It's hard to live in the US and not use the Post Office from time to time. So having an app that helps you find the closest post office, know what hours it's open and track your shipments is welcomed. Now to be honest, I already have a GREAT package tracking app called Delivery Status that tracks packages from all major carriers including the US Postal Services. However, it doesn't offer any of the other things that I just mentioned about the USPS Mobile App. So it's great to have both.
USPS Mobile Gets It Right
This app has a great interface that lets you get to what you want quickly. Need to look up the zip code for an address no problem. Just tap the Zip Codes button at the bottom of the display and either look up by the address you want to send to or see Zip codes for a particular city or if you want to see what cities are in a Zip code, just key in the Zip code. If you need to find your closest post office (great while traveling), just tap Locations and then Post Office Locations and USPS Mobile will give you your closest one based on your current location or the map.
Locations and hours
This is probably the feature I'll use the most. Although I pretty much go to the same post offices regularly, I don't always remember their hours. So having this info at a glance is cool.
Tracking
When it comes to the USPS, tracking is more like "Delivery Confirmation" than actual tracking. Unlike UPS or Fedex, USPS doesn't really show you exactly where your shipment is. It just shows at best the last point that it was checked in at. In many cases I have no idea where or when my shipment will arrive, I just know that they have it and then I know when it was delivered. With that said, the tracking option is still nice to have within the app and you can have it track multiple shipments and give them nick names so that you know what they actually are rather than just using the long tracking number.
The Bottom Line
This app does what it says it does. It works great and it's FREE. Although I wish the tracking was better, that's not the fault of the app, but more about how USPS handles tracking. All in all definitely worth the download.
USPS Mobile
USPS Mobile is an app that shows your nearest post office, hours, and tracks shipments.
- USPS Mobile
- United States Postal Service
- Get on App Store
- Free
All info was collected on 3rd February, 2010 when the app was reviewed.
About Terry White
Terry is the co-author of The Best Selling "The iPhone Book" 1st, 2nd and 3rd editions. He has been active in the industry for over 25 years and is the founder and president of MacGroup-Detroit, Inc., Michigan's largest Macintosh Users Group, host of the Adobe Creative Suite Podcast and a technology writer - Terry White Tech Blog.
Great app! I will download this one since my husband is a mail carrier and it will be very hand too! Thanks Terry! Love all your suggestions!
Thanks Julie!