Yandex has launched a minimalist version of the browser for Android. Review of the Yandex Transport application for Android How much does the Yandex application weigh

Many popular apps have lightweight versions, such as Facebook Lite, Twitter Lite or Skype Lite. They are intended primarily for those users who want to save traffic and device hardware resources.

The main advantage of such “stripped-down” versions is that they work much faster than their full-size counterparts. Especially on gadgets with a small amount of memory and weak processors.

The Yandex company also did not remain aloof from this trend. Installation file her new program Yandex Browser Light for Android weighs only 748 KB. After installation, the application already takes up 4.6 MB in the device’s memory, but this is still almost five times less than Opera Mini.

Yandex.Browser Light has only the essentials. On home page“Zen” was posted with a selection of interesting news and articles. At the bottom there is a search combined with the address bar. There is also a panel visual bookmarks, which opens in a new tab.

The program settings are as spartan as appearance. There is only the ability to disable the recommendations feed and clear the cache and cookies. However, it is difficult to expect more from a program with such a small size.

The Yandex.Browser Light application is unlikely to be suitable for the role of the main web browser on a smartphone or tablet. But it can be used as an additional browser. It takes up almost no space, works very quickly, and is always at hand.

. “Soon” the function will appear in other regions, the company said.

The pre-order interval ranges from 30 minutes to two days. The function is available in Economy, Comfort, Comfort+ and Ultima Yandex.Taxi tariffs (Business, Premier and Elite premium classes).

To pre-order a car, you must select the “Plan a trip” button in your order wishes, and then set the desired date and time. The search for the car will begin shortly before the start of the trip.

At the time of pre-order, the application will show the approximate cost of the trip, and the exact amount will be displayed when the car is found. Pre-order is available when paying for the trip by bank card, cash, and to corporative clients and family account users. The money will be written off, as in the case of a regular trip, the company explained.

It is noted that the car pre-order function is being implemented in stages: it gradually becomes available to users latest version mobile application"Yandex.Taxi".

Previously, Yandex.Taxi canceled the deferred order function in Moscow due to changes in parking rules, according to which the free period time is reduced from 15 to 5 minutes. Users could only order a car for the near future.

2019

Launch of a document and cargo transportation service for business clients

On December 9, 2019, it was announced that Yandex.Taxi would offer a document and cargo delivery service for business. Companies are offered two tariffs: “Delivery” (for the transfer of small-sized parcels or documents) and “Cargo” (allows you to transport large items, such as office equipment or furniture).

The “Cargo” tariff offers the use of vans rather than passenger cars: Gazelles, Ford Transit and others. The maximum weight of one load is 50 kg, one or two loaders are ready to move the shipment to your house or apartment. “Delivery” has a limit of 20 kg. All parcels and cargo are insured for up to 500,000 rubles.

Prices for services differ in different cities: for example, in Moscow the minimum cost of “Delivery” is 270 rubles. After 4 km of travel within cities, the cost of 1 km is 11 rubles, outside the city - 19 rubles. The free wait lasts five minutes, after which each minute costs 11 rubles.

To use the delivery services for parcels or large cargo, you need to leave a request on the website. The manager will contact the company to conclude an agreement. If the company is already connected to the Yandex.Taxi corporate service, then there is no need to conclude another agreement - the services are available to clients in personal account. There you can also set limits on the amount or class of cars for different employees, analyze expenses for a specified period and create electronic documents For accounting.

By December 9, 2019, the “Delivery” service is available in more than 100 cities of Russia, and the “Cargo” service in more than 40. Among them are Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg, Krasnoyarsk, Rostov-on-Don and Krasnodar.

Launch of an environmental tariff. Passengers will be able to choose a methane-powered car

Launch of parcel delivery service

At the first stage, the “Delivery” service in Yandex.Taxi will be available only in Moscow, and later it will work in other cities.

Gett also has its own delivery service. It also has restrictions - 20 kg in weight and 170 x 170 x 170 cm in dimensions of the parcel. The service is called Gett Delivery, it operates in several cities

While waiting for a bus, tram, minibus or trolleybus, you would like to know whether your number will arrive soon. Yandex Transport allows you to do this in real time - the map displays all public transport in motion. If necessary, you can enter the number of the desired route and receive information both on the entire route and see the location of the transport that serves it.

How Yandex Transport works

Yandex Transport is one of the so-called “three” applications from the company for transport. There is also Navigator and Taxi. Today, it is not necessary to download a separate application to your smartphone, since in addition to the browser, the Yandex application also has a built-in web version of Yandex Transport and some other company services.

