The Official MTA App Reviews: Is It Legit?

The Official MTA App
The Official MTA App
Metropolitan Transportation Authority

Customer Experience

Positive experience18.3% of reviews
Neutral8.7% of reviews
Negative experience73.0% of reviews

~ Based on 663 written reviews from the US App Store.

What users say about The Official MTA App

Is The Official MTA App Safe?

The Official MTA App appears safe based on user ratings. AppsHunter Safety Score for The Official MTA App is 87/100.

This assessment is based on 12,613 user ratings, with an App Store average of 4.4/5.

Safety Analysis

84.2% of ratings point to a safe experience
2.5% of ratings suggest some concerns
13.3% of ratings point to a risky experience

~ Based on 12,609 App Store ratings for The Official MTA App.

Is The Official MTA App Legit?

The Official MTA App appears to be a legitimate app. AppsHunter Legitimacy Score for The Official MTA App is 93/100.

Based on 93 of 100 points across 7 verification signals from App Store and developer data.

Top reviews

Great UI

So much better than the old app

Train times arrivals inaccurate

Train times on app are inaccurate. The times on the station seem to be okay. Not sure how the MTA can’t align it to that. A train can say 2 minutes away on the app, then instantly jump to zero. Not too bad showing delays but the people rather have accurate times so they can plan better. The old times when you would have to check the schedule were more accurate.
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Bad service

Just a bad service all around.

Great app, terrible for battery usage

The design is excellent – a lot better than it was before.

Unfortunately, the app drains the phone battery excessively through always-on location and background refresh, unless you change those settings in iOS. In my case, the app was consuming huge amounts of battery for background refresh _even while I was in Europe_.

Two recommendations:
(1) At least geofence the background updates to the NYC Metro area. No reason to consume battery and data usage in the background while the phone is nowhere near NYC.

(2) Better controls and explanation in the in-app settings for how the app uses energy in the background. We shouldn’t have to rely solely on the built-in iOS controls to be able to tell the app to reduce its battery usage.

If the battery usage situation improves, I would love to update this review to five stars, which is what the app deserves for everything.outside the battery concerns.
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Still no widgets

It's been months and there are still no widgets. What are you doing?

Fraud

MTA chronically underreports delays which is gaslighting when you are waiting 15+ min for a train in the middle of AM rush hour. Underreporting gives a false impression of a working system to help justify 100’s if cops playing candy crush while making overtime and then arresting or shooting people over $3 fare
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Good app

It is good for being in the city but NEED to add the Metro north

Dessy

It works quite a few times but the only thing that irritates me are the delays . One day they’ll say the bus comes in 5 mins and once it passes it never arrives 🤦🏽‍♀️

Unreliable

Unreliable just like the Mta. They have times where buses and trains are supposed to leave and they don’t line up. Wrong trains come, buses don’t arrive, timer just keeps feeding us lies.

works better for trains than buses

Decent app but the b44 line rarely shows up when the app says it will, no idea what's wrong with the b44

Please fix widget

Great app, simple design with the most accurate timing. PLEASE FIX YOUR WIDGETS! As of now, the widget only sorts buses by line, not by next arriving, and only 2 fit on the screen. Please allow sort by arrival time so I don’t have to launch the app. Widgets are very important, please fix.

Question

Can the brain trust behind this app explain what purpose “favorites” has in the “new” version? If I only get nearby stations and every single train at said stations, why is “favorites” still an option other than to mock me?

Fix Location

Since the latest update, the app shows the subway line that is one stop away; not the subway closest to current location.

No Service/Wifi on Trains, Useless

The app needs service or WiFi to use… there’s no service or WiFi on the trains or the stations, when you would most need the app.

dysfunctional

The OMNY cards do not work, I put $20 on an OMNY card, used it twice, and it's at negative one dollar. They scammin!!

No schedule?

This is not good. Why isn’t there a schedule? The mat’s Justine website is far better than this app. What a waste of a download.

Official app is correct 50% of the time

Half the time, the app works fine and is good at tracking buses and subways, the other half it is wildly incorrect, has incredibly out dated information and tracking buses that don’t exist. Support team always takes a minimum of 10 minutes to respond and don’t seem to know any better than users do.

Doesn’t work on cellular

Prior to the major update to this app it worked on cellular only. Since the update it won’t load bus or train information unless connected to wifi making it mostly useless

no bus

it says the bus will be there but it never is ugh

Worse

This app is so dreadful you cannot even rearrange your favorites, not in favorites—duh—or search. Hmm where else could it be? Just a terrible app not befitting of even the MTA.