Many little things can help make living in Indonesia easier, and apps for your smartphone are among them. Besides the usual big names apps such as Uber or Whatsapp, there are many others that people commonly use in Indonesia. There are even a few that are Indonesian originals. Some of them you may never have heard of before.
Here is a quick overview of most popular apps that have our forum members recommend.
Contents:
Time Savers Apps
Uber/Grab – These two ride sharing apps are widely used in Indonesia, in particular in urban areas. Catch a ride with ease, don’t worry about currency conversion rates or even paying with cash.
GoJek – This app is a locally made app, and started out as a motorcycle taxi service. It has now branched out into food delivery, courier service, maid cleaning service, grocery delivery service, at home massage deliver and many more. The food delivery feature is very handy for those days where you just don’t feel like braving traffic to eat out.
Waze – An absolute must, this traffic beating app will save many minutes in a day. Especially in Jakarta.
Shopping Apps
Tokopedia – Indonesia’s version of Ebay. You can find many products that are hard to find here, including things imported from abroad. Sellers usually accept Indonesian bank transfers as payement, since most Indonesian’s do not have credit cards.
Lazada.co.id – Another online shopping platform with a massive amount of products. They are an affiliate of Chinese giant retailer AliBaba.
Olx.co.id – A online shopping platform where you can buy and sell! Pretty handy to get rid of excess junk, or score a deal on second hand stuff.
Travel Apps
Google Translate – This translator app now has very good English to Indonesian (and vice versa) translations, and can even recognize speech.
Traveloka – Book flights and hotels. It has an edge in Indonesia over foreign based flight booking apps: it lists local budget airlines are listed. Foreign apps often exclude them.
Did we miss a few? Have an app that you absolutely love? Share with us here!