True, a separate application still has more functionality, and some users are more familiar with it. Plus, universal application from Yandex is still in beta testing.

Built-in maps

Immediately after launching the application, you will see a map showing the movement of public transport on it. The city should be determined automatically, but this does not always happen, so sometimes the user may “find himself” in the center of Moscow. If automatic detection city ​​didn’t work, just enter its name in the search bar.

On the map itself, in addition to traffic movements, you can see stops (they are additionally highlighted), as well as the situation on the road. To view traffic jams, simply click on the traffic light button.

View the timetable

In the application you can find out which public transport routes pass through a particular stop. Just click on the desired stop on the map or enter its name in the search bar. You will see a list of all routes passing through it, as well as the approximate frequency of transport passage. Additionally, at some stops it is shown approximately how long it will take for a particular vehicle to arrive. Routes you are interested in can be added directly from there to tracking by clicking on the heart-shaped button.

In a similar way, you can view the schedule of a specific route. Click on the map or enter the desired number and get a list of stops through which this transport passes. Here you can also find out exactly when the nearest transport will arrive at the listed stops.

You can only track one route at a time. If necessary, you can add it to bookmarks so as not to lose it and switch to another.

Route planning

Yandex Transport also has built-in navigator functions, that is, you can create routes in it. Open the “Where” tab and enter the starting and ending points. Your location is taken as the starting point, but you can enter it manually if it is set incorrectly or you plan to start the route from another point.

The application will show you the most convenient travel options: by public transport, on foot or by taxi. To get a route displayed on the map, simply click on it.

Here you can also filter the transport you will expect. For example, if you don’t like riding minibuses, you can simply turn them off in the route settings. Then you will not be offered options using a minibus. The same can be done with any type of public transport. If necessary, the settings can be saved and used later.

Turning on the alarm

In the application settings, you can enable the built-in alarm clock. This feature will be useful if you have a long trip during which you would like to take a nap. The application will track the location on the map. When you reach your stop the app will tell you sound signal.

Unfortunately, this function may not work accurately. It is disabled by default and must be enabled through the application settings.

Car sharing services

For residents of large cities, integration of Yandex Transport with car sharing services is available. They provide a car for short-term rental for a few hours or days. Unfortunately, a very limited list of services is currently available, plus, it is only available in large cities of Russia.

Replenishment of travel cards

Again, this function is only for residents of large Russian cities - Moscow and St. Petersburg. Replenishment of the main travel cards is available - “Troika”, “Strelka”, “Podorozhnik”. The Yandex Money service is used as a means of payment here. For inexperienced users, the application provides brief instructions, how you can top up your card via Yandex or terminal.

Application Settings

In Yandex Transport, you can configure the type of display of maps, road events, select a city, connect some services, etc.

Grading system

The developers are trying to make the application more convenient and accurate. You can evaluate the proposed routes using emoticons. If something happened serious problem, then you can read the specialized forum using the “Contact Developers” button, which is located in the main menu.

Summary

The Yandex Transport application has no competitive analogue even among foreign companies. It has many advantages, however, there are also disadvantages.

Advantages:

• User-friendly interface and built-in Russian language by default;
• The application is completely free, no intrusive advertising;
• High accuracy of maps from Yandex (only for the Russian Federation and the CIS);
• Saving frequent routes;
• Fine-tuning routes and the application itself.

Flaws:

• There may be inaccuracies in the waiting time indicated in the application, but not critical;
• The application is practically useless outside the CIS.

Yandex Transport is a very convenient application that will be indispensable for residents of large cities.

For Android and iOS OS only in March 2012, offering residents of Russia and Ukraine a free navigation service with traffic jams. At its core, it was a slightly modified Yandex.Maps application, which only acquired a route guidance function. Yandex.Maps routes themselves had been built before, so, taking into account other existing developments within the company, the developers had to put in relatively little effort to release the first version of the navigator.

At the time of our testing, Yandex.Navigator version 1.51 was available, which in terms of functionality is not far removed from the first versions and is a simple navigation program with up-to-date detailed maps.

Pricing and licensing policy

For non-commercial use the application is absolutely free. Maps and additional services ( voice search, traffic jams) are also free.

System requirements

As system requirements only the operating room is mentioned Android system 1.5 or later. No separate requirements for screen resolution or required space in internal memory the smartphone is not voiced.

