When you move to Spain as an expat, there’re so many how to questions that arise: how to use public transport, easily order groceries or say something in Spanish. Luckily, you can find many apps to help you with your daily life in Spain. For your convenience, we’ve gathered all the top apps you’ll need as an expat in Spain.
Apps for food delivery in Spain
Delicious Spanish cuisine is one of the 10 solid reasons why living in Spain is a good idea.
But when you’re tired to go grocery shopping or cook something up yourself, it’s good to have some trusty food delivery apps on your phone. Here’re the best food delivery apps in Spain that you’ll want to install right away!
Glovo
You should immediately download Glovo when you move to Spain. Whether you’re sick and need medication delivered, want food delivered quickly after a long day at the university, or you simply want to order flowers for your first date in Spain, Glovo is your go-to.
Glovo gathers restaurants, cafes, pharmacies, and groceries under one roof. With just one click, you’ll get your order at your door within minutes.
“Fan fact — Glovo is actually a Spanish food delivery app founded in Barcelona.
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Just Eat
Just Eat is another popular food delivery app that’s also expanding its services to deliver groceries at your doorsteps. It has partnerships with more than 9,000 local restaurants.
Just in 2022, Just Eat started partnering with Gorillas to work with municipal markets and small businesses in Barcelona, Madrid, and Valencia. The intention behind this initiative is to support local businesses.
Uber eats
Uber eats is another uber-popular food delivery app. Pick from the many restaurants, order your meal, and track it by the minute.
Best apps for the Spanish language
Living in Spain provides an excellent opportunity to learn Spanish, regardless of whether you’ve moved to Spain to study or work. After all, learning Spanish is the key to integrating into the community and making Spain your new home; you’ll make local connections faster, have more options to work, and overall navigate the country much more effortlessly.
If you don’t want to invest too much time and money to learn Spanish in one of the language schools, then what you can do is download apps for Spanish. Thankfully, there’re a few good apps you can find!
Duolingo
Duolingo is one of the best apps for learning a language because you can learn at your own pace in a gamified way. All you have to do is choose a language and then you’re all set. You’ll get daily reminders to practice the language and you can advance to the next level by answering listening exercises and multiple-choice questions.
“Duolingo’s research study found that learners in the Duolingo Spanish course had especially strong pronunciation scores.
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Memrise
Memrise is another excellent app for learning Spanish. It’s a user-generated app, so you’ll find flashcards made by locals in this app.
LingoPie
We included LingoPie in the list of the best apps for Spanish because it has an unconventional teaching method. You’ll start your lessons by watching shows, movies, or programs in Spanish. Afterward, you’ll review them with summaries and flashcards to prepare for a short assessment.
The downside is that it’s a paid app. Lingopie charges €12 per month or €65 per year for an account. Alternatively, you can choose a family plan for €99 per year to share with 4 people.
Spain travel apps
Public transport is the best way to explore or make daily commutes in the city without breaking the bank. And lucky for you, every Spanish city has a good public transport network, whether it’s Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia or Seville.
But at the same time, an extensive and highly integrated transport network can be confusing — especially if you’ve just moved to Spain. So the best advice we can give you is to download the travel apps below to figure out your journey and navigate Spain without trouble.
Citymapper
Citymapper simplifies public transport in almost every city in Spain by providing real-time information and multiple route options. You can compare how long each route will take and how much a ticket will cost for the different public transport options.
In addition to the metro, bus, tram, and train, it integrates data for all modes of transport — from walking to cycling to driving.
Since Citymapper is available in 80 cities, including Paris, London, and Amsterdam, you don’t have to hassle with finding a new app when you travel somewhere.
Currently, you can use the Citymapper travel app in these cities in Spain:
In addition to Citymapper, you can download every city’s travel app to see waiting times in stations, the schedule of metros, trains, buses, nearby stations, etc.
- TMB - Barcelona’s official public transport app.
- Metro de Madrid (MAP) - Madrid’s official public transport app.
- EMT Valencia - Valencia’s official public transport app.
- EMT Málaga - Málaga’s official public transport app.
Lime
Lime is an electric scooter app available in Barcelona, Madrid, Malaga, and Seville. With Lime, you can locate the nearest public scooter and hop on it to reach your destination.
BiciMAD_
You should download the BiciMAD app to find available bikes around Madrid. With this app, you can quickly locate the bike, use it, and park it at the end of your trip.
Cabify
Cabify is one of the best apps for booking a taxi in Spain. Founded in Madrid, the main advantage of Cabify is that it operates in more Spanish cities than uber (Madrid, Barcelona, Malaga, Seville, and Valencia). All you have to do is enter your destination and request a ride.
Apps to make new friends
Moving to a new country can be intimidating, especially if you don’t know anyone. Everything is new: your city, home, work or school, and even your friend circle. So as a newbie in town, how will you make new friends? Well, like any digital world kid, you can download apps to make new friends in Spain.
Zingr app
Zingr is an app developed for exclusively connecting like-minded people. It’s not a dating app, so you don’t swipe right or left. You just find people with similar interests by clicking on the hashtags.
Well, officially, it’s not an app. But there’re so many opportunities on Facebook to find new friends. Once you move to your new city, you can join local Facebook groups to get to know people in your neighborhood. Alternatively, Facebook has many expat groups in Barcelona, Madrid, and other cities to bring internationals together.
Bumble
Okay, we know traditionally, Bumble is a dating app. But hear us when we say Bumble is also the best app to meet friends around the world. Thanks to its Bumble BFF you can connect with same-minded people. Many people, especially tourists and Erasmus students, use Bumble to find friends.
Spain weather app
If you know the weather information, you can prepare and plan in advance for every occasion. Even though Spain has pleasant and warm weather thanks to the Mediterranean climate, it’s better to find a reliable weather app to avoid unexpected weather changes.
AEMET Apple’s weather app
If you have a smartphone, you can easily track the weather through the Spanish Official weather app created by State Meteorological Agency (AEMET). There you can see all official warnings and weather broadcasts.
ElTiempo
ElTiempo gives forecasts for all Spanish cities. It alerts you with notifications when rain, wind, snow, storm, extreme hot or cold weather, or other weather conditions are anticipated.
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