Cover, one of the many mobile payment apps in the restaurant space, has announced the rollout of its upgraded version, appropriately titled Cover 2.0.
While the app already helps consumers find restaurants, order food, pay for the bill (and split it), the new version changes the experience to provide a more tech-savvy angle in how Cover works for its consumers. This includes adding a more curated filter for when users are searching for restaurants, along with a map view to show how close the restaurant is. It also has added dedicated restaurant pages so users can quickly access phone numbers and hours of business.
“When we started out with just a few restaurants on the platform, we didn’t focus as much around discovery of restaurants,” Cover's Product Lead Frank Harris told TechCrunch. “But as we’ve scaled out — we have more than 300 restaurants on the platform now, and 200 in New York alone — we realized we need to change the way the app helps people choose a restaurant.”
Cover 2.0 also added beacon technology so that users can find out if any of their friends have checked into the restaurant. Or, when friends that use the Cover app use it at the same table, Cover offers to split the bill for the customers. Beyond that, Cover 2.0 added a few fun features like meal check-ins and the ability to view old receipts.
Having launched in New York in 2013, Cover allows diners to automatically split the bill at participating restaurants, allowing for a hassle-free experience. For users of the free app, there’s no need to wait around for the bill at the end of a meal, and receipts are emailed automatically.