Functionality

In order to immediately answer various questions about what the program can and cannot do, we have collected information about its functionality in one table.

Yes, the functionality of the application is very modest and in many ways falls short of the bulk of navigation programs. However, Yandex.Navigator should perform all its main responsibilities without problems.

Interface

The program interface is simple and concise. Almost all the space on the screen is taken up by the map. The notification bar remains visible at the top operating system, and if you touch the screen, a translucent panel appears at the bottom with buttons for search, return to your current location, favorites and settings.

In the settings you can activate 3D mode. In it, the map on a small scale begins to be displayed at a certain inclination to the horizon, and when zoomed in sufficiently, the contours of the houses become three-dimensional. They rise slightly above the surface, becoming, as it were, one-story.

Also in the settings you can select the type of map displayed: diagram, satellite or folk (everything is the same as in other Yandex maps). The 3D mode for them will only manifest itself in the appearance of the tilt and horizon line on small scales.

We will also provide a screenshot of the settings menu. In fact, almost everything fits on one screen. The only items that didn’t fit were “Clear history” and “About the program”.

The only “hot buttons” on the screen are the buttons for changing the scale, changing the map orientation, and setting DPOI marks.

Brief summary

Liked: convenient and practical map interface.

Did not like: a nondescript night color obtained by darkening.

Search and work with the map

Compared to all other products we have reviewed, Yandex.Navigator has two fundamental differences: there is no typical address search, and the universal search is supplemented with a built-in speech recognition function and a separate POI rubricator. Essentially, you have the Yandex.Maps search bar, where you can type anything - be it an address or the name of a company/institution - and get these places displayed on the map.

Speech recognition works quite well. Actually, during our entire conversation with Yandex.Navigator, we used the virtual keyboard only once - to see how this type of search works and take screenshots for it. The speech module itself recognizes the end of the phrase and immediately shows it to you, while simultaneously launching a search for it in all categories. The result is then immediately displayed on the map. While driving in a car, when the noise level is quite high, the system sometimes could not determine the end of a phrase, but this did not create any problems. In this case for manual start During the recognition process, all you had to do was press the “recognize” button on the screen.

But, of course, loud music in the cabin made communication with the navigator impossible, so it had to be muted. It was also a little disappointing that the speech module does not know in English. This is compensated by the fact that it almost always correctly transliterates the phrase you uttered and tries to search for it, which, in our practice, has always been successful. In addition to the Russian language, the speech module claims to support Ukrainian and Turkish languages.

The regular search line has a very fast subscript that, as you type a word or phrase, gives you the most suitable options. After selecting a street, the line will not disappear, and the cursor at the end of it intuitively tells you that it is waiting for the house number to be indicated.

It’s a pity that after displaying an object on the map, there is no way to see what kind of building it is and what organizations are located here. In browser-based Yandex.Maps, all this information is available, including photos, not to mention the “ street view”, when you can virtually look around the area.

Except search string users are offered a list of POI categories. When you click on one of them, all corresponding objects are displayed on the map.

It is suspected that this function is also implemented through a general search with one or more keywords.

Brief summary

Liked: speech recognition system, convenient search.

Did not like: Some of the functionality that Yandex.Maps has is missing (street view, photos, displaying lists of organizations at specified addresses).

Maps and their relevance

The application has two options for working with the map. In the first case, it constantly loads the necessary parts of the map as needed and caches them. It is very convenient and practical. You don't need to allocate a lot of internal storage space to store cards. In addition, cached cards can be deleted through the menu, thereby freeing up the necessary space.

Of course, before a long trip, in order to save traffic in roaming, you can cache the desired area of ​​the map yourself; to do this, just view it in the application at the required scale. And if this option does not suit you, you can always load a complete set of maps or its individual parts into the internal memory of your smartphone:

The “overview” version of the maps does not seem to differ much from the “full” version. They can be seen and compared in the three screenshots below. On the first, the left side of the screen is a full map, and the right is an overview. The other two show the same section of the map in full and overview versions.

House numbers in full version maps (which are in the screenshots above) will appear on the screen if you zoom out one step. According to company representatives, the overview map differs from the full map only in the number of drawn scales and detail.

The map has one peculiarity: it does not display courtyard driveways, although when you are in a courtyard area, routes along them are built regularly.

According to the developers, downloadable map packages are updated monthly, but in practice everything is different. For example, the map of Moscow dates back to January 2013. The rest of the cards are even older. But you shouldn’t be afraid of old maps, because before displaying each section, the program requests a more recent version from the server, and if there is one, it displays it.

