MuniMobile Reviews

by Mikeromo

Muni doesn’t warn you, so I will. When you buy tickets, you get a bank of them, then you select one to use. When you click to use the ticket, it goes to a different listing (to use, as opposed to look at)—and has a timer, about 90 minutes, I guess.

Not a big deal unless you are trying to figure out how Muni works. I was checking out the process and now I am out $2.50. Just bad UI, and really kind of embarrassing for the City, this should be the best experience of its kind, right?

this app, please go talk to some grammar school kid and she will fix it up for you.

by Walkure4Him

DO NOT USE THIS!! So bad! Paid for passes. They weren’t even put in my bank. The this app ticket walk ups WONT HELP YOU. You are screwed when there’s a problem—and there will be. Wrong bus information. Lack of tech support. Lack of customer service. Had to go through my bank on one and PayPal on another to get charges reversed when THEY screwed up and didn’t give me tickets THAT I PAID FOR through this worthless app. Muni has the potential to strand you and ruin your San Fran vacation. Locals know it’s garbage and don’t use it. If you insist on having it, make sure Uber or Lyft is also handy for when the info is completely wrong and you’re left hanging. Because you will be.

by Ofasu

Local riders are aware of the “late night special” when riding this app at night. Any fare paid for after 830pm do not have the normal 2 hour expiration time and are valid to use until 5am of the next day. Before the recent update Muni applied the late night special to your tickets used after 830pm. After the recent update your tickets used after 830pm expire in 2 hours.
Your better off paying an extra 25cents to get a paper transfer or use your clipper card because the late special still works with those forms of payment.
I also find it kind of disingenuous that it’s not mentioned in the update description or anywhere else on Muni . If it’s a bug or something I’ll gladly change my rating of Muni but I’ve tried to contact the developers and Sfmta to ask about this in a few emails and follow ups but still haven’t heard back

by Yaaaasssssmo

Be very careful when using Muni. The instructions on the screens are not clear.

I just installed Muni for the first time and purchased tickets.

The tickets fall under a tab called 'single rider'.

I was curious what the tab called 'multiple riders' meant.

Since there were no instructions, I thought I was transferring my newly purchased tickets to be active for future multiple riders.

Instead, what Muni did was use all of my new tickets at once.

I called 311 and lodged a complaint. They do not offer refunds. I'm SOL and hate Muni.

I am a UX Designer and this is terrible design which unintentionally tricks a user into wasting money. this app did not do their due diligence in testing whether Muni was usable.

I recommend staying AWAY from Muni until they fix issues like this. There are probably more problems to be found. Negative stars if that was possible to give.

by Ribollagialla

Muni is horrible and easily resulted in a $125 ticket. It works fundamentally different from all other forms of payment and this app fare enforcers have not updated their practices for it. In a part of town where stops are one block apart, enforcers stepped on one block after I stepped on and activated a ticket. It takes a bit to open Muni and do that. They said the activation time was too recent. I said I just got on. They said everyone says that, you were supposed to activate before you go on, were totally unsympathetic and wrote me a fat ticket.

The problem is EVERY other form of this app payment happens on the bus. Why is this different? It’s totally unintuitive. How many people read the fine print and remember to activate in advance? How many times have you ran to catch a bus and just made it? This is a classic case of “blaming the user” for a bad user experience. Why can’t we just TAP TO PAY with Muni like other modern cities? Stay away from Muni.

by Future Cadavre

The “route planner” just forwards you to google maps. Google maps, in its infinite wisdom, suggests routes that aren’t even active or picking up passengers that day. For example, I need to get from Nob hill to the marina. It suggested I take a Golden Gate transit bus. Problem is, Golden Gate transit doesn’t pick up passengers in San Francisco proper — only at the transit terminals at the end of the line. I didn’t know this, tried to board a bus mid-route, and got kicked off. Wound up walking four miles because google maps simply wouldn’t load active this app routes.

It’s 2021, we’re the tech center of the world. Get it together, developers.

by Random Person 12

I came super close to getting a ticket after deciding to use this as an alternative to Clipper. The people who ask for proof of payment don’t have an easy way of telling whether you activated the tickets last minute or not, or they are not properly trained to do so. I was able to show them when I activated it, but it wasn’t until after I got removed from the train that they decided to listen to me. I got the whole, “Oh, we’re sorry for the inconvenience” thing. I know it’s not entirely Muni ’s fault, but it something like this is going to be effective, there needs to be more communication with the enforcers. Pretty lame experience overall.

by Omar, Just Omar

I love the convenience of being able to pay for a ride from my phone but the amount of time and poor usability of Muni is counterintuitive. I’m on the run, a bus is coming and I didn’t have time to load my clipper. I get on board and should simply open Muni and pay for the ride but nope, I have to scroll through crap and find the purchase button, then look for the card I have on file, add amount of tickets to purchase, and click on “yes I want to use it now” and I’m trying to do all that right before getting on so I can show the driver the purchased barcode. If I’m on the 49 or just about any bus or bus stop, I don’t want to be on my phone looking and tapping away. I kinda like my phone and not want to get it stolen. Please simplify Muni.

