Inrix Traffic (Android)

The latest update to the Inrix Traffic app for Android is a fairly large one. The app gets a visual refresh that makes use of Android's Holo design language. An updated and clearer Places screen makes it easier for drivers to estimate travel times and share those times with others.

Inrix is, simply, a traffic app. It will let you know how much traffic you'll encounter on your way home and to work, but it won't actually give you directions as to how tol get there. Can such an app be useful? Let's take a closer look at Inrix Traffic for Android and find out.

What does it do?
When you fire up the Inrix app, you'll be taken to the Places screen. Here you'll find estimated drive times for preset Home and Work destinations that can be set in one of the app's settings menus. Each of the destinations has two estimates for the arrival time and driving time for two potential routes.

The Places screen is where you'll find travel time estimates for Home and Work.

(Credit: Screenshot by Antuan Goodwin/CNET)

Clicking a Share icon to the left of each drive time allows the users to share the route and travel estimate with any of their contacts via e-mail or text message. Additionally, users can set a favorite e-mail or phone number for messaging to via the resulting Share menu.

At the bottom of the Places screen are icons that take the user to a Scorecard screen with interesting charts for traffic geeks, and a Community leaderboard that displays the most active Inrix community members who report traffic and incident data. There is also a Clock icon that reveals a timeline at the top of the Places screen. Swiping this timeline to a future time updates the drive and arrival times for Home and Work, with estimated future trip data based on historical and speculative traffic data.

Finally, clicking any of the estimated drive times (current or future) takes the user to the map screen, which displays an overlay of the chosen route and allows users to toggle between the two trip alternatives, but offers no turn-by-turn directions.

The Map screen features color-coded traffic overlays, incident icons, and trip data, but no turn-by-turn nav.

(Credit: Screenshot by Antuan Goodwin/CNET)