Chapter 20: Trip Planner

It is a preview of a road trip. You choose where you start and where you want to go, and KuhuChat builds a short animated drive along the road. A vehicle marker moves along the route on a map while photos of the places you would pass appear one after another: well-known sights and hotels. At the end you get a summary you can save, and a video you can share.

No. It does not give turn-by-turn directions and does not track you while you travel. It is for planning and sharing: seeing what lies on the way, finding a place to stay and showing the trip to family and friends.

• Tap the round Trip button on the Contacts tab or the Samaj tab. It hides while a chat is open.
• On Android you can also add a KuhuTrip icon to your phone's home screen (see Chapter 2, item 2.10).

Book hotel and Start trip. Book hotel is for searching and booking a hotel directly (see Chapter 21). Start trip is the trip preview described in this chapter. Switching tabs does not lose what you have already filled in.

KuhuChat does not charge for planning, watching or saving a trip. Booking a hotel is a separate step and is covered in Chapter 21.

Yes, to build a trip, and to see the maps and photos. A trip you have saved can be opened without building it again, but its photos and the map still load from the internet.

The route is always a driving route. The bus vehicles you can pick are only a different picture for the marker (see 20.3).

The distance and time in the header come from the road route and are an estimate. Real travel time depends on traffic, stops and weather. The animation itself is much shorter than the real journey (see 20.5).

1. Open the Trip Planner and stay on the Start trip tab.
2. Tap the From box, then place a pin on the map (see below).
3. Tap the To box and place a second pin.
4. Tap Start trip.

Both boxes say "Tap to select village or city" until you fill them.

A sheet opens with a map and the note "Tap anywhere on the map to drop a pin, or use your current location." Tap the map, and a pin appears. You can drag the pin to adjust it. The name of the place is looked up and shown at the bottom ("Looking up name…" first). Tap Use this pinned location to confirm.

Yes. Tap the round my-location button at the bottom right of the map sheet. The app asks for location permission the first time. It then drops a pin on your position and zooms in.

You will see one of these messages. Follow it, or simply tap the map instead.

• "Turn on device location to use this, or tap the map instead." Switch on location on your phone.
• "Location permission denied. Enable it in app settings, or tap the map instead." If you denied it permanently, tap Open settings in the message.
• "Could not get your current location. Try again, or tap the map instead." Move to a place with a better signal and try again.

The nearest village, town or city that the map finds. If no name can be found, the place is called "Custom location". The pin is still exact and the trip still works. A trip saved with that name gets its real name filled in automatically later, when you are online.

Yes. When you choose the second place, the first one is shown on the map sheet as a green marker labelled "Already selected" so you can place the second pin relative to it.

A green marker for the start and a red marker for the destination. The line between them is a straight preview line only. It is not the road. The real road route appears once the trip starts.

You can pin any point on the map. The preview works best between places that are connected by road.

You must choose both From and To first.

There is no swap button. Tap each box and choose again. During the preview you can also play the trip in reverse (see 20.5).

It is the small picture of a vehicle that moves along the route on the map. It is only a picture for fun and for your video. It does not change the route, the places shown or the timing.

1. On the Start trip tab, tap the Vehicle marker box. Or, while a trip is playing, tap the vehicle button in the controls.
2. In the sheet "Choose your ride", tap a vehicle.

The sheet closes and the marker changes straight away.

Cars: Sedan and Racer. Buses: City Bus, Coach, Luxury Coach and School Bus. The Sedan is the default.

Only while the app stays open. After you close the app, the marker goes back to the Sedan, so choose again if you like.

Yes. The video shows the vehicle you had selected when it was made.

Not at the moment. The trip is built with standard settings, so there is nothing to set apart from the vehicle picture.

• The road route from your start to your destination, drawn on the map.
• Up to 12 places worth a stop along the way, such as heritage sites and tourist places.
• Up to 8 hotels along the way, with a price range badge.
• Photos for every stop: up to 5 for a place and up to 10 for a hotel.
• A short line about each stop, and often an interesting fact.

In the order you would pass them on the road, from your start to your destination.

KuhuChat looks for well-known places near the route using map data and suggestions. Every stop has a real photo. A place without a usable photo is left out.

Short routes and quiet routes have fewer places. Hotels appear only where hotels are available along the way. If the trip finds nothing at all, it still plays with a start card and an arrival card.

Not at the moment. Trips show places to visit and hotels.

The places and photos for a route are reused for a while, so the same route shows similar stops. This also makes the trip build faster.

Usually a short wait while "Start trip" shows a spinner. A long route can take longer. Keep the app open.

• "Could not start the trip. Try again." Check your internet and tap Start trip again.
• "No content found for this route yet." The route has nothing to show right now. Try a nearby start or destination.

The trip still plays, but with a straight line between the two places, and the header shows no distance or travel time. Try again later, or choose slightly different places.

