You can now hail London's iconic black cabs with mytaxi app

The app replaces Hailo, which merged with mytaxi last summer.

Katie Collins Senior European Correspondent

Katie a UK-based news reporter and features writer. Officially, she is CNET's European correspondent, covering tech policy and Big Tech in the EU and UK. Unofficially, she serves as CNET's Taylor Swift correspondent. You can also find her writing about tech for good, ethics and human rights, the climate crisis, robots, travel and digital culture. She was once described a "living synth" by London's Evening Standard for having a microchip injected into her hand.

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Katie Collins

March 13, 2017 5:09 a.m. PT

London's black cabs are an important part of the city's heritage.
Dan Kitwood, Getty Images

Make way, Uber -- there's a new ride-hailing app in London town and it wants some space on the roads.

European service mytaxi launched in the UK on Monday, allowing Londoners and visitors alike to hail one of the city's iconic black cabs from their phones.

The app replaces Hailo, which merged with German company mytaxi in summer 2016. Hailo users can migrate their accounts over to the new app with a couple of clicks from within the Hailo app -- mytaxi promises it will take only 30 seconds. You can use your existing login details and you should find your details ready and waiting.

Unlike Uber, mytaxi uses licensed black cab drivers, supporting the established taxi industry in the city by providing a direct link between drivers and passengers. It does not face the same difficulties and regulatory hurdles as Uber, which relies on unlicensed drivers, who are not official taxi drivers.

The app is available on iOS and Android and will soon also launch in Greece, which will be the tenth country mytaxi operates in.