Reflecting on Uber's People-as-Destination Design

Today Uber launched a new feature:

Just select a target contact, and it will take you to that contact's location.

Amazing! It lowers the cost of offline meetups quite a bit, because most of the time we're going out to see people, not to find a place.

I was thinking in a fixed mindset—do both parties need to have Uber installed? Turns out, no:

1. Select a contact from your address book
2. Send an SMS link to that contact
3. Wait for the contact to authorize their location via the web link
4. Once their location is obtained, you can drive over to meet them

In summary, never forget "SMS" and "the browser"—these two have zero install cost for any user.