We’ve been getting tons of feedback since we switched Urbanspoon to Zomato, and some of the things have really got us thinking. We took a step back to take a good look at our product, and found there were some fundamental issues that needed to be addressed. The Zomato app, we noticed, had become complicated and unintuitive for our users over time. So we decided to go back to the drawing board to make Zomato as simple as we always intended it to be, without sacrificing any of the app’s basic functionality.

The result of that is the simplest yet most powerful version of our app yet, and this is only the starting point. Here’s a look at all that’s changed.

The first thing we did was to condense functionally similar navigation tabs and organise the app into just two sections – Restaurants, and Profile – instead of the earlier five. Now, the Restaurants tab has everything that helps speed up and simplify deciding where to eat. The Search section now has a prominent map at the top, along with quick-search filters for breakfast, lunch, dinner, delivery, and more. You can still open up the map, pan to another area, and draw to search for results in that particular area. Delivery and Nearby restaurants get dedicated buttons on the home screen, putting search results a single tap away. Our Collections now also have a new look and feel, with larger cards and one tweak that saves you a few clicks each time – you can see the restaurant closest to you without having to open and scroll through an entire collection 🙂

With this update, we’ve also focused on improving the discovery aspect of the app. We’ve split the Food Feed into a Local Feed, where you can discover local foodies and see where they’re eating, and My Feed, where you’ll see stories from people you’re following. You will now also get Contextual Recommendations, with suggestions based on your past dining behaviour and current location. These recommendations will become smarter and more personalised over time, but it should still help you (re)discover some great places you may not have thought of otherwise.

We’ve also moved three key features to the app’s homepage, because we found they were a tad difficult to access in the previous version: Suggest a Restaurant, Recently Viewed, and Bookmarks. Your Bookmarks are now also easier to navigate, with options to sort by distance or how recently they were added, single-tap filters to show places that are open now or to hide places you’ve already been to, as well as the option to filter them by location.

Moving on to the Profile section, you’ll notice two things – the section is a lot cleaner, and that the Food Journey is now called the Dineline. To make the Profile section easier to get around, we kept all the primary information such as profile stats, notifications, and Dineline on the main profile page, and moved all the secondary information into a side drawer that slides out with a single tap.

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This is a huge update to the app, but it’s just the starting point, and there are plenty more improvements to come. And as always, we will look forward to your feedback (especially if you moved over from Urbanspoon). Please email us at feedback@zomato.com if you have anything to say about this update.