Google launches food delivery & home services app- 'Areo' for Indian market

Without much hullabaloo, Google has launched a new food delivery and home services aggregator called Areo for the Indian market. The Android application for hyperlocal delivery and home services provides users with one-touch access to restaurants, beauty salons, and other home maintenance or cleaning services.

The app that was first spotted by The Android Soul,  is available as a free download on the Google Play store and is currently operational in Bangalore and Mumbai.

For the food delivery service, Google presently has three startups on board to allow Indian masses to order food — Freshmenu, Scootsy, and HolaChef. Any of these will be available to serve you based on your location. As for the beauty, personal care, fitness, and home maintenance services, Google has got on board Urban Clap to lend a helping hand.

One can either search for any specific dish or choose any specific partner to browse through dishes and schedule deliveries by paying online or use cash on delivery. Notably, Google has partnered with TimesofMoney's DirecPay for online payments on Areo rather than using its own payment solution.

The USP of the app is that its fast and the experience is a lot simpler than having to go through multiple apps in one's smartphone.  Well, this could also be some bad news for other local delivery startups who have some new competition from tech titan itself.

Google has launched a couple of India-centric app in recent weeks. First, it debuted beta version of YouTube Go app in India and then of course the music streaming subscription packs on Google Play Music for as low as Rs 89/month.