The Best Hong Kong Smartphone Apps

Our top picks for the best smartphone apps to simplify your life in Hong Kong.

29 Jan 2020 — By Catherine Stewart / Around HK / Essential HK

What are the essential apps you need to simplify your life in Hong Kong? With these apps you can book a taxi, check the air quality, order a takeaway, find free wifi, book a massage and much more!

Transport Apps

Citymapper

Never be lost in Hong Kong again! Simply tell it where you want to go and it will figure out your whole journey on public transport and give you a street map for any walking that needs to be done too.

HKTaxi & Hong Kong Taxi Cards

HK Taxi is an effective and simple taxi hailing app. Just enter your pickup point and contact number and a nearby driver will call you to arrange the ride. Hong Kong Taxi Cards translates place names from English into standard Chinese characters displayed on a large “taxi card” that a driver can read at a glance.

GoGoVan

This convenient app gives you the flexibility of not needing to plan ahead and locates your nearest driver and van available to shift your stuff.

MