Introducing: Queue Alert
While in a queue (or line) have you asked yourself any of the following questions: Will I make it through security in time? Will I get my movie tickets before the show starts? How long until I can place my order? What is that smell? If so, this app may be for you. We find ourselves in queues (or lines) far more often than we'd like and, as a rule, they move more slowly than we'd hope. In fact, the phrase "this line is moving so fast" isn't found in any major language or travel guide, at least that I'm aware of.
Have you found yourself, like me, counting the number of people in front of you? Trying to judge the speed of the cashier? Trying to juggle these figures in your head while being bumped and prodded to keep your place? Fret not. Queue Alert can help, doing the math for you and giving you live estimates that you can use. You can think of it as a queue (line) wait estimation tool, but it can do more than that.
Have you found yourself, like me, counting the number of people in front of you? Trying to judge the speed of the cashier? Trying to juggle these figures in your head while being bumped and prodded to keep your place? Fret not. Queue Alert can help, doing the math for you and giving you live estimates that you can use. You can think of it as a queue (line) wait estimation tool, but it can do more than that.
As you are waiting in or watching a line, simply observe when queued items (e.g., people) are released from the queue. When you see that happen, add a "sample" by pressing the big yellow button.
Once you have 2 samples, Queue Alert can calculate a rate and allow you to make live estimates. Accidentally add a sample you didn't mean to? Just shake your device (carefully) to pull up the "remove last sample" popup. You can keep doing this to remove additional samples, but if you want to remove all of them, it might be easier to hit the "reset" button on the settings tab. |
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You can keep entering samples as you wait (or watch) the queue. But, once you have a rate, you can really start to use the app.
The most common use may be to get an estimate of how soon you'll be through the queue. To do that, just enter the number of people queued in front of you. To do that, use the "flipper numbers" in the top row of the "Predict" tab. Tapping the top of a number counts up, while tapping the bottom counts down. For example, in this screenshot, I have 27 people ahead of me, so I've entered "27" as the "number in queue". As you enter this number, Queue Alert will update the expected wait time (11.9 minutes) and completion time (4:37 PM). |
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But Queue Alert can do two more estimations! It is possible that you might want to know how many items will have moved through the queue in a certain time. In this screenshot, I entered "15 minutes" after selecting the radio button to the left of the middle row on the "Predict" tab. The results are displayed as I enter this wait time: 56 people should move through the queue by 4:46 PM.
If you want to enter a longer wait duration, tap the "flipper" that says "minutes to switch to hours, days, weeks, or even longer. |
The last estimation (which is tied to the second) is helpful when you have a specific time (or date and time) in mind in which you want to know how many people will move through this queue.
In this case, I need to be through this line by 5:15 PM if I'm going to catch my plane (or train, etc.). So, I've switch the editing mode to the third row of the "predict" tab and entered that time. The resulting estimate is that 86 people will get through this line in the next 42.7 minutes. If I'm less than #86, then I should be okay. Finally, if you leave the time selected to edit (i.e., 5:15 PM in the screenshot), the values for number in queue and minutes will begin to count down as time passes according to the current rate. |
Finally, once you are reasonably confident in the estimates, you can easily alert friend, family, or colleagues with up-to-date information how soon you'll be through the queue. Or, set an alarm to remind yourself!
Share the news by tapping the new "share" button and selecting an option, including iMessage, e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, and any other social media platform that supports iOS activities*. Your status update may now also include (optionally) a photo. You can take it with your device's camera or select a photo from your device's library. Support for photos and iOS activities added in 1.0.3. * Note that social media posts rely on the appropriate app (e.g., Facebook) being installed and configured correctly on your device. |
The settings tab allows you to reset the sample data (i.e., delete the samples you've collected to start over). This will also reset the values displayed on the "predict" tab to their starting (default) values, but will leave an alert notification running (if you've set one).
In addition, you can mute or "unmute" the sound effects that play when you add a new sample or swipe one of the toggle widgets (on the "predict" tab. Finally, a checkbox (or "check circle") allows you to have Queue Alert automatically subtract an item from the queue when you take a sample (i.e., when you observe a queued item being released). This may be helpful to keep the number of queued items accurate as you continue to add samples. |
