UberEATS Launches As A Standalone App Offering Restaurant Delivery In 5 Cities

Uber is stepping outside the bounds of its main app for the first time, launching its UberEATS service as a standalone app for restaurant delivery starting in five of the cities where it operates.

UberEATs has been around for about a year and a half, but before, it lived inside the Uber app, and gave customers their choice of meals from a curated and rotating menu from area restaurants in the cities where it was offered. Uber drivers would pick up the food and deliver it while they were out and about driving customers around.

That’s changing today, the company said in a blog post, with the new app available on iOS and Android.

“We learned quickly that requesting a ride and ordering a meal are two very different experiences. They each deserve their own home,” Uber explains.

Now, customers in Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Toronto can order from local restaurants seven days a week using the UberEATS app, with service in Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, Melbourne, New York, Paris, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. “just around the corner,” Uber said.

The restaurants in those areas that have worked with UberEATS in the past will be expanding their delivery distances to reach new customers, Uber says, “pairing great food with the reliable service that people know and expect from Uber.”

In the meantime, UberEATS will still offer three to five meals delivered in as little as 10 minutes, called Instant Delivery, at lunchtime Monday to Friday.

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