The cards themselves are only available for Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Turkey. There is no information about other countries yet. You can check the relevance of the information on the map yourself by going to the address in your browser. We didn’t have any special questions for her. The only thing we noticed was the extra icons of surveillance cameras and speed control in the area of ​​the overpass on Profsoyuznaya Street near the Teply Stan metro station that opened in October. The cameras were dismantled just before the opening of the new site or even earlier. But perhaps these are minor quibbles.

Routes and navigation

We also have no complaints about route planning. They are quite logical and devoid of any oddities that can sometimes be seen among competitors. Traffic jams are taken into account quite adequately, no kinks. It’s also nice that in many cases Yandex.Navigator offers two options to choose from.

An alternative is usually offered in cases where the two most optimal routes differ from each other in time by no more than 10-15% or if a significantly longer one turns out to be noticeably shorter in distance. And if you don't really like the laid out routes, you can use your finger to drag the line of any of them (or the start and finish points) and move it to the place where the route should pass through. Yandex.Navigator will immediately rebuild the route and indicate the estimated time of movement along it. By the way, the time is always indicated quite accurately. The program knows the average speed on all sections of the route, plus it objectively increases it depending on the number of traffic lights and turns. As a result, if the traffic situation did not change during the movement, then the author of these lines always arrived at the given point minute by minute in accordance with the estimated travel time. Well, except that sometimes it was possible to win one or two minutes from the “computer” due to the fact that on free sections of the outbound highways it was possible to move at a slight speed limit within the limits conditionally permitted by the new legislation.

While driving along a route, indicators of upcoming maneuvers and the distance to them, as well as the time until the end of the route, appear on a translucent panel. Instead of time, you can display the current speed, distance to the finish or time of arrival. To select, you need to touch your finger in this place on the screen.

There is also a thin line along the panel where traffic jams and your current position are displayed in color.

Also, if you touch the upcoming turn icon, an enlarged section of the map will appear on the screen with this interchange and the route line on it.

Otherwise, there is nothing superfluous in functionality. Although there is a severe lack of warnings about speeding in the current segment, which is a big minus. But there are warnings about cameras and other road events, but this is implemented in an extremely impractical way. In the menu, you are asked to check the boxes next to those events about which you want to hear warnings.

As soon as an event or camera icon appears on the map ahead, the same warning tone sounds. It is impossible to determine the type of event from it (accident, road works, speed camera, messages from other drivers, etc.), and in addition, the system also warns about those cameras that monitor oncoming traffic.

Well, the most important thing to remember about routes when using Yandex.Navigator: without a connection to the Internet, they will not be built, even if you have downloaded all the maps and you need to drive a hundred meters along the street.

Brief summary

Liked: adequate routes, accurate forecast of travel time, alternative route options are offered.

Did not like: without a connection to the Network, routes are not built, there are no warnings about speeding, the same sound of warnings about all events or cameras.

Voice prompts

For the Russian language, two sound profiles are offered - “Dima” and “Oksana”. Both of them are quite good, but “Oksana” for the author of these lines is somehow nicer than “Dima”. Both profiles are laconic and only warn in advance about upcoming and ongoing maneuvers.

Testing

We conducted several tests regarding the software's performance and ease of use. We used the same tablets and smartphone as test platforms as before. All of them were once in our test laboratory and have full reviews, links to which you will find in the short table technical characteristics below.

Let us remind you that our smartphone acts as a relatively modern budget platform. Here we evaluate the suitability of the software for running on low-performance systems. The Prestigio tablet represents middle segment, and Pipo gravitates toward the upper class in terms of performance and its other characteristics.

Installation

Installation problems arose only with the smartphone, since it is purebred Chinese and was intended for the Chinese market, while Yandex through Yandex.Store and through Google Play allows the installation of this application only for Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Turkey. However, there is a legal way to get the APK file on your smartphone and install the app yourself. This can be done with . But in this case, for obvious reasons, the application will not update itself.

The size of the Yandex.Navigator distribution is approximately 11 MB and depends on the device for which it is downloaded.

Start time

Regardless of the platform we use, the application only takes two seconds to launch and another one or two to display your estimated location on the map by analyzing the coordinates of GSM towers (for which Yandex.Maps was so famous). With active A-GPS and a good signal from satellites, after a few tens of seconds a marker of your exact position will appear on the screen.

This is the best result among all the software we have already reviewed.

