HYPERDIA by VOICE Reviews

Used this for 2 weeks during a recent trip to Japan. It was so amazingly helpful! I loved the ability to specify transportation types and companies and to sort by price/time/transfers. The only difficult part is if you don’t know the name of the station you are going to or from, it can take some guesswork.

It’s an ok, but not great app for train travel in Japan. Some of HYPERDIA ’s suggested routings can add hours to a trip (one JR rep kept asking why I was willing to add two extra hours to a trip to Aomori-Shi by following HYPERDIA ’s recommended itinerary).

Biggest problem came at the end of the free use period. I tried to purchase an extra month using the in-app purchase mechanism. This failed, so now when I try to use HYPERDIA , I get an endlessly spinning wheel that says connecting, but it never connected. Still got charged the $2.99 of course.

It’s a failure.

HYPERDIA was great up until a couple weeks ago. All of the train times now list minutes for some reason. Matching up the train times made travel for me (non Japanese speaker/reader) so much easier. Please fix this the minutes don’t help anything!

Edit: just noticed another issue. They removed what platforms you arrive and depart from. This is a useful piece of information for long trips. Please fix this!

We were in Japan for 8 days, went to Tokyo, Kyoto and Hiroshima and HYPERDIA was a lifesaver! Works well especially since we have a JR Pass, filters out what bullet trains we can take.

This was a great app until a few days ago. It showed the times of departures for the trains which was extremely useful. I used HYPERDIA all the time. Not it just displays minutes that don’t even seem to connect to the train schedules. I don’t know why thy would make this change. Now I have to look for a new app to use.

It does what I was looking for but paying a monthly or even yearly free is crazy when you can use the website for free. I don’t mind paying a one time fee but anything other than that is wasteful. Save your money and use their website.
Also the user interface needs to be worked on

This is such an old app, but it’s a must have for JR lines especially since neither Google nor Apple Maps are good at routing on JR routes. This is also helpful for rapid (bullet) trains.

Used to be a 5 star review but now 1 as HYPERDIA doesn’t work on either my phone or my wife’s phone after we updated and bought another month of use. It just sits frozen on opening screen even after closing and restarting app making it useless.

I must've done something wrong on the purchase as I'm unable to contact customer support in English. Everytime I want to switch to English or asks if I want to purchase a coupon. I can't cancel the purchase because the email pops up in Japanese.

Why is it 3.99 a month (that starts on the first so if you buy it on the 15th, you only get 1/2 a month!!) Also the interface is old and clunky. I just found JAPAN TRAVEL and it is excellent and has travel articles. I recommend you use that instead.

I traveled in Japan in Tokyo , Sendai , Kyoto and Osaka , I used this apps to catch all the train , they were very accurate .

HYPERDIA stopped showing departure times. It’s now useless if you don’t want to guess what time your train will arrive. Unless this is fixed HYPERDIA is garbage.

HYPERDIA itself is amazingly convenient for on the go searching and had saved me a couple times as well. While its a nice tool it's unfortunate that the same information is available for free through their website. I think the $20 something dollar purchase is a little steep but it ends up worth it.

The biggest grip I have is that it automatically stops my music when I start it, that in of itself drives me insane. There's no sense in having that happen!

Overall, a great great great utility but I believe that they need to lower the price a little, get rid of the auto stop music and allow searching for stations with or without a "-" in the station name.

And you’ll have plans of happy paying app users. But the subscription model you have currently is unjustifiable.

Yes why pay if you can use it free from their website. Save your money and use the website. It’s not worth paying for it

No reason for this to be a subscription-based app. Save your money and use Navitime or Google.

I have an iPhone 3Gs

I've been waiting for a this app app for my phone. The site is great, but an app would make it even better. There are a couple issues though. When I put in my time I am having trouble getting it to switch from the average setting to the arrival setting and the application crashes. I tend to use the arrival setting more than the departure setting so this is a problem for me. Once you have entered the time you cannot change it, trying to reenter the time setting immediately crashes the program.

And despite my best efforts to get the voice input to work, it won't get the stations

I am also concerned with the payment system. I don't mind paying for HYPERDIA but HYPERDIA is subscription based after the first 30 days. I like this app but I've lived with the free website for now, I'm not sure I would want to pay a monthly/yearly fee to use HYPERDIA . After all, I can jsut go to the website itself on my phone.

Finally, if you continue to develop HYPERDIA I have a recommendation. Enable a setting for us to input our home station and some other favorites, possibly even our favorite routes. 90% of the time I am leaving from the same station so rather than searching for it every time it would be great to get it off a menu. Not to mention I often find myself going to the same places.

I just don't think HYPERDIA is ready for prime time.

I have been using HYPERDIA for 25 days and it has been a life saver (kinda). I got stuck in Tokyo because my flight was delayed over night; but I didn't want to wait to get back to my family down south, so I took the train system. HYPERDIA worked like a champ. I thought I would miss a leg, or be confused, but I was able to make it from transfer stop to transfer start with no trouble.
I don't use the voice feature, so I can't comment on it.
The one thing I wish would be changed is for it to use the iPhone's map, when mapping a station.
I love HYPERDIA and will be buying the year plan.

I am currently traveling in Japan. I tried to use Google maps and Apple maps at first but both maps didn't provide enough detailed alternatives for train rides. I have been using this train app to look at all the different trains going from Osaka to Kyoto and vice versa. I get to see and choose from super express Thunderbirds, wide view Hida, Shinkansen, or new express train. For JR pass holders, it is a no brainier to ride a more comfortable and quicker train. This invaluable train app has made my train ride decision so much easier as a foreigner in Japan. 100% recommended.

this app, in general, is helpful. Although i would say is certainly NOT the best. I've seen better ones. There are times when its best suggestions are less convenient than the real thing.

As for the "app" in particular, buying a coupon after the free period (1st 30 days) seems ridiculous. I understand it's not really pricey but Why?? When it can be accessed for free via internet. I just find it strange.

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