The 10 essential apps for life in Shanghai

Whether you're paying bills, scouting out deals, booking tickets or exploring, these essential apps will get you where you need to be.

WeChat

Price: Free (iPhone, iPad, Android).    

What is it? Your everything. And a social networking app.

Use it for: Texting, voice messaging, video calls to friends and family back home, a second wallet, sharing memories, following businesses.

Best Feature: WeChat stickers. 

The one app to rule them all. Essentially its own ecosystem, featuring multiple functions all rolled into one app, WeChat is a messaging and calling platform, a business card, a second wallet, a cinema, plane or train ticket-booking office, a taxi hailing service, an e-department store, a news outlet and more. And then there's the stickers – you can make and save hundreds of stickers (like gifs), so when words just won't do...

Baidu Maps

Price: Free (iPhone, Android).     

What is it? China’s version of Google Maps.    

Use it for: Getting around the city.     

Best feature: Street View.

Whether you’re walking or in a taxi, a good map in this city is essential – and Google Maps is hardly reliable in China. Baidu Maps offers the most up-to-date solution, with 2D and 3D views, satellite imaging, real-time traffic data, navigation and offline maps. The interface is only available in Chinese but the points of interest can all be searched for in English, and the icon-based design makes it easy to operate. With this app in hand, you need never be lost down a longtan again.  

Explore Shanghai Metro Map

Price: Free (iPhone, Android).   

What is it? Metro map.   

Use it for: Making sense of the city’s ever-increasing metro network.   

Best feature: The route planner, with journey times and prices.

For the metro, the Explore Shanghai app is a real must-have. Not only does it give you the full subway map, it also provides route planning, GPS and maps of the areas around all the stations so that you can find the best exit. The interface is in both English and Chinese and, for a small in-app purchase, you can remove the advertising that pops up, plus get train times, tips and offline street maps. If you’re travelling, Explore also provides metro maps for Beijing, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Seoul, Singapore and Taipei.  

Dianping

Price: Free (iPhone, Android). 

What is it? A database of restaurants and more. 

Use it for: Finding food, movies and deals. 

Best feature: User reviews. 

Like its hugely popular website, the Dianping app offers a local directory of a huge range of services such as restaurants, hotels, KTV joints, films, shops and food delivery options. The app, which is only available in Chinese, covers several major cities in China and uses GPS to allow you to check in and share locations. Though some functions are fairly explanatory, using this app can be trickier than the website if you’re not familiar with the language. With a little knowledge, though, it’s great as a quick reference point. 

Sherpa’s

Price: Free download (iPhone, Android).

What is it?: Food delivery app. 

Use it for: Ordering food to your doorstep.

Best feature: Delivery tracking. 

While it's a little more pricey than some of its Chinese language-only counterparts, Sherpa’s has been serving hungry customers in English across China since 1999. There’s a delivery fee of 15RMB for the first 3km, and 5RMB for every additional kilometre after that, and is usually delivered to your doorstep within an average of 45 minutes. The app has a tracking option that lets you see when the driver picked up your order and gives you a more accurate estimated time of arrival. And you can get a fapiao with your order.

Didi

Price: Free (iPhone, Android).

What is it? The ultimate Shanghai taxi app.

Use it for: Hailing a cab.

Best feature: Taxi proximity map.

Covering 300 cities and with over 500,000 taxis (so claims the blurb), the app allows you to request a cab from any location, and it's available in both English and Chinese. If you've mastered basic Chinese taxi vocabulary and you’ve already got WeChat or Alipay (and thus Didi in Chinese in your ‘Wallet’/'Home' section), you may find the stand alone app superfluous.

Ofo

Price: Free (iPhone, Android), with a 99RMB deposit in your account as long as you need the app.

What is it? Bike sharing app.

Use it for: Grabbing a ride on a bright yellow bike.

Best feature: Bicycle proximity map.

These yellow bikes are found everywhere in the city, and you can make use of them by downloading the app, scanning the QR code and unlocking the bike with the code sent to your phone. They also come in Princess and Minion versions for when you're feeling snazzy.

Baidu Translate

Price: Free (iPhone, Android).

What is it? A reliable translation tool from the Chinese internet giant. 

Use it for: Translation.

Best feature: Image translations. 

Chinese internet giant Baidu's translate app has an image recognition feature, allowing you to take a photo of a real object, circle it on screen and for the app to then provide translation options for said object – the results can be patchy, but mostly it gets you the answers you need. Away from this feature, Baidu handles standard voice and written translation tasks well and comes with a handy selection of Chinese expressions which you can tap for their English meanings. 

Taobao 

Price: Free (iPhone, Android).   

What is it? China’s online marketplace.   

Use it for: Buying things you don’t need.  

Best feature: Instant access to brilliant and bizarre products.

It’s been said that if a product exists you’ll find it on Taobao. With this app, your wallet is going to take a further hit as buying stuff gets a whole lot easier once you have Taobao in your pocket. The interface is Chinese-only but navigation is relatively easy – especially if you know your way around the web version.

Betternet 

Price: Free (iPhone, Android).   

What is it? VPN.  

Use it for: To jump over the Great Firewall of China. 

Best feature: With one click, you can turn on the VPN, which is surprisingly stable for an app that's free. 

Although the free version works quite nicely, you can upgrade to premium for $18.98/month, $7.33/month (six months) or $5.83/month (one year) to get a faster connection, no advertisements, high-quality support and link up to 5 devices. 

More from Time Out Shanghai

Click below for the full list of apps