Vancouver phone apps that you will actually use
Credit to Author: Harrison Mooney| Date: Fri, 03 Jan 2020 01:18:37 +0000
There’s an app for almost everything, provided the need is sufficiently broad. Even in populous cities like Vancouver, locally focused apps simply don’t serve enough people to defray the cost of their development and maintenance. It may take a village to raise a child, but it takes a nation of millions to support a decent iPhone app, which is why several of the Vancouver apps listed elsewhere are no longer available. (RIP, Vancity Drinks.)
“Software is expensive to write,” explained Samuel Kerr, a portfolio manager at Springhouse Investments and the founder of Vancouver magazine Archive, a now-defunct publication designed around a social app. “But that is a fixed cost, one-time investment, which can be spread out over numerous users because the replication and distribution of software is effectively free after (that)… The incentive structure is set up to have as many users of your work as possible, which precludes things like cities from being prime targets for software.”
True though that may be, there nevertheless exists a smattering of Vancouver-specific applications that are surprisingly useful if you live here and surprisingly useless if you don’t. That’s the metric. This isn’t a rundown of apps that can be used anywhere including Vancouver, like StubHub, Strava and, soon enough, Lyft; neither is this a list of apps that were developed in Vancouver, à la Knowledge Network and Hootsuite. The apps below mean little to the world — but they might mean the world to a Vancouverite.
From renewing a library book or identifying a cool tree, to helping you find a new food truck, here are several hyperlocal apps that can enrich or simplify the experience of residing in Vancouver.
The VPL app is like having the Vancouver Public Library in your pocket. VPL Mobile makes it easy to find and discover titles, manage your account, and get the branch and availability information you need, anytime and anywhere. So when a guy I follow on Twitter suggests, for instance, that C.L.R. James wrote the definitive history of the Haitian Revolution and it’s a must-read for anyone who wants to truly understand Caribbean and Atlantic history, I can open the app, search the catalogue for The Black Jacobins, place a hold and select my nearest branch for pickup, then wait for my phone to alert me that my book is in. Super easy.
Or let’s say I want to listen to a short story while I run. With the VPL app, I can find the audiobook I want, check it out, and push play in the same amount of time it takes me to lace up my sneakies and hit the road.
The VPL app is also excellent for the oft-fined among us. Is your book due soon? You can check on the app. You can renew through the app. You can keep track of your fines on the app. For instance, if you forgot that you checked out Nick Drnaso’s critically acclaimed graphic novel Sabrina months ago and only remember when you opened the app while writing this article, you now know that you owe the Vancouver Public Library $12. Very useful. Thank you, VPL app, and I am sorry.
Developed by the City of Vancouver, VanConnect allows you to request a service, receive emergency updates, locate nearby City facilities on the go, or get quick access to City online services. It’s the perfect app for seeing something and saying something, then actually being able to track the response and eventual resolution from City Hall. Find a fallen tree or perhaps a dead squirrel yucking up the sidewalk? Back in the day, you’d have to write a letter. Now you can just launch the app and let someone know with a few quick clicks.
VanConnect was last updated in October 2019, so this isn’t one of those apps commissioned by one council and then forgotten by the next. It’s current and people swear by its utility and functionality. My colleague Stephanie Ip, a natural community organizer and paragon of engaged citizenry, raved about the way the app lets her make an actual difference in her neighbourhood.
“VanConnect is an easy way to snap a photo and report to the city any road work needed, street lights that need replacing, illegal dumping and any other issues in my neighbourhood that I pass by,” she said. “It also lets you see and track other publicly reported items in your area, so you know if there’s progress being made.”
“It’s just an easy way to take ownership of where I live and to participate as a good neighbour.”
She’s not alone. This Reddit Vancouver thread from last December is full of testimonials from people who saw instant results after using the app to file complaints. Pretty impressive.
VanCollect, not to be confused with VanConnect, is an invaluable app for anyone who needs a little extra help keeping track of the city’s garbage, green bin and recycling collection schedules. I’m the most absent-minded person I know, so I would be lost without this one. Not only does VanCollect provide quick and easy access to the full schedule of disposal services, but it also lets you know about other important services in your area, such as leaf pickup in the fall, Christmas tree chipping in January, where to dispose of old electronics and other weird stuff the garbage man won’t take, and nearby zero-waste recycling events.
Plus it explains what goes where, for people who find the modern act of sorting everything into a plethora of boxes and bags a little confusing, or people who just moved from an apartment to a house and suddenly can’t simply throw everything into the giant, shared dumpster in the garage and hope no one knows who did it.
