The Good
•Interactive without being distracting
•Designed knowing you are at the wheel
•You would possibly, in reality, examine something
• Available to play anytime
The Bad
• Limited content with a focal point on current activities
• For heavy drivers
• The handiest half-hour of trivia per day
• Meant for solo
• adult drivers
• so would not work well for carpooling
• passengers
• or younger kids
• Can be difficult for an app to select up your answers in noisy car situations
The Bottom Line
For commuters searching out something to do, even driving, this makes the time cross by a good deal quicker. For hardcore trivialities enthusiasts, this is every other way to get your restoration. It’s tailored to a using revel in, so it’s slower with a chunk more banter and heritage info than standard. Once you’ve opened the app and pressed play, you do not take a look at or contact the display screen again. “What’s the capital of Pennsylvania?” “Finish this Talladega Nights quote.” “What was the Grammy album of the year?”
These have been some of the Drivetime app questions requested of me as I drove across San Francisco last week. But it wasn’t like Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me on NPR, where I shout answers into the ether. Instead, I competed against every other driver, Susan, and my score turned into being tracked.
For the uninitiated, Drivetime is a commuter trivia app (iOS/Android) with goals to extend into other voice-based totally amusement, like choose-your-very own-journey storytelling or even guided meditation. But for now, it is simply trivialities whilst you drive. Every workday, there’s a new 30-minute minutiae game, damaged up into three subjects with seven questions, with 3 solutions to choose from.
Using your voice, you reply out loud to questions by pronouncing A, B, or C — or you could say the full solution aloud, and the voice-recognition gadget will be given that too. Other recreation styles are open-ended, like while it asked me to call one Disney movie trailer that came out a final week (shouting “Frozen” earned me the points for Frozen 2). One of the sports modes was all actual or false questions.
The San Francisco-primarily based employer desires to become the cross-to vicinity for games inside the vehicle. With 3 Zynga and Rocket Games alumni founding the company, it makes sense that they are operating with the contemporary fashion in tech: speech popularity.
CEO Niko Vuori instructed me out of their South of Market condominium-became-workplace, “The car is an area for interplay and enjoyment.” Drivetime targets the thousands and thousands of commuters between a long time of 30 and 60 who sit of their automobiles for a median of one hour an afternoon. Power customers consist of loads of Uber and Lyft drivers and truckers who spend greater time in the car than the average commuter.
Vuori desires to make driving to and from work not simplest a laugh, however a bit more enticing than passive listening. “We accept as true that commuting is inherently a poor enjoy,” he said.
Drivetime isn’t sharing its numbers quite yet in contrast to HQ Trivia’s transparent player count on the app, but Vuori stated it’s already accomplished high retention and engagement quotes. The Android app launched Monday, so it best has about 650 downloads, and the iOS model has about forty-two,000 downloads considering its November launch, in line with records from Apptopia.
There’s a spike in pastime in the course of the morning and nighttime shuttle times, since playing outdoor the car and at your table or on lunch damage is a bit bizarre (even though there is a “passenger mode” deep in the settings). Some 20 percent of players go online ordinary for the whole 30-minute trivia display. For a few drivers, they crave this form of amusement on dull drives. It’s clean to get those kinds of people hooked. As a non-commuter, the trivialities sport replaced a crosstown drive all through which I’d normally be hopping from extraordinary radio stations.
Drivetime is already going beyond trivialities, even though it was just released a few months in the past. There’s “Would You Rather,” that’s a recreation precisely like it sounds and pretty senseless, however particularly enjoyable when I played for the duration of a late force home after a long day at work and hands-loose Blackjack. Pending a few licensing agreements, in the end, music trivia and pick-out-your-personal-adventure fictional storytelling are inside the works. Vuori sees “Jeopardy,” “Are you Smarter than a Fifth Grader?” “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” and even mindfulness sports as possible destiny video games and uses for the platform.
It’s loose now, and I didn’t have to sign in with my telephone number until after my first recreation, but sooner or later, Vuori says it will be subscription-based totally. The daily trivialities will continue without a charge; however, for extra features, video games, or channels, he anticipates a monthly charge to get admission to the total offering.
After each display, there are 10 seconds to give any comments to the corporation. About 40 percent of gamers speak to game designers normally. Those lonely solo drivers really want someone to talk to. Being a San Francisco tech company, Vuori stated they take the ten-2d tidbits, use speak-to-speech software, and plug within the feedback into a Slack channel so the small thirteen-member group can read the entirety. So if you have a mind or comments, it is actually acquired instantly. A new function allows users to depart voice messages to buddies additionally on the app. I did not use it, but it looks like an excellent possibility to gloat or admit your restrained information about history or the world.
I straight away comparison the sport to HQ Trivia, the popular minutiae app, with each-day competitions that award prize money. But it’s an exceptional revel in beyond the minutiae and contemporary events and news quiz detail. Most substantive, HQ is an occasion you visit — you do not just turn on HQ as you switch on Drivetime. There’s a daily noon PT HQ Trivia sport, and that does not flow. The manner you have interacted with the app is exceptional, too: you have to click on and study the display to mark your HQ solution, and it’s quick. If you are not paying interest, you are unexpectedly eliminated.
Drivetime can be performed on every occasion you need. “We’re now not looking to change your day,” Vuori stated. Working the graveyard shift? No hassle. Click play to your five a.M. Pressure domestic. Had to forestall on the toll booth? The hosts will repeat the query since you failed to reply in a well-timed manner. It’s made for the automobile.
Also, you’re the handiest gambling for factors and street cred. There’s a leaderboard wherein you may fight to earn a top spot, but it really is nothing compared to the $ ninety-six 000 to be had in prize cash (to be cut up among winners) for the trendy HQ Trivia recreation.
Future integration into CarPlay and Android Auto or made-for-vehicle structures like Amazon Echo Auto might improve the experience, relying on your cellphone’s speakers to choose up your solutions while in an inherently noisy vehicle environment. On my older iPhone with unwell speakers, the app misinterpreted a truthful wide variety of my responses. Also, using thru the carrier’s wallet disrupted the game till I was returned to full bars and information.
Back to my face-off with Susan, I suppose we tied. I admit I couldn’t recall the movie line, “If you ain’t first, then you definitely last.” But I knew Harrisburg, so it was a successful power. I’ve even found out a component or.
