“First time an app works on iPhone”: Chilean driver order assistant DecideRider, and the iOS gap it grabbed before it slipped away

A developer in Chile built an order assistant for Uber and DiDi drivers. When a new order pops up, a card floats over it showing what the trip really earns after commission and fuel, and whether to accept or reject. Tools like this already existed on Android and sold well. It used iPhone's system screen recorder to ship an iOS version first, and it stayed on the Finance Top Grossing chart in Chile's App Store. But its scale is very small, and the first-mover edge only lasted seven weeks. This piece covers where the demand is, how it found its gap, and whether that gap can be exploited again somewhere else.

A tutorial with 60k views

In 2026 July 25, the TikTok account @decideriderlabs posted a video: “Activa correctamente DecideRider en iPhone” (how to properly activate DecideRider on iPhone), walking through the setup step by step. By 11-06 it had 62,356 views, while the account's other videos sat between 1,300 and 7,000 (TikTok, 11-06).

The same day, a 4-star review appeared on the Chile App Store:

“Primera vez que funciona una app en iOS, se agradece.” (First time an app actually works on iOS, thank you.)

A week later another 5-star review: “Era el momento de que llegara a iOS” (It was about time it came to iOS).

Those two lines sum up the story: iPhone users among Latin American rideshare drivers had no working tool like this.

What it is

DecideRider, listed on the App Store under developer Freddy Palencia, is called DECIDE LABS on Android, and that developer has only this one app. The Android version launched around July 2026, and the iOS version came out in 07-14.

Drivers first set their own floor, such as the minimum pesos per km and the farthest pickup distance they'll accept. When a new order appears, DecideRider reads the fare, distance and time on screen, subtracts the platform commission and fuel, and floats a card: “Excelente / Aceptar / Considerar / Rechazar” (Excellent / Accept / Consider / Reject). It can also read this aloud so drivers don't have to look down. The official site sums up the pitch in one line: “El número que Uber no te muestra” (the number Uber doesn't show you).

On Android it reads the screen through accessibility services. On iOS an app isn't allowed to read another app's screen, so it has the driver manually start the system screen recorder. A recording indicator stays on at the top of the screen, and it recognizes the numbers from the recorded frames (official site FAQ).

Where the money comes from

Installing it gives 14 days of full-feature trial with no card required. When the trial ends, the most important figure gets locked first. The official site says that without a subscription the net earnings “aparece bloqueado” (show up as locked), and the accept/reject badges lose their red and green colors. Prices are set in Chilean pesos:

(official site, 11-06)

Do users find it expensive? Not really. A good Android review on the official site says “muy buen precio... espero que no cambien el precio” (very good price, hope they don't change it). The real complaint is on the App Store: “fue lindo mientras duró” (the trial was lovely while it lasted).

Revenue isn't public. What's visible: iOS has only 8 ratings (all from Chile, averaging 4.1), and the count hasn't moved from 10-28 to 11-06. Yet it has sat on Chile's Finance Top Grossing chart every day for the past ten days, ranking #14 to #44 (peaking at #11-01 on 14). In Argentina it ranked #41–#101, and in Mexico #64–#199 (App Store charts, 10-28 to 11-06). On Google Play it has “5K+ downloads”.

Don't let the chart rank fool you. Around 11-05 Chile Finance Top Grossing #10–#30 sit budgeting apps like Wallet, Spendee and Settle Up. That chart has a low bar, and a few dozen paying subscribers are probably enough to hold spots 20 to 30 (inference, exact numbers not verified). It's a small product that might bring in a few hundred dollars a month, not a breakout.

Where users come from

• Official TikTok account: 2,739 followers, 9 videos. The two most-played are both about “how to grant permissions”: the iPhone one at 62k and the Xiaomi one at 6,252. The tutorial videos double as customer support, and the comments are full of usage problems: “A mí no me lee en iOS” (it doesn't read on my iOS), “Lo hice con DiDi y no me funciona” (I did it with DiDi and it doesn't work), “bloquea la pantalla de vehículo CarPlay” (it blocks the CarPlay vehicle screen).
• Driver Facebook groups: 10-30 The “CONDUCTORES Uber y Didi” group in the Dominican Republic has a post calling it “es una de las más precisas” (one of the most accurate). Another opens with “¡ATENCIÓN CONDUCTORES! Dejá de adivinar…” (ATTENTION DRIVERS! Stop guessing…), which reads like a sponsored post. People in these groups often ask “what app do I use on iPhone to calculate my earnings?”
• Brought over by early Android users: an official-site review says “estamos desde el inicio” (we've been here since the start).
• About 203 followers on Instagram. No evidence of paid ads found, and no media coverage. Nobody on X has mentioned it.

The demand is real, but the category already has players

Latin American drivers have already paid for the idea of “checking whether an order is worth it before accepting”:

(Google Play / App Store data, 11-06)

Uber and DiDi won't build this themselves. The platforms only show the fare, and teaching drivers to reject orders doesn't serve their interests. So this demand has been left to third parties.

The only real difference between DecideRider and everyone else is it got to iPhone in Spanish-speaking Latin America roughly seven weeks ahead. The features (net earnings, per km, fuel, voice) are shared by all. Once Ruta Rentable's iPhone version launched in Sep 1, that edge disappeared. It's already in the twenties on the Business Top Grossing charts in Argentina and Costa Rica, about level with DecideRider, and ahead in some countries.

The weak spots show up in the reviews

• Account bans: the most common question in TikTok comments is “¿es posible que me baneen la cuenta?” (could they ban my account?). Order-reading assistants have always lived in a gray area of platform rules.
• The iOS approach is fragile: it requires the screen recorder to stay running. One App Store reviewer says “se me descargaba demasiado rápido la batería incluso con el cable conectado” (the battery drained too fast even with the cable plugged in). The 10-30 update notes list five fixes, all about “certain orders not being read or read wrong”. Every time Uber or DiDi changes its interface, it has to change with them.
• Whether Apple keeps allowing it: screen recording to read other apps has passed review so far, but nobody can promise it will keep passing (inference).

If it were you

Verdict: The demand is real, but the Spanish-speaking Latin American iOS gap is already taken. The opportunity is to take “the driver tool already proven on Android + the iOS screen-recording version” to a different market, not to compete with it in Chile.

Who it suits: one or two people who can build an iOS screen-recording extension with on-device text recognition, and who can keep up with Uber, Grab and Bolt interface changes every day. Ideally, they know local drivers personally or have driven for a while themselves.

Who it's not for: Anyone wanting to go head-to-head with Ruta Rentable and GigU in Latin America; anyone who can't stand having to patch overnight every time a platform changes its UI; anyone worried about account or review risk.

How to do it: First pick one market where a local ride-calculator app already sells well on Android but iOS is still empty. Southeast Asia's Grab, the Middle East's Careem, and Eastern Europe and Africa's Bolt are worth a look first (inferred, not checked market by market). Build the smallest version of DecideRider's feature set: custom per-km / per-hour floors, deduct commission and fuel, red-green badges, voice readout. On iOS, use the system screen recording and keep the recording indicator on, and state clearly that data is processed only on-device. Copy its pricing: two-week free trial with no card, and when it expires only the net-income number gets locked; the monthly fee should sit around what two or three coffees cost locally.

How to get users: Make the first video a "how to turn it on on an iPhone" tutorial. That's their best-performing video. Then make a permissions walkthrough for each phone brand (Xiaomi, Samsung). Next, go to local drivers' Facebook groups, WhatsApp groups and Telegram groups and answer questions like "what app do you use on iPhone to calculate earnings", and get a few fleet leaders to use it. The bar to chart in Finance / Business Top Grossing is low in small countries, so charting can be used for promotion, but don't present it as proof you've grown big.

Timing: Right now Ruta Rentable, ProfitDriver and DecideRider are all expanding into more countries (DecideRider claimed it entered the US in September, and its website lists 13 countries). Launch within 6 months in a market none of them have on iOS yet. Any later, and their iPhone versions will spread there first.

Signs you've misjudged it: ① Within 3 months the Android leader in your market releases an iPhone version of its own, or you find it already has one; ② two months after launch, fewer than one in ten trial users converts to a paid subscription, meaning local drivers won't pay a monthly fee for this; ③ Apple rejects the screen-recording and screen-reading approach, or the platforms start mass-banning drivers who use these tools. Stop if any one of the three happens.

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Data and sources: App Store ratings, reviews, multi-country Finance Top Grossing charts (2026-10-28 to 11-06); Google Play listing and install counts for comparable products (11-06); features, pricing and FAQ on the deciderider.app website (11-06); TikTok @decideriderlabs videos and comments (scraped, 11-06); public posts in driver Facebook groups (10-30). Where it says "inferred", it is an inference. Revenue, subscriber counts, whether the developer is one person, and whether they're Chilean are not publicly available.