Why do electric scooters have mobile apps?
We are proud to say Apollo was amongst the first electric scooter manufacturers to release an accompanying app. If you’ve been following us for a while, you might recall that originally the app was only compatible with a handful of models (shoutout to Apollo Air 2021!) and offered limited functionality. Basically, it was just a glorified version of the dashboard that was already built into your scooter. But fast forward three years, and today the Apollo Scooters app is one of the highest rated mobile apps on both iOS and Android stores. Let me tell you though, it’s been a journey.
Here is how the Apollo App has been rated over time:
For the first two years the mobile app was a massive headache to our developer and support teams, causing constant issues to our riders. Many of them chose to simply not use the app and enjoy their scooters app-free. However, after 2 years of hard work, our incredible dev team successfully turned things around. Today the app is used by over thousands of users monthly, peaking at 37,00 recorded rides in September.
So, to come back to the original question - why bother making an app? Why did we persist and continue working on something our riders were ACTIVELY avoiding using? To understand that, I need to lay out our product development thesis in the shortest way possible.
How (we think) electric scooters should work
We believe an electric scooter should do exactly what the rider needs it to do, when the rider needs it to do it. Electric scooters should fit into the lives of adults seamlessly, yet every time you ride one, it should be nothing but a pure delight.
We can make hardware (read: electric scooters) that delights riders - actually, it’s a bit of our speciality. We use the finest materials, an impossibly meticulous manufacturing process, and an obsessive amount of attention to detail. Our scooters ride as well as they look - this is not just me being biased, check any reviews (like here or here) and you’ll find the same.
The software, however, is the sauce that makes the dish. The hardware does its magic when you’re riding it, the software takes over when you’re not. Think about when you’re unboxing the scooter for the first time and you need some guidance on how to use it - just follow the app. Want to find out the ideal tire pressure PSI for your scooter? Just message us in the app. What about locking your scooter outside of the coffee shop you go to? Use the app to immobilize it. Someone stole your scooter? Just mark it as stolen and we’ll automatically brick it.
You get the point, the time you spent on the scooter is actually relatively small as a percentage of the total time you own the vehicle for. The app makes the time off the scooter just as easy, seamless, and intuitive by giving you the right information, support, and resources when you need them.
If you’re still reading, I assume you’re bought into our vision of integrating hardware and software into one seamless experience. Let’s dive into some of our favourite features in the app (version 3.16) as of December, 2024.
The Apollo App Dashboard and Navigation: Your Ride Companion
All Apollo scooters are compatible with Quad Lock mounts, making mounting your phone on the scooter a simple and reliable experience. There’s just one downside - the mounted phone blocks the built-in display. Rest assured though, this was intentional as the first and main feature of the app is it’s dashboard.
The dashboard contains a number of super insightful information - top speed, battery charge remaining, average power consumption and re-generation, as well as the total distance travelled and the time you’ve been riding for. This is all helpful, but let’s be honest - you’re not going to stare at the dashboard while riding, so all this information is there in case you need it, but the main benefit of using the app comes next.
Maps and route planning have been the most requested feature for a long time - once you’ve added where you’re headed, your app will plan out the ideal route optimized for bikes and electric scooters. This means avoiding busy roads or steep hills and conserving your battery as much as possible. As you follow the route, the app will continue to give you real-time battery consumption information, indicating when you might have an issue or run out of juice. A super exciting feature relating to this is in the works, where our team is integrating AI to leverage all your historical ride data to personalize the accuracy of your range estimates.
Last, but not least you will find shortcuts for the top controls at the bottom of the dashboard screen. Those will include light controls and cruise control, things you might just need to use while mid ride. We encourage you to only use these when you’re stopped (e.g. at a light or intersection) rather than while riding, as letting go off the handlebar with one hand can lead to a loss of control.
How Electric Scooter Apps Enhance the Rider Experience
Mode selection
One of the more interesting features of the app operates in the background, letting riders choose their preferred acceleration and braking strength in the settings. This may seem like a relatively simple feature, but imagine being able to choose if you want to drive a car with a V6 Turbo engine or a diesel. That’s essentially the choice you can make before each ride - if you enjoy strong acceleration and rapid braking, it’s a setting well within reach. If you prefer a more gentle ride, that’s just a couple of clicks away.