But it’s not enough to simply have all this information on my phone. I also need the app to constantly remind me it’s there. I need my phone to practically jump out of my pocket the night before garbage day, so I can get my rubbish out to the alley in time and foil the nocturnal critters eager to lick all my unrinsed pie tins. VanCollect does that. Downloading this app solved my raccoon problem.
Finally, I’d just like to take a moment to acknowledge that the City of Vancouver has not only developed two really good and useful apps, but has given them rhyming names. Now that’s the kind of insight and leadership I want out of my elected officials.
There are Street Food Apps available in many of the world’s top street food cities, and we are blessed that Vancouver is one of them.
Suppose that you are absolutely in love with Vancouver’s Overland Sandwich truck, which specializes in tasty fried pork cutlets, but they only appear outside your office every Friday, and today is not Friday. In any other era, you’d just have to be patient, but in this glorious digital era, there’s an app that will help you track them down.
Street Food Vancouver is a guide to Vancouver’s best food trucks and food carts, with up-to-the-minute schedules so you can always find your favourite mobile kitchens. Suppose you want those incredible chicken fries from Disco Cheetah? According to the app, they’re outside the Art Gallery next Monday and Tuesday. How about a beef terimayo from Japadog? The app says the cart is at Burrard and Smithe right now.
We love our trees here in Vancouver, and we will fight anyone who even hints at harming our tall and leafy perennial friends. But do we even know their names? Look outside your window right this moment. What kind of tree are you looking at?
You’d know for sure if you had the new, free Vancouver Street Trees app from Yellow Cedar Software, which uses regularly updated data maintained by the Vancouver Park Board to tell you the name of every tree planted on Vancouver’s city streets. Open the app and learn instantly about the massive variety of trees that line our streets and give character to our parks and trails. It’s a fun way to feel a little more connected to your surroundings, and to engage with the remarkable biodiversity that makes Vancouver special.
Without this app, I would never have known that Nootka Street, the road behind the Sun/Province newsroom, is rowed with hornbeam and plum trees, or that the street in front of my home is pretty much entirely European beeches. But now I know all the trees like some arboreal creature, and I am better for it.
There’s no way I was going to publish this article without recommending my own employer’s app, which deserves to be on this list. It keeps you up to date throughout the day with breaking local, national and international news, and you should always try to stay informed if you want to be a good citizen.
There are, of course, several outlets in Vancouver with perfectly serviceable apps of their own, and you should download at least one for the breaking news alerts alone, but here’s why the Vancouver Sun app is a cut above its competitors: many of its articles are by yours truly. You won’t find me on any other of these other apps, and that’s why they come up short, in my opinion. Vancouver’s journalism community is full of talented people and I am by no means suggesting that I’m the best one, but my New Year’s resolution is to tell myself that I am, so here we are. Download the app I’m on. I am worthy.
The Vancouver Sun app is also the only local news app where you can find National Newspaper Award-winning city columnist Dan Fumano. Having this app is like carrying Fumano around in your pocket. Need I say more?
From Google Maps to Uber, there are all sorts of apps to help you get around these days, and plenty of apps that will help you to navigate Vancouver’s public transit system. (Google Maps will do that, too.) TransLink has one of their own, but even their Buzzer blog recognizes that it doesn’t meet every need. An app roundup back in 2015 looked at the pros and cons of several. Most of those apps are still in operation. But for my money, the best one is one of the newest: Vancouver Transit, designed by Canadian app developer Logan Pytyl.
Don’t be fooled by the bad font. This is a good app. Launched in the fall of 2018, Vancouver Transit offers live stop times, a trip planner and, most importantly, works around Vancouver, Burnaby, New Westminster, Surrey, Coquitlam, and Richmond. Even the Mayors’ Council can’t boast that kind of synergy.
I mostly prefer Vancouver Transit because of the live map. A lot of these apps are quite simple — they’ll tell you where your bus is if you input its five-digit number. But what if you don’t? What if you need to get somewhere and you have no idea how? What if you’re a few blocks away from the stop and you need to know if you should upgrade your amble to a sprint? Just open up Vancouver Transit and find every stop near you. Tap on an icon and immediately learn its route and how long you’ll be standing in the rain if you miss the next bus. Decide how cold you’re willing to get and adjust your stride accordingly.
Did we miss anything? If you know about a Vancouver app that should be included on this list, e-mail me below.
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