BlaBlaCar: Carpooling and Bus Hack 5.153.0 + Redeem Codes

Great app for selling the extra space in your car when you take a trip. Especially helpful with then increasing cost of fuel. I enjoy having company in the car and learning about other cultures while traveling. The time passes more quickly. A couple things that could improve:

- the Messenger does not allow images nor links to be sent which would be incredibly helpful for discussing modifications to the pickup location.

- The Messenger is clunky. It often flags messages that are within guidelines and doesn’t send them, however it doesn’t tell you immediately that this has happened, making it difficult to know which messages have gone through and which haven’t. Messages also sometimes are put into the thread out of order. Clear communication is really important when you are trying to meet someone so this really needs to be improved.

- The messenger’s email notifications also are also clunky/buggy. I’ve often received email notifications for messages that were supposedly from me, but actually showed messages from a potential passenger - sometimes these were flagged messages, though, so it actually allowed me to see the messages that BlaBlaCar was trying to erase/keep me from seeing, so that was nice :)

The company sometimes applies major workflow changes, for instance how payments are done. It would be nice if there would be notifications to the user to explain why there is a change and what actually changes. There is in fact some confusion amongst users as to how things work because of this.

Also, the Messages section has never been very stable ever since I have used it, which is about a couple of years. Notifications come through, but if the user has the app open on the Messages section, One needs to exit the Messages section and come back in in order to refresh it and see new messages.

I downloaded the app while in France, but my phone’s settings are in English. Even so, the app insisted on French.
I’m back in the US, and traveling in Mexico frequently, but I’m still stuck using French and Euros. I know enough French to get around, but I’d much prefer English or Spanish. That you refuse to allow a language or currency change in the app shows that you fail to reconcile the diversity of your clientele.
Do better.

UPDATE: after a reply from the developer, advising me to change my region to the UK (I live in the US), I’d like to ask: Do the developers understand that this is an app for travelers, and thus it might be a nice feature to be able to customize options such as language and currency? Who wants to change the settings of their entire phone just to customize one single application?

I’m presently in Mexico, and would love to use the BlaBlaCar app to book a car. But when I use the app, my only options are French and Euros. So, I go to the website, change to Mexico and Pesos, and set up alerts for new trips. Then, I get emails about new trip in English, with Pounds as the currency?

Nobody wants to have to do all these unnecessary currency conversions, and nobody wants to struggle through a language they barely speak, unless the goal is to learn that language.

BlaBlaCar as a service is great, but there are a LOT of improvements that have to be made before this app can deserve 5 stars.

As other reviewers have pointed out, this app sets the language according to the country chosen, making it effectively useless for many of us. I understand from developer responses to other reviews that they are working on this problem.

There’s a feature for ID verification; my verifications failed repeatedly but no information as to why, or what to do was forthcoming.

Following my initial posting of this review, the developer kindly contacted me to ask for further details. To me this indicates a good developer so I improved my rating. Furthermore, they are releasing new versions frequently.

I think you guys should make the app able to save the messages and the informations for the driver and for the trip information
Because today I didn’t have internet reception and I was waiting for the woman in the place we agreed to meet at , and I tried to make sure that I’m in the right place but I couldn’t because I couldn’t see the messages in the app and I think it’s a problem if I need to see some information that might help me at the time .
You guys should think about it I think its very important to be able to use the app in the off line mode just to see some information like messages or just a phone number Or the time and the place of the meeting
Thanks

It doesn’t allow you to change the language. I’m an American living in Ukraine, so to search for cars I’m forced to use Ukrainian which is impossible to understand every button, description, or guide. If I want to use English, it takes me to the UK, but I don’t need rides there.

Imagine Ukrainians going to France. Oops, no Ukrainian unless you know French—just guess what each thing means. Even Uber or Bond Taxi allows English in Ukraine, and the drivers know about this, why not Bla Bla Car? Is it really that backwards thinking or is it just laziness to allow the options for multiple languages within a country?

Unless you know someone who speaks the language of the country you’re in, this app is basically useless. That’s too bad because that’s a lot of lost profit for drivers and your company.

I see people have complained about this for years. And for years, this is why I haven’t used it. You open it up and it’s stuck in whatever language the country you are in uses. Developers, here’s a tip: when a lot of people are complaining about something, you should probably fix it. Unless you don’t like making money. Every other app has language settings when you first start it. This isn’t rocket science. Oh, and before you comment: my language and region is US/English.
FIX. YOUR. APP.

Edit:
I know you’re aware of it. You have been for YEARS. Look how old some of the negative reviews talking about it are. Every time I consider trying your app, I see it’s still there. Are you in business or aren’t you? Do you want to make money or not? STOP BEING CHEAP AND LAZY AND FIX IT.

Great concept-- a long distance Uber in many respects. Expect to get to know the other passengers, because y'all will be spending multiple hours in a small car together.

However! There needs to be differentiation between location and language. I'm an American visiting Spain at the moment. If I say I'm in Spain, the app turns to Spanish and has no option to change it. I have to pretend I'm in England, and read all prices in British Pounds, to use this service in Spain. Should be an easy fix that may happen by the time you read this review. Overall a great app.

Overall, this a great service!

But when used by someone like me who travels different countries and pays cash (because most drivers accept cash), i need a quick way to switch currency. Why would i want to see rates in my local currency? I need to see rates in driver’s currency because he/she won’t accept my local one.
Right now you suggest i delete the app and re-install it, and set a new currency. And that i do so every time i’m in a different country. This is insanely inconvenient. Please fix :)

I just got the app to be able to travel around Spain and it has some issues. It takes your money once you send in the request not until it’s confirmed. So guess who never got their ride confirmed but got their money taken away so then I requested another and no confirmation either. At that point I was running low on money it’s ridiculous. It says you’ll get your money back 1-5 days, why would they take my money before my ride is confirmed?!!!! So now I have to message drivers first to ensure they’ll accept before I request.