A "Preparing trip…" screen appears first. It warms up the map ("Warming up map…") and loads the photos ("Loading photos…") with a percentage, so the trip plays smoothly. The photo loading waits at most about 20 seconds. After that the trip starts anyway, and a photo that is not ready yet shows a small spinner until it arrives.

The map shows the route with your vehicle moving along it, and the photo of the current stop is shown together with it. When the vehicle reaches a stop, its photo and name appear. The map and photos always stay in step with each other.

The trip is built as a 10-minute preview. At normal speed (1x) it plays in about two and a half minutes. Slower speeds take longer and faster speeds are shorter.

• Rewind: plays the trip backwards. Tap again to go forward.
• Play or Pause.
• View: switches the map between Map, 3D and Satellite views. Each tap moves to the next one.
• Fullscreen image: opens the current photo full screen.
• Vehicle: change the vehicle marker.
• Speed: 0.25x, 0.5x, 0.75x, 1x, 1.25x, 1.5x, 2x, 2.5x or 3x.

Above these, the header shows your start and destination names, and the route distance and travel time.

It is the trip's progress bar. It is split into one segment per stop. Green segments are places to visit and light blue segments are hotels. A glowing dot shows where you are. Tap or drag anywhere on the bar to jump to that part of the trip.

While the trip plays, the top controls hide after about a second so the drive is not covered. Tap the photo or the map to bring them back. When the trip is paused, they stay visible.

• Tap the photo: pauses or resumes the trip and shows the controls.
• Double-tap the photo: opens it full screen.
• Tap the map: shows the controls.
• Double-tap the map: opens the map full screen.
• Tap a place marker on the map: opens a card with its name, its description and its coordinates.

Green markers are places to visit and blue markers are hotels. The vehicle marker turns to face the direction of the road.

Yes. Drag the progress bar back, or tap Rewind to play backwards.

Only the place name is shown at first, so the photo stays clear. Tap the name area to open more: a short description, and often an interesting fact about the place. Tap again to close it.

The photo shows the kind of place or the area, but the exact spot on the map is not known. The photo is a good guide, not an exact view.

It shows the hotel's price band per night: Under ₹1,500, ₹1,500–4,000, ₹4,000–9,000 or ₹9,000+. A "~" in front means the price is only a guide.

The trip preview is built without your travel dates, so the price band is based on a typical night. For the real price on your dates, choose the hotel and continue to booking (see Chapter 21).

Double-tap the photo or tap the Fullscreen image button. Then:

• Swipe left or right to move through the photos of that place.
• Tap the left or right edge to go to the previous or next photo. At the last photo of a place, the tap moves on to the next place.
• Pinch to zoom in, up to 4 times.
• Tap the rotate button to turn the picture sideways, and tap it again to reset.
• Tap the play or pause button to control the trip from here.
• Tap the info button to see the details of the place.
• Tap the close button at the top left to return to the trip.

The top bar shows your route (start to destination), the place name and the photo count, for example 2/5.

The description, the rating when there is one, an interesting fact and the amenities of a hotel, such as the facilities it offers.

Yes, from the trip summary. Tap a place in the list and it opens in your browser or in the Maps app (see 20.8).

Your place in the trip is remembered on your phone. Go back to the Start trip tab and tap Resume trip. The trip opens again at the stop you were on.

48 hours. After that it is removed. Only your most recent unfinished trip is kept, so starting a new trip and leaving it early replaces the earlier one.

There is no unfinished trip on this phone. Either you finished the last trip, or 48 hours have passed, or you have not left a trip early. Start a new trip instead.

No. When a trip finishes, there is nothing left to resume. Save it from the summary screen if you want to keep it (see 20.8).

No. It is kept on the phone where you were watching.

No. The video is made only when you watch the whole trip. If you leave early, the part recorded so far is discarded (see 20.10).

A "Finishing video…" message with a percentage appears for a moment while the video is put together. Then the Trip summary opens with "Trip complete!"

• Your start and destination, with the distance and travel time.
• The trip video, if one was made. Tap it to play or pause. It starts paused.
• Small tags counting the stops, such as "9 × Heritage/tourist" and "6 × Hotel".
• A list of every stop with its photo, name and description.
• Save trip and Done buttons.

• For a place: it opens its page on Google Maps in your browser or Maps app. If the link cannot be opened you see "Could not open link".
• For a hotel, marked Book: it opens the hotel search around that hotel so you can check rooms and book (Chapter 21).

Tap Save trip. You see "Trip saved" and the button changes to Saved. If saving fails you see "Could not save trip — try again". Tap again.

The trip is not kept. Tap Done and it is gone. Save it first if you want to see it again.

