You’ve just been relocated to Beijing, Mexico, or maybe even Bangalore. New landscapes, buildings, culture, opportunities, and people surround you. You didn’t relocate with anyone that you know, but you are excited to embrace the change. You are however, beginning to miss the comforts of home. There is a slight language and cultural barrier that is restricting you from developing meaningful relationships in your new home. You wish there was an App for that.

What if there was?  We dreamed up a few ideas of applications that would make the lives of expats easier!

Expat Finder App

Expat Finder allows you, the expat, to create a personalized profile. In it you can state your country of origin, your current residence, your interests and hobbies, as well as anything else that you think would help you meet a community of others that you are compatible with. The app will then match you with other expats in your area that you share similar interests, cultural backgrounds, and stories with!

Here are some of the topics that you can cover once you meet a matched expat.

Shopping/Food

This includes where to buy groceries, common items, furniture both based on past available items and present. You can also share the best places that you’ve found to eat!

Culture/Community

The culture and community in your new location may be different than you are used to. There may be cultural faux-pas that you are unaware of. With an expat you can discuss the behaviour of people in new location, the difference in laws and politics, and if applicable the language.

Conversation

Conversation can be made about experiences that both of you have had since relocating. You can also swap tips and tricks that you have learned! Also, you can both converse about your new positions and job prospects since work is the main reason you made this move in the first place.

Swap tips

Take advantage of each other’s separate experiences! Discuss hidden gems, places to avoid and places to go, as well as tips on how to get around, be it by car or by transit. Perhaps you can even car pool!

The overall best feature and benefit to the user of this app will be meeting new people that you can share the experience of relocating with!

Find My Product!

This application would allow you to search for whatever you desire in your new location! Be it a craving for a certain type of coffee, or a realization that you miss your usual shampoo, this app can help!

Complete with a keyword search area, this app takes the work out of hunting for items in your new city! This search will appear in a community chat-room where different people who have searched for the same product can tell you where they got it. This will help eliminate you searching every mom and pop shop nearby!

Not every item that you are searching for, however, will be available for purchase in your new location. But don’t fret! The app will refer similar items that are a close variant to what you are searching for!

Conclusion

Technology surrounds us daily in everything we do. It has helped provide us with ease, access, and mass communication. The field of relocation is lacking user-friendly apps like the above discussed when it shouldn’t be. Do you have any other ideas for cool apps that could help expats across the globe? What applications would help improve your newly adapted expat lifestyle?