Moving abroad can be an amazing experience, but you might need a helping hand every now and again while you’re getting used to your new home. Here are some apps you can download to help you find your feet.
Nearify
Sometimes it can be hard to get out there and start experiencing a new town or city, especially if you don’t already have friends and contacts in the area. Nearify is a great way to start finding out what’s going on near you. You can browse events in or around you at any time, or even set up alerts so that you’ll always have local knowledge at your fingertips.
Apps to help you keep in touch
There are plenty of ways to stay in touch with the folks back home, many of them free:
- Skype – best for video calls
- WhatsApp – best for messaging, making voice or video calls, sending videos and photos
- Facebook Messenger – best for messaging, send photos and videos
- Snapchat – best for sending photos and short videos to your kids and grandkids!
Google Translate
Ideally, when you move to a new country you should learn the language. However, fluency isn’t going to happen right away however dedicated you are, so it’s good to have a quality translation app such as Google Translate to help you through any difficult interactions. You shouldn’t trust it for anything important, like legal paperwork for example, but for simple phrases and single words in your everyday life you’ll find it invaluable.
Here are some more free ways to learn Spanish using your mobile phone.
It’s always worth searching the name of your new city on Facebook, along with a word like ‘expat’ ‘connect’ ‘advice’ etc. and joining any groups you might find. These can be a really useful mine of information about any problems you might face, and could also be a great place to start being social.
Find a maps app you can trust
There are plenty of options – International Citizens highly recommends CityMaps2Go. There are already built-in map apps to try on most phones, and many of these will be perfectly fine to navigate around most landmarks and cities. However if you want to find small businesses or specific addresses outside of populated areas, you may want to try Google Maps. An especially useful feature if you are still sorting out a Spanish mobile phone, you can also download large areas of Google Maps while connected to WiFi. This means you can use the app offline and save yourself some data while out and about, which you can also do with CityMaps2Go.
WiFi Finder
Another useful app for travellers or for the ‘in-between’ period while you’re still sorting out a phone, WiFi Finder will point to you to the nearest free or paid-for wifi hotspots near you.
Doctoralia
This app is a databank of local healthcare services including doctors and pharmacies in many different countries. Although you could find much of the information on Google, the app provides extra functions like giving feedback from people who have visited each doctor. It also allows you to build a list of ‘favourites’ which could be useful, and in some cases you can book appointments online (this will depend on the clinic.)
If you’re new to Spain, Telitec can help you with many aspects of your new life – internet, TV, mobile phone contracts or PAYG , and more. Contact us on sales@telitec.net or using the ‘tell me more’ form.
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