by ARLoyd

As a tourist using Muni, I found the ability to purchase passes & show them on my phone helpful. However, the route planning could be wildly improved by 1) allowing you to save routes 2)auto-filling previously keyed routes 3) recognizing what stop you are nearest to while using. If you wait too long, or sometimes even flip to another app/window, it closes out and you have to re-key your route in the search fields. Being totally new to town and to public transportation, I needed to constantly refer to the routing info to ensure I was headed the right way and on the right bus. It was a hassle and time-consuming to continually rekey info...especially when on a bus and needing info quickly while stops are flying by. Also, it wasn’t really clear if I was supposed to be scanning my phone when entering busses or just showing it to the driver...clarification needed. Finally, as a tourist, I also didn’t realize BART wasn’t covered by the passes, even though it WAS listed in the routing suggestions. Things that could be somehow indicated within Muni .

by SFScrabbler

This is a convenient app that works well but it has a significant design flaw. You need to be signed in to Muni to use a purchased ticket — but once you are signed in there’s no further verification needed to access your stored credit card info to purchase more tickets. It would be much more secure if there was a second level of verification required to access the credit card — such as requiring a fingerprint. And since Muni doesn’t automatically sign you out if you lost your phone your credit card purchasing would
remain enabled. I realize that someone who found or stole your phone would also need to be able to log onto your phone before they could access Muni , but still that seems like a thin layer of protection.

by Hisamfi

I use Muni to find out when J-Church arrives. It’s reliable most of the time. I take this app 4 times a week.

Also, I just lost my Clipper Card. I started to use Muni to purchase single ride tickets. Very convenient. Haven’t had any problems so far. I haven’t mistakenly activated a ticket for use. I like that Muni allows you to purchase multiple tickets for multiple riders, unlike Clipper. I like that it also shows me when my ticket expires.

by Andelle05

The new upgrade takes 2-3 full minutes to load the home screen, and another few minutes to load tickets once purchased. Not sure what was wrong with the previous version, which loaded instantly. I used to be able to purchase a ticket in the time it took me to board the bus; now I’m often left wondering if my ticket will ever load/display.

by Momlicious

I bought a 3 day pass for $29 and used the this app system all over town. If you buy it, use it for even short distances to save your feet, very practical. They also have a great customer support. I bought a second pass by mistake, I contacted them through email and they quickly replied that they would refund me for the mistaken second pass. I got the refund before leaving town. Thank you, this app!!

by Sfexile

Coming back home to San Francisco and riding this app every day all over makes me really aware of how public transportation is supposed to be. Can’t thank you enough for all these great experiences and now this new convenience. I wish I never had to go back to dysfunctional Portland, Oregon where nothing works and “frequent service” means waiting 20 minutes at rush hour and up to an hour downtown the rest of the time.

by Gcppppp2333

If I enter a trip in Plan Trip and it takes me to Google Maps, when Inreturn from maps the trip is gone. If I forgot to pin it in maps I have to start all over again.
The trip should remain in the this app app. Instead, I get a blank screen and it says "Done" in upper left.

Thanks.

by J. Coffman Sr.

Muni makes it easy for me to travel between my home and the doctors office I don’t have to carry any cash which is a plus for me because I usually end up giving it away before I’m able to ride another bus. So thank you for making this up and I hope you make it more efficient down the line thank you. One suggestion would be to make it like a rideshare app where you can see when and where the bus is at in route and pinpoint the rider.

Thank you
Jason A Coffman Sr.

by Grayceignite

Hello!
Love Muni!!!!!
It would really be the best if monthly passes were available here, and if our daily passes contributed to the cost of a monthly, then once the monthly pass rate has been reached- the rider get leveled up to the monthly as a reward for participating!

This helps with everyones budgeting because I know we all ride sometimes more or sometimes less.

by Cry_123456

Thanks to the this app app, I was easily able to navigate most of San Francisco while visiting for work on my 5-day trip. The $5 day passes were very affordable for me! I wish the Golden Gate Transit was also as app-friendly since I chose to ride with Uber over them for the places this app didn’t go because it was easier to book.

by Wanshan97

I was worried after I saw so many low ratings about Muni, but after I actually experienced it I found out it is really convenient, especially for people like me who does it drive and just want to walk around the city.

I purchased a 3-day passport, and after I made the payment, the ticket is stored in my account. When I actually rode the bus, I just tap ‘use’ and show the ticket to the driver and that’s it!

But still, many thanks to the comments about other issues about Muni, I felt prepared after I had read a bunch of bad comments lol

by Algalgal

This is a fantastic app because it is very convenient to be able to get on the bus without carrying around a Clipper card or cash.

But this is a mediocre app because it does not launch reliably.

For all these gripes, I use it regularly and would recommend it if you prefer not to carry cash and cards around.