ETA: An iOS App That Shows Sometimes Simple is Best

Are we there yet? That can be a philosophical question. It can also be a nagging, practical one depending on the circumstances. Discerning the travel time to a location can be a real help when you’re planning travel, whether that be for a day of errands or a longer trip. There are certainly a myriad of navigation Apps on mobile platforms that can help you find your way and they all will give you an estimated time of arrival as they follow your course via GPS. But sometimes all you need is a quick look at the travel time to a location. A new iOS App, ETA gives you just that, proving that a simple approach can sometimes be time saver.

ETA gives your estimated time of arrival to a chosen destination. It is simple to use. Enter in your destination (by place name or address) and you’ll get a response that tells you the drive time to that location. As you are traveling, that travel time will update based on traffic conditions. To enter an address just hit the plus button and enter the information about your destination. If you enter a business name that has multiple locations you can choose the one you’re most interested in. Saving frequent locations you visit seems to be one of the strengths of the App as you can find out your ETA instantly in the list view of saved locations.

For those on foot, you can swipe to the right to view travel time for walking. A swipe to the left allows you to delete destinations from your list. Tap on a destination and you can edit the particulars or call up directions via Apple Maps, Google Maps, or Waze, depending on which of those navigation Apps you choose in settings.

Under settings you can choose to display your results in text or via the small icons that display your travel time. There is also a toggle for a Right Handed mode. The App tells you it is optimized for one-handed mode, and this toggle supposedly puts the few controls in easier reach of your right thumb.

Essentially, that’s it for ETA. Simple and direct. That said, it would be nice if the App did access your contacts to make it easier to enter some destinations, but perhaps we’ll see that in an update down the road. For now, if you want to know how long it will take until you reach your destination, ETA is a very simple and straightforward way to get that information.

ETA is currently on sale for $1.99 but will cost $2.99 once the promotion surrounding its launch is done. You can purchase it via iTunes.