Route planning time

Apparently, routing takes place not on the local device, but on the server, and here are a couple of arguments in favor of this version: the lack of activity of the SoC computing cores and the significantly different time it takes to lay the same route in different attempts (obviously depends on the type and Internet connection speed). The time for routing with a good connection (3G, Wi-Fi) ranges from 1-2 seconds to about 20 in the case of a “trip” from Moscow to Vladivostok. But if the connection is unstable, sometimes you can wait a long time.

Let us repeat that in the absence of the Network, routing will be impossible at all, even if you have downloaded a map of the required region.

Recycling system resources

The utilization of computing power is extremely low at all test platforms. Even on a single-core smartphone, it rarely hits the “ceiling”, and even then only at some isolated moments with simultaneous continuous scaling and loading and displaying traffic jams. On four “dusty” Cortex-A7 cores, you can sometimes see a SoC load of 35-40% (with active scrolling and scaling with loading and traffic jams). This means that the code is somehow adapted to work on multiple cores.

In addition, Yandex.Navigator uses the least random access memory among the applications we reviewed.

Battery life

Starting this time, we decided to eliminate checking the operating time of systems running navigation software. Too many external factors influence this process, which leads to difficulties with reproducibility of results. In addition, the load level of the SoC computing cores plays practically no role in this, but the duration of data transfer sessions in GSM networks could have an impact, but again all the numbers are almost within the margin of error. For example, this time Yandex.Navigator, during all measurements, very actively “communicated” with the Network due to frequent route changes and reloading of traffic jams, catching up with 5-6 MB of traffic per hour, lying on the windowsill. However, the final operating time on the smartphone is 2:58. Thus, the difference between all the applications we tested remains within 5-6%, and there is no practical point in further experiments.

Network traffic volume per trip

Since the program has two modes of operation (with and without pre-loaded maps), we drove the same short 16-kilometer route in Moscow twice, first with the maps loaded and the second time with the cache pre-cleared. Both trips took approximately 30 minutes. So, the results are as follows: with loaded maps, Yandex.Navigator consumes about 3.5 MB/h, and without them - 6.5 MB/h. If converted to mileage, this approximately corresponds to 0.1 and 0.2 MB/km, respectively. An hour-long drive outside the city on the highway with an initially empty map cache gave a figure of 4 MB over a distance of 90 km.

Technical support

You can contact technical support only through special form Online. There is no knowledge base or official forum thread. Phone too. They do not answer very quickly (it takes about a day to respond), but they are polite and informative, although not always accurate. Replies come by email, after which you can enter into regular correspondence (the main thing is not to change the header of the letter with the request code).

conclusions

It should be noted that the first pancake from Yandex did not turn out lumpy, and in version 1.51 it even looks like an excellent pancake! It has a convenient voice search that works so well that... virtual keyboard During the test, we only contacted you to take screenshots of this material. The maps interface is not only pleasing to the eye (except for the night mode), but also very practical. It doesn't have the newfangled and controversial 3D display of actual building heights, but it has excellent readability. The relevance of maps is a synonym for Yandex. The route planning is also excellent. In addition, Yandex.Navigator often offers Alternative option, which is also convenient. And the application consumes a very moderate amount of traffic, even if it is not first loaded into memory necessary cards. By the way, in terms of traffic it is almost on par with Navitel Navigator, whose maps are located exclusively in the device’s internal memory and does not need to download them from the Internet.

And the main problem is one: without access to the Internet, even with downloaded Yandex.Navigator maps, it turns into a “pumpkin”, i.e. it can only display a map, your location - and nothing more. No routes, no search. In addition, I would really like to get in Yandex.Navigator the functionality of browser-based Yandex.Maps, where there are photographs, descriptions of objects, panoramas, etc. In addition, there is no advanced functionality like “friends on the map”, working with tracks, etc. However, we must remember that the application is free! And if our wishes and comments are taken into account in version 2.0, which remains free, then it will simply undermine the navigation market in Russia and in the two allied states. And one would think that Yandex would not dare to do this, but very soon navigation in Google Maps... And there is also Megafon-Navigation. So place your bets and stock up on the popcorn!

Advantages

• practical interface
• high-quality voice search
• adequate construction of routes
• current maps
• for free

Flaws

• without access to the Internet, it does not build routes and search does not work
• reduced functionality compared to browser-based Yandex.Maps
• yard driveways are not displayed on the map
• no speed warnings
• many are missing useful features, characteristic of navigation software