Riding profiles
The cool thing about these is that you can tie them to your riding profiles - each rider can choose between eco, normal, and sport. Typically riders will select a top speed as the main determining feature of each riding mode, but acceleration settings can be customized as well. In practice, this allows riders to have a variety of riding profiles for different circumstances. For example, if you’re riding extra far one day and want to preserve battery, you could set “eco” mode to a lower top speed, gentler acceleration and stronger re-gen braking, and turn off kick-to-start. This would consume less as you’d be riding at a lower top speed, accelerate more gradually, and it would eliminate the #1 energy waster - starting from a complete stop. Just kicking your scooter into a slow speed makes a huge difference in battery life.
Locking your scooter
Another rider favourite is the lock/un-lock function. Let’s say you park your scooter outside your favourite coffee shop while you pop in. Although we always recommend using a lock, sometimes it may not be enough. The Apollo app gives you the option to lock your scooter and immobilize it.
Once you hit the magic “lock” button, the motors will actually apply full braking power. If a thief is able to free the scooter from the lock, they would be stuck with a scooter that doesn’t roll. It’s a simple feature that offers a big relief to many owners - especially those living in big cities like New York City or Los Angeles.
Mark your scooter as stolen
Finally, if the worst case scenario does happen and your scooters gets stolen, you still have one last feature available - you can mark it as “stolen”. This will trigger a sequence in our back end that allows us to locate and brick your scooter the next time its connected to the app. So if the thief downloads our app and attempts to connect your scooter, they will effectively notify us of the theft, put a location on the scooter, and immobilize it permanently.
Electric Scooter Analytics: Dive Into Your Data
After you finish the ride, the app will prompt you with a request to view your ride. Why would you want to look at the ride you just did? Great question! Take a look at my ride recording right here to find out for yourself.
For one, it’s just fun to see how much distance you covered, how much battery you used, and how fast you went. Over time this information will help you figure out how to make the most out of your scooter - how does the battery perform in the winter v.s. Summer? How much faster was your commute on a scooter vs. a car? Do you go faster than an e-bike?
These are all questions you could answer by simply looking at your data. More importantly, you can look at your cumulative data over time. That’s where things get really interesting - by looking at your last 20 rides and the total mileage you covered on your electric scooter, we can start to understand financial savings, measure the environmental benefits, or community impact you’re making!
Ride, Reward, and Share the Fun!
As we’ve said many times in different videos and interviews, we have a goal of hitting 1 billion KM travelled on our vehicles by 2030. Everything we do, including encouraging our riders, is to maximize the amount of miles travelled on Apollo electric scooters.
The more you ride, the higher you’ll rank in the leaderboard. That’s right, you can see how much fellow Apollo riders in your area ride and more importantly - how you stack up.
Safety and Support at Your Fingertips
As with any device, it’s important to ensure only authorized users can access it. We get the thrill of letting others try your e-scooter for the first time. After all, it’s pure magic! However, sometimes you want to make sure they don’t go too fast on their first try. You can simply add a top speed limit via Parental Controls and voila! Now your visiting family member who’s never ridden an electric scooter will only be able to go as fast as you let them.
Deeper in the scooter settings you can find even more helpful information regarding your warranty status. Check it anytime to see how many months of warranty coverage remain, when it might be time to replace the consumable parts (like tires or brakes), or if you ever need any support from our expert team - reach us in just a few clicks. You can contact customer support by email or chat, navigate to a nearby authorized repair centre, and even find troubleshooting guides.
Conclusion
The Apollo App has quickly become a companion for thousands of riders each month. Needless to say if you have an app-enabled Apollo Scooter, I highly recommend getting the app. If you don’t have an Apollo Scooter and you’re reading this article to understand what the app offers, I hope you found it compelling.
The Apollo Software team is moving fast to introduce even more features in the coming months. From AI enabled range estimation, Google Maps integration, to an in app one-stop-shop repair experience - we have exciting releases planned.
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