For Indians the railway apps needed can be categorized into train ticket booking app, seat availability app, railway information app, and railway inquiry app.
Railway ticket booking apps
The purpose of these apps is to help user do railway booking online.
IRCTC APP
There are many online railway ticket booking apps but the one mostly used by Indian users and it is also the official online railway reservation app is "IRCTC Connect". This app can be downloaded from google play store.
Using this app the railway users can do all the things they can do on irctc portal. This app alos provides users the opportunity to register on irctc using irctc using phone.
Other popular railway booking apps are "Yatra" and "Ixigo". These apps are developed by agents of IRCTC who provide easier way for booking train tickets. But still irctc rail connect is the leading train app in India.
Unreserved Train Ticket booking App (UTS)
UTS stands for "Unreserved Railway Ticket Booking System". Indian Railway's UTS app is used to book unreserved tickets. It means if you want to just get a general ticket, a second class ticket of any train you can do so using this railway app. The ticket booked here can be shown to ticket collector in train. You can also get printout of the booked train ticket on any railway station through ticket vending machine.
Other useful feature of UTS is that it has a railway wallet (R-wallet) in which you can deposit money in advance. When you book railway tickets the money is deducted from your wallet. This comes handy when your purse (wallet) is pick pocketed or stolen and you need to buy a train ticket.
Lean more about UTS here.
Train seat availability apps
A railway seat availability app help user quickly find the number of seats that are occupied and how many seats are vacant thus providing him useful information using which he can select right train for booking tickets.
Indian Railway seat availability apps are some of the most sought after apps in India. Example of these apps are paytm, rail yatri, and clear trip. The irctc train ticket booking app "rail saarthi" also shows current seat position to users at the time of planning their journey.
Indian Railway Inquiry App
While the easiest way to do railway inquiry is to call on 139 toll free number of railway, having app on mobile for rly (railway) inquiry is very handy. The purpose of this app is to check pnr status, check whether customers railway ticket is confirmed or not. It also send automatic messages on user phone as his/ her reservation status changes. The best app in this category is NTES app.
Railway Information App
While we haven't found any app which is developed specifically to get information on railway, there are many ways you can find latest railway information.
Easiest way of course is to subscribe to our website, which send you newsletters about latest railway news.
You can also follow official IRCTC twitter handle: @irctcofficial, @piyushgoyal (railway minister official twitter handle) for latest updates from rail world.
Facebook page of Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) is: https://www.facebook.com/IRCTCofficial/ which is a great source to know about new train packages and tours.
Other Railway Apps
Clean my coach: This app is used by users to send request to railway staff to clean their coach. Sometimes coach becomes dirty, someone vomits, or food gets spilled over on the floor, it's difficult to take journey in such unhygienic conditions. The clean my coach app helps getting train coaches neat and tidy.