The most useful apps for living in the USA

These popular applications and programs will probably come in handy after moving to the United States. Even if you come as a tourist, you should also know about them, because almost all Americans use them.

Taxi

Uber is a very convenient application for the phone. The advantages here are that a person will come by your car. Drivers in Uber are usually all very sociable and positive. They can treat you to candy, they almost always have water for passengers in the car, and you can learn a lot from them if you come to a new place for you.

In addition to the human factor, the Uber application itself is very convenient. No one needs to make a phone call (in the States it is generally the last century), no one needs to pay cash (paper money), and even less to leave a tip. Ordered a taxi, pointing a finger at the iPhone screen a couple of times, the payment is automatically withdrawn from your bank card. That is, you just got into the car, and just went out in the right place for you. And finally, Uber is noticeably cheaper than regular taxi services, which is its main plus.

Gaining momentum and a similar service Lyft. Also an option, but no matter how much they try, Uber cannot yet surpass.
Well, and more luxury taxi is Black Lane, where a beautiful black car with a driver in a suit will arrive for you.

Music

Service "Pandora", where you can listen to "ready-made" radio stations, or create your own radio station-playlist. When listening to a song, you need to rate it - whether you like it or not, and the service will try to adapt to your taste.

But the most popular music app at the moment is Spotify. You can download the “app” to your phone, install the program on your computer, or just listen to music from their website. Here you will find albums by different artists, radio stations by music style and you can create your own playlists. There is even "Spleen" there, we sometimes listen to it in the car, although the service itself does not officially work in the same Russia as "Pandora", but in America it is available to everyone.

Even in this list you can add Google Music, Prime Music from Amazon and iTunes, which you probably know for a long time. In the latter there is an 2 option - this is a free radio and a paid subscription to music, when you can listen to it online.

Movies and TV shows

One of the popular TV services in America is Netflix. Basically, he is loved precisely because of the series, especially if you decide to revisit all seasons, for example, the series "Friends". True, there are not so many programs and films, but all the main screenings of past years will be there.

Netflix’s strong competitor is Hulu. On it new series of many TV series appear immediately. There are also movies, TV shows and cartoons.

In addition, large channels - such as HBO or FOX - have their own applications through which for a certain amount you get a subscription and full access to all the main series of this channel. For example, the same "Game of Thrones", which belongs to the HBO channel.
In addition, various shows and movies can be viewed on Amazon Prime Video and on the same iTunes.

Food delivery

Doordash will not let you stay hungry for a long time. There are many different cafes and restaurants in it, which it shows you based on your area, including those places where there is no delivery service. The trick is that you choose dishes from the menu of the place you like and pay by bank card for an order. And a person goes to the restaurant of your choice, buys everything according to your list and brings you home.

In fact, it's like a service “go to a cafe for me and bring me something that I love - here's money for you”. Very convenient service, especially if you want soup and steak, and not another pizza, although it will be delivered to you too. You can also order McDonald's.

And in general, there are a whole bunch of similar services with delivery of food and home products in the States. Now they are at the peak of popularity and are developing very actively. Again, delivery from restaurants - Grubhub, delivery from supermarkets - InstaCart (for example, from Whole Foods), the AmazonFresh product delivery service is an additional site from the largest American online store Amazon.com, which specializes exclusively in food ( , this is an online food store). Here you can add Postmates - also deliver goods to order. And the express delivery service Google Express - they can quickly bring non-perishable goods from various supermarkets and pharmacies to you (that is, they almost don’t carry food, but will they deliver packaging of toilet paper if you’ve suddenly finished?). In general, as you understand, the choice of such services is simply huge!

And most importantly, this is all very convenient: if you do not like to go to the shops, you do not have time, you want to order something heavy by weight (for example, a package of mineral water), well, or you are just lazy.

And just recently there was an additional service from Uber taxi called Uber Eats, which also delivers food to the house.

Home delivery of goods

Since I wrote about Amazon.com, I’ll make a separate item about it. He deserves it. On this site you can buy almost everything that comes to mind, except for products (AmazonFresh was created for them), but there will be lemonade, cookies and chocolates there too.

I will say this, 80% of our stuff is from Amazon. And probably all the household goods. Furniture, electronics, cosmetics. Nail polish and grater for carrots. It's just the largest in the US, but probably in the world, an online store. Moreover, their delivery is very fast, and it is very convenient!

Parking

There is an application called LUXE, this is when your car is parked for you. You are too lazy or have no time to look for a place (and, you know, there are very often problems in large cities with parking). You hand over a car at a convenient place for you to a LUXE service worker and go about your business. Parking your car is his concern. When you decide to leave, he will bring your car to a convenient place for you.

There are various applications that help you choose and even reserve a parking space in advance, so that you do not search for it, such as BestParking, SpotHero, Parker and many others.

Navigation

Naturally, the best program for a phone with maps is Google Maps. The second, or even the first place, is probably occupied by drivers in Waze, which shows a lot of useful information on the roads.

Reviews of places

Of course, this is Yelp. I have written about him more than once in my articles. This is a website and an application on the phone, which has all the restaurants, salons, shops, car washes, parking lots, clinics - in general, there is everything! And for all these places people write reviews, which is very convenient, especially in huge metropolitan areas, when there is a lot (I would even say - too much) around everything.

Choose a good dentist? Find a delicious cafe with ice cream? A vet for your pet? All in Yelp. Especially if you do not know where to go, or you find yourself in a new place, for example, you came to another city for a walk and got hungry.

In general, as you understood, America does not stand still. Delivery apps and services are evolving by leaps and bounds. And this I have listed only the main applications, the most useful and most often used. To all this, you can add the Dark Sky application, which makes a weather forecast for an hour ahead - “it seems to be raining”, some SeatGeek to track cheap concerts, or, for example, the same Nest, through which you can control your air conditioner.

Stacy Kireev, author Blog "Russian notes about American life" and Instagram about life in America.

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