Five tech tips to make living in Spain even easier

Staying in touch while living in Spain has never been easier, or cheaper

No matter how much you love Spain, as a Brit there will always be a place in your heart reserved for the green, green grass of home – the swirling winds, the damp drizzle, the chain pubs, the quaint villages, the narrow streets and that wonderful sense of humour.

It is inescapable. You cannot escape your roots wholly, even if you wanted to. Spain provides a brilliant way of life that leaves the majority happy never to return to live in the UK, but even for that contented group, their ties are never fully cut with the old country…

There are friends and family to call on, banks and mortgages to deal with, pensions and paperwork to check, and even elections and news bulletins to keep track of. It all still matters, even as you lounge by your pool sipping a cocktail.

And the good news is that there has never been a better time to live overseas, and a lot of that is down to technology. Sure, low-cost flights mean that you can be back in your local village pub in just a few hours and for less than €150, but more recent advances – particularly in social media – have made living away from one’s home country even easier than before.

So if you are planning on moving to Spain or have already made the move but are looking at new ways to keep in touch and up to speed, check out these handy tech tips…

1. Get Whatsapp
What’s that, you say? Whatsapp is a brilliant tool that is perfect for anybody who lives overseas. It is a free app that you can download to any smartphone (this doesn’t have to be an iPhone or Blackberry – it just has to be any phone that can connect to the internet), that enables you to send text and picture messages to your contacts, provided you have their phone number and they too have Whatsapp. Free, simple and very popular, it should be the first thing you download on your new smartphone.

2. Open a Twitter account
Twitter is loved and hated by millions in equal measure. For those that love it, it is often a labour of love – the more you put in, the more you get out. For those that hate it, it is usually driven by fear of the unknown. Twitter is not like Facebook. It is ostensibly much less personal, but can actually lead you to make connections you would have never dreamed of. It is free, you don’t need a smartphone, and it allows you to ‘follow’ anything of interest, be it ‘English Speaking Expats in Marbella’, ‘Cheap Flights to Spain’ or even ‘Jobs in Spain’. Essentially, it is the best way to stay informed on things that matter to you, and is ideal for those who are new to a country and are yet to find their feet.

3. Download Skype
You will probably have heard of Skype. As an expat, it is an essential tool, which enables two or more people to talk over the internet, for free. That’s right – provided both parties have Skype and are logged on, then the call doesn’t cost you anything, and you can even make video calls, too. So if you’ve not seen Aunt Mable since her last operation, get her on to Skype, call her up and chat face-to-face. Even if the person you wish to call doesn’t have Skype, then you can still buy Skype ‘credits’ that allow you to call any mobile or landline number in the world for vastly reduced rates, and you can do all this from either your computer or your smartphone.

4. Get Likemind
This is a new app on the block, and it has been launched with the intention of connecting like-minded people with one another. It is not a dating site, rather an app where you upload a brief profile of yourself and are then free to post a ‘flyer’ asking if anybody fancies salsa class tonight, or wants to check out that new Sandra Bullock movie, or simply wants to meet up to discuss literature. Your flyer has six tearaway tabs (just like the paper flyers people post on lampposts) and if somebody near you is interested, they take a tab and start a dialogue. This innovative app is a great way to meet people near you who share the same interests. It’s early days for this one, but my money is on it becoming the next big thing…

5. Get a smartphone
They are no longer much more expensive than non-smartphones, and soon these types will be the only ones on the market, so it makes sense to get one right away. For a flat rate fee (try to budget for approx. €35 per month) you can browse the internet wherever you are, and are able to download the aforementioned apps, all for free. A smartphone will make your life in Spain so much easier, and will enable you to connect with friends and family back home for a fraction of the cost of traditional methods.