ETA Transit vs Meanwhile
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
ETA Transit
Get real-time transit arrival predictions, plan your routes, and receive important system alerts. This app offers accurate and easy-to-use information for riders of select transit agencies, helping you stay informed about delays and outages.
- Up-to-the-minute arrival predictions
- Route planning and comparison
- System alerts for outages and delays
- View current and upcoming arrival times
- Internet-enabled device compatibility
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With up-to-the-minute arrival prediction, route planning, and system alerts, ETA Transit app is a must-have mobile app riders of select transit agencies. Simple to use and incredibly accurate, allows riders to select and compare multiple routes, view all current and upcoming arrival times, and receive communications regarding system outages, delays, and other critical information on any internet-enabled iOS smartphone or tablet.
Meanwhile
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Meanwhile turns waiting time into a short walk through the city. You say how long you have and what you feel like. The app looks up real places nearby, puts them in a sensible order and works out the walking legs with real walking times. What you get is a schedule with clock times that brings you back to your starting point on time. HOW IT WORKS 1. Set your time and your interests. A window from 30 minutes to 8 hours, or a fixed end time ("back by 6:40 pm"). Start from your location or pick a point on the map. 2. Put the places together. Suggestions arrive as cards with a photo and one line about the place. Swipe right to add it. Above the deck, the time you have left counts along. 3. Get the plan. The route on the map, a schedule with arrival and departure, walking times, the weather and a stated safety margin. 4. Set off. Tour mode tells you when to move on and when it is time to head back. FEATURES • 14 categories: landmarks, cafés, eating out, parks, museums, shopping, viewpoints, churches, markets, bakeries, bars, cinema, zoo, theme park • Round trip: the plan ends where it started • Realistic time per category. Anything that does not fit your window is not suggested in the first place • Free-text wishes: "sightseeing, a good café and a cinema — but no museum" • Change the plan by typing an instruction, by swiping, or by drag and drop. Times and walking legs are recalculated • Stop details with address, phone, website and rating, handover to the Maps app • Weather forecast for your window. When rain is likely, indoor places move up • "Surprise me": one tap, a two-hour plan from where you are • Calendar export, share the plan as text, history and statistics • Eight languages: English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Indonesian, Turkish PRIVACY • No account, no sign-up — usable the moment you open it • Plans stay on the device. No cloud, no sync • No tracking, no ads, no analytics • Your location is used to find places nearby and is not stored • The AI only receives your wishes, the city name and place names — never your exact position WHAT THE APP DOES NOT DO • No bus or train connections — everything is calculated on foot • No bookings, tickets or reservations • No guarantee on opening hours. Check the stops that matter to you • Not a multi-day trip planner — one continuous window, on purpose • An internet connection is needed to look up places Free, no account, no ads. Places and walking routes via Apple Maps. Weather by Open-Meteo (CC BY 4.0). Ratings and photos shown with attribution. Text written by the AI is labelled as such inside the app.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Meanwhile at weekly against ETA Transit's every 6 weeks. ETA Transit's advantage is device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (15.1 vs 17.0). On price, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
ETA Transit ships an update every 6 weeks, Meanwhile weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 29, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | ETA Transit | Meanwhile |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.4 (9 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 33.3% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 9 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 6 weeks | Weekly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 15.1 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 33 MB | 3 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | ETA Transit Systems Inc | Christoph Hesse |
In-app purchases
ETA Transit
No in-app purchases
Meanwhile
No in-app purchases









