The best apps for expats in Spain

I moved way before smart phones were around.
Living here I use.
Waze- Maps and traffic.
Shazam- to find what that track is playing in the supermarket.
Matriculas Agusaroe - just because i can find more about a car I have seen.
Parkopedia Parking - to find parking garages and costs.
SocialDrive- again traffic information.
GasAll- fuel prices.
RenfeTicket- train planner and ticket.

The only app that I find indispensable is Tranferwise to make secure payments in the UK and transfer funds from sterling to euros.  Their rates are competitive and they are remarkable quick, often completing the transfer the same day.  Once you have set up your regular payees and have completed a couple of runs to get used to the way it's works, it all becomes just a matter of a few minutes to complete a payment, automatically receive tracking updates to confirm your money is received or money sent.

Other than that we have used Filmon TV to screen UK TV programs for a couple of years.  It used to be free but no longer and just recently they seem to have got their knickers well and truly twisted and went walkabout for a while. 
You can purchase remote recording space allowing you to store programs until you are ready to view them.  This worked well until recently when we were paying for the service but the recorded programs were not available.  We received no notice or response to emails and eventually were obliged to cancel our regular payments.  However, they seem to have recovered now and as we were unable to find anyone else to provide the same features, we are renewing our subscriptions - for the time being.

I forgot to mention the wonderful online parking app they use in our town.  You pre-pay whatever you wish.  No need to lob in too much as parking is very cheap. When you park the app finds your location on a map and asks you to confirm how long you wish to remain there.  Click on accept and that's it.
 
The great thing is it will ping to remind you 5 minutes before it expires.  If you want to stay a little longer you can extend your parking and can do this even if you are miles away from where you left it.  If you are back to your car well before the expiry time,you can 'un-park' and your account is credited with any unspent parking cash. 

If you ignore the expiry warning and receive a fine, you can pay through the app and receive a significant discount.

No more running down the road to the parking meter in the pouring rain and then finding out you don't have the right change.  No more paying for an hour's parking only to find that the shops are shut and you've wasted your money.  No more putting a ticket in the window and coming back to find it on the floor and a parking ticket under the wiper.

It's called eParking and it's brilliant.

Hi.
What I highly recommend you specially in summer and spring, is bicing.

i find Hola app to view uk websites normally unobtainable in Spain.     Also, to transfer money without
charge it is possible to use Pingit, a Barclays bank facility.    ray-pc

I use podcast addict to download some Spanish language podcasts to help me with my Spanish learning.

I listen to a couple of "learning" podcasts - Notes in Spanish and Spanishpocast but also a couple of radio programmes from RNE like litercast, documentos and the bilingual British music programme The Selector from Radio 3 Extra.

Oh, while I'm doing this I suppose everyone already has the WordReference dictionary and language forum app?

An app that I never use but I leave on my phone every time I purge the unused apps is Arbolapp. It's produced by the Spanish equivalent of London's Kew Gardens and, with it, you are supposed to be able to identify Spanish trees.

Having been here for only a month, I use Google Maps for helping as I walk through the city trying to figure my way around.

Mytaxi is perfect for finding a taxi wherever I am and getting me where ever I need to be.

I also use Happy Cow, which is not only for use in Spain, since I am vegan and knowing where I can find options is important.

This is a great Multi-currency app and is combined with your own MasterCard. You can transfer money from a bank in another country onto the card and then transfer into your desired currency when the rates suit you.
It's also possible to pay directly into it from a regular income you may receive. For example you can have a pension paid onto it and then choose when you want to exchange the money to local currency rather than having it happen on the same day every month with no say in the exchange rate.
A great feature is that I can load the card from my UK bank and transfer it into Euros in under 60 seconds!
I can be sitting having my Menu del Dia and transfer in the money to pay for it before i've finished my starter
Its called the Vault E-Money and is available on Android and Apple. The code to set it up is 24362.
Message me if you would like any more info.
Tim