Mobility app · Tenerife
ZyraBus: catch the bus, no surprises.
A free app to check bus and tram timetables in Tenerife, plan combined journeys and get alerts telling you when to leave home and when to get off. It is our own product: we designed, built and published it ourselves.
- Type
- Installable web app (PWA) for phones
- Status
- Public beta, free and ad-free
- Our role
- Idea, design, development, data and launch
- Published as
- Zyra Studios, ZYRA's label for its own apps
- Data
- Open timetable data from the Cabildo de Tenerife (datos.tenerife.es)
- Website
- digitalzyra.es (in Spanish)
The problem
People who get around Tenerife by bus do not need a timetable: they need to know what time to leave home so they do not miss it, and someone to warn them before their stop. The tools we were using gave us the data but left the maths to us, usually with a phone in one hand and a bag in the other.
We wanted something anyone could understand at first glance, that worked without signal and did not ask for an account or personal data.
What we built
- Leave on time. It works out the walking time to the stop and tells you how many minutes you have before leaving.
- Alerts with the app closed and a countdown on the lock screen.
- Relax and get off. An alert two stops before yours.
- Combined routes by bus and tram, including transfers.
- Offline assistant that answers questions like “which bus do I take to Puerto?”.
- My passes: expiry date and reminder, stored only on the phone.
- 3D map with terrain to locate stops.
Technical decisions
Installable without a store
It is a progressive web app: you install it from the browser with a link or a QR code, without Google Play or the App Store. That let us ship and fix things quickly during the beta.
Offline first
Timetables and the planner are stored on the device, so they keep working in a tunnel or an area without signal. Only the map needs internet.
Privacy by design
No accounts, no tracking cookies and no ads. Location is used on the phone itself to work out the distance to the stop, and pass details never leave the device.
Open data
Timetables come from the Cabildo de Tenerife open data portal under a CC BY licence and are credited inside the app. ZyraBus is listed in that portal's apps section.
Limits, stated clearly
ZyraBus is not an official app of any transport operator. The times it shows are scheduled times, not the live position of each vehicle, and the app does not sell tickets or top up cards. We say so inside the app and on its website, because a transport tool that promises more than it knows is worse than none.
What we now apply to client work
- Design around the user's real question (“when do I leave?”), not around the data we happen to have.
- Adding a web app to the home screen is easy on Android, but on iPhone it needs step-by-step guidance: a clear install page saves a lot of confusion.
- Working offline changes the experience in places with poor signal, and it is not expensive if planned from the start.
- Open data comes with a licence and an attribution duty: we make it visible, not hidden.
Current status
ZyraBus is in public beta and we ask the people who use it to send us bugs and feedback. Next steps are publishing it in the app stores and bringing it to the other Canary Islands.