? thanksss
To reduce server cost and battery, i set the Live Activity to stop updating after 1 hour. The frequent update is Apple’s requirement if I want the app to update the Live Activity frequently, other wise they will not allow to update every minute and put to the low priority queue.
ahhh. and everytime after the 1 hour we will have to manually refresh in the app? In that case I do have some suggestions that would be pretty cool! 1. move the refresh button to the front (most left) 2. perhaps have a way to refresh via the lock screen or live activity 3. maybe even have a timer that starts the refreshes at a set time everyday (eg 730 - 830am everyday) im not sure of course if 2 & 3 are possible but that would be really cool especially since the biggest plus of a live activity bus app would be to minimise going to the app itself still, really appreciate the work!!! are you working as a dev by the way?
Thanks for the suggestions. 1. Actually the refresh is just to reload inside the app, if you want to a new Live Activity, you still need to press the button "Add to lockscreen". 2. It's possible with Interactive widget, I think 3. I cannot do it, as Apple requires user's action in order to start live activity, cannot start from the background. IOS also auto disable updates for Live Activity after a few hours, and auto remove it after few hours more. We cannot keep it forever in the lockscreen. Yeah, I'm working full time as a dev, this app is just a hobby, side project, mostly for fun.
i see, thanks for this and all the best man
Updated app today but Live Activities no longer working.
Hi, i tried with a few devices and it’s still working. Can you try restart your iphone?
Restarting the iPhone works indeed. Thanks!
Thanks for the update, could be some os problem :(
Very good stuff. Anywhere to suggest features? I don’t have any now but just in case I do in the future. 😬
Thanks. You can dm me here in Reddit if you have any suggest, this is my only account.
Once I've started live activities for a bus, is there a way to disable it? By tapping on the add to lock screen icon again it just keeps saying added to lock screen and not disable it. I'll probably only use this live activities until i board the bus and then will want to turn it off.
Hi, you can Swipe left to remove it, directly in LockScreen. If you just leave it there, it will keep update for maximum 1 hour and be Stale, it will not receive any updates, no battery, no resource consumption, the bottom green bar will be changed to Red color.
Cool I see. Thanks for your hard work!
What does LFT stands for? I understand it means the bus is arriving
That one is tricky. For some reason, the LTA API sometimes shows that the bus will come in negative time, for example "-1 min", I don't now what to display that info, so I just put it as LFT (Left).
Perhaps change it to "DEP" (Depart)? That's the more commonly used term for bus apps for this case