Parcels App Review

The Good:

Straightforward tracking of parcels / shipments
Easy to use
Free

The Bad:

Maps still need some work?

Market Stuff:
RATING: 4.7 Stars
UPDATED: June 16 2011
CURRENT VERSION: 1.3.8
REQUIRES ANDROID: 1.6 and up
CATEGORY: Productivity
INSTALLS: 100,000 – 500,000
SIZE: 480k
PRICE: Free
CONTENT RATING: Everyone

The Review: As someone who does the bulk of their shopping online, i like to know when things are going to be delivered. when you have a couple of things on the way, (or being posted out for that matter) it can get quite annoying checking all the separate tracking numbers to find out what’s where etc.

Imagine an app that tracks all your deliveries in one place? Well here it is! Parcels, by Timo Behrmann.

It can be found on the market, and best yet, its free. Although if you use it a lot or appreciate the work there is a donate version too.

Upon installing you are greeted with the first screen below, Just hit the + button, and start entering some data. It will then ask you which service the tracking number refers to. the list is quite long, and more are being added all the time. its also possible in the settings, to turn off the ones you are never likely to use. Also along the bottom you have a refresh button, Settings and App Info button.

Next, it will ask for a reference name for the parcel. In this case it was my MT4GS, and then asks to add the tracking number. Usefully, it has a camera icon next to the box, and hitting this will bring up the option to launch the barcode scanner app or Google goggles.(if you have these installed). The item will then display as a coloured bar in the main screen. Subsequent items will list below with different colours.

Clicking the bar will bring up detailed information of where the parcel is at. At the bottom is a little picture of a map, pressing this will bring up a map of the current position of the item in Google maps. and by clicking on the various lines in the list, shows the different location the item has been.

Clicking on icons on the map will show detailed info for that particular location as seen below.

Now the maps bit doesn’t always work as well as planned, this is probably due to lack of information from the postal service you are using. For instance, my item arrived in Coventry, but the map showed it in Scotland. But i could at least see how it was progressing.

There is also a handy option in the settings to auto refresh and give notifications of any changes to your parcels status.