1. When you save an eleventh, a box titled "Saved trips full" says that saving it will delete your oldest saved trip. Tap Continue to go ahead, or Cancel to keep things as they are.

It takes you back to the Start trip tab. From a saved trip, it simply goes back to your list.

Open the Trip Planner, stay on the Start trip tab and tap Saved trips. If there are none you see "No saved trips yet."

Each trip shows "Start → Destination" and the date it was saved, with the newest first. An older trip that cannot be fully shown says "summary only" after the date.

• Tap it to open its summary: the video, the stops and the hotels.
• Tap the film icon to share its video (see 20.10).
• Tap the bin icon to delete it.

The saved trip opens as the summary. The video on that screen is the way to watch the trip again. If you want the animated drive, start the same trip again from the Start trip tab.

No. The bin icon deletes the trip straight away, along with its video. This cannot be undone.

Yes, the trips themselves. They are kept with your account as well as on your phone. After you log in on a new phone and open Saved trips, they appear again. This needs an internet connection and may take a moment.

The video. A trip's video is kept only on the phone where it was made. On a new phone you can make it again with the film icon (see 20.10).

Saved trips keep the links to the photos, not the pictures themselves. Photos and maps load from the internet when you open a trip.

Watch your trip to the end. The video is recorded automatically on your phone while the trip plays. You do not press anything. At the end, the summary shows it. Save the trip to keep it.

The map with the vehicle moving along the route, and the photo and name of each place as you reach it. The video is a standard MP4 file, 720 pixels wide, so it plays on any phone and in any chat app. It has a silent sound track.

A video is made only when you watch a new trip all the way to the end. It is not made if you leave early, or if you open a trip from Saved trips. If the map could not load during the trip, nothing could be recorded either. You can still make one from Saved trips.

1. Open Trip Planner, then Saved trips.
2. Tap the film icon (Share MP4) on the trip.
3. Choose where to send it in the share sheet, such as WhatsApp.

The trip must be saved first. The film icon appears only on trips that have a route saved.

This trip has no video on this phone, so KuhuChat is making one now. You will see these steps: Loading vehicle icon…, Loading places…, Loading photos…, Preparing map…, Recording video… and Sharing…. Keep the app open and wait. It can take a few minutes. When it is ready, the share sheet opens and the screen closes by itself.

The video could not be made, often because of a weak connection or because the map did not load. Check your internet and try again.

The video file is no longer on your phone. Use the film icon on the saved trip to make it again.

Yes. Pick the vehicle before you start the trip, or before you tap Share MP4 for a video that has to be made again.

For 10 or more guests, rooms are arranged by the KuhuChat team together with the hotel instead of through the normal booking. You send your plan, and the team contacts you with options and prices. No payment is taken in the app for a group request.

On the Book hotel tab, in the guests section of the hotel search, tap "More than 9 guests? Send a group request". The place and dates you already entered carry over to the form.

• Where do you want to stay? A town, city or hotel name.
• Check-in and check-out dates. Tap the dates and choose them on the calendar. The form starts with a date 14 days from today and one night.
• Number of guests: from 10 to 500.
• Rooms needed (optional).
• Your contact details: Name, Phone, and Email (optional).
• Anything else? (optional): for example the kind of group, or a budget.

Your name, phone and email are filled in from your account when KuhuChat has them. Check them and correct them if needed.

• "Group requests are for 10 or more guests." Use the normal hotel search for smaller groups.
• "Please call us for groups above 500." Contact KuhuChat support from the Contact page on kuhuchat.com.
• "Enter a valid phone number." Use at least 8 digits.
• "Enter a valid email." Check the spelling or leave the email empty.
• "Enter a number" or "Enter a valid number." Fix the guests or rooms box.

You see "Request sent. We will contact you on [your phone number] with options and prices for your group." Tap Done. The team uses the phone number you gave, so make sure it is the right one.

Up to 3 requests in 24 hours. After that you see "You have already sent several requests today. We will contact you soon." Wait for the team to reach you.

There is no edit or cancel button. If something changes, send a new request with the correct details or tell the team when they contact you.

Check your internet connection, then close the screen and open it again. Maps need data to load.

Long routes take longer to build. Wait a little, and if nothing happens, check your connection and tap Start trip again.

The map is being warmed up and the photos are loading. The photo step stops waiting after about 20 seconds, so the trip should start soon. On a very slow connection, move to better signal and start again.

That photo has not finished loading. The trip keeps moving and the photo appears when it arrives.

The trip runs on one clock. Tap the photo to pause it, or choose a slower speed such as 0.5x.

No hotels were available along that route when the trip was built. Use the Book hotel tab to search for a hotel directly (Chapter 21).

The road route could not be found, so the trip shows a straight line. Try again later.

The place had no name when you pinned it. The real name is filled in automatically the next time you open Saved trips while online.

Use the Contact page on kuhuchat.com.