Uber Eats’ new sharing feature makes it less painful to send your friends food

Uber Eats is introducing a new feature that lets customers send food to friends, family or coworkers and share details to make it easier track the deliveries.

Uber Eats customers have been able to order and send food to friend. But in the past, it required the sender to track the delivery and provide updates to the receiver. The new feature lets the person receiving the food track the delivery on their phone.

Image Credits: Uber Eats

As part of the roll out, the Uber partnered with Starbucks to encourage U..S. customers to send a treat to friends through its #SendACup campaign that launched Wednesday.

The feature is Uber's latest effort to tap into the growing demand for delivered food during the COVID-19 pandemic, even as it has experienced huge drops in its ride-hailing business. Last month, Uber for Business, a platform designed for corporate customers, expanded its Eats product to more than 20 countries this year, in response to the surge in demand stemming from more employees working from home.

Despite demand, the Eats division has suffered losses. The on-demand food service division said May 4 it was pulling out of the Czech Republic, Egypt, Honduras, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Uruguay and Ukraine. It also announced plans to transfer its Uber Eats business operations in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to Careem, its wholly owned ride-hailing subsidiary that's mostly focused on the Middle East. Just a day later, Careem said it was cutting its workforce by 31%.