Top tried-and-tested iPhone apps for year abroad students

1. Document your adventures

Life in Seconds (free!)
Record a one second clip every day of your year abroad (choose your second wisely!) and then play back your 12-month adventure as a stunning 6-minute blast from the past. You could also do this with perfectly square Instagram photographs and turn them into a massive quilt or Blurb photobook.

2. Discover your new city

Geocaching (£6.99)
A really fun way to explore your new home! Geocaching is a free real-world outdoor treasure hunt: players try to locate one of nearly 2 million hidden containers, called geocaches, hidden across the globe. Update the logbook when you find one and record what you find in it - you could leave something of equal or higher value for the next person!

3. Keep in touch

Viber (free!) or WhatsApp Messenger (£0.69)
Free calls, text and picture sharing anywhere in the world! It's a bit of a no-brainer, really. Stay in touch with friends and family using Skype on your laptop when you're at home and Viber or WhatsApp on your smartphone when you're out and about - also available on Android phones.

4. Stay healthy

Runkeeper (free!)
Keep fit on your year abroad with your pocket personal trainer! You can set goals and track improvements, and prepare for a half-marathon somewhere exciting (or even a fancy dress fun run!). With headphones in, you can set the app to audioguide your interval training while shuffling your running playlist and mapping your jog.
 

5. Be more efficient

Things (£6.99)
Get things done. This brilliant task manager will help you keep on top of everything. Whether it's making time for your Year Abroad Project research or remembering to update your blog, this handy app (and desktop app) will let you plan your day, and help you make the most of your year abroad.

6. Language Life-saver

WordReference (free!)
As one student put it: "the crucial WordReference app has saved my skin more times than I'd like to admit, particularly when teaching and asked for a particularly difficult word!" Covering multiple languages, conjugators, an English Thesaurus and a Spanish Dictionary of Synonyms, this app is just going to get better and better.
 

7. Long-distance love

Pair (free!)
This app will help you feel closer when you're far apart. "If you're in a long distance relationship then Pair is amazing: you can chat, send pictures, save dates and it has a thumb kiss function too! Was great for my relationship on YA." Here are some other long-distance relationship-boosting ideas...