Usher is a ticketing platform to keep audiences engaged in the moment.
Theaters are especially vulnerable to phone distractions. By pulling out your phone, you are not only distracting yourself, you are also distracting other audience members and even the performers themselves. Usher seeks to incentivize good behavior and remove temptation to look at your phone.
Unlike other ticketing apps, Usher's role doesn't stop at helping users discover new shows and scan them in before the show. Usher also helps you during and after the show. Using screen pinning, the user's phone is locked, meaning that they can't switch apps, check notifications, or even the time. Usher then offers the user a rebate for good behavior if they did keep their phone pinned the entire show.
Usher uses screen pinning, a native feature in Android, in order to add a layer of inconvienience if someone wants to check their phone. Though this can be exited from, the app can also detect this and not give them a rebate after the performance.
Usher also will use NFC as a quick an easy way to enter and exit the theater. By tapping their phone against a scanner, the phone can be locked and unlocked esaily as soon as audiences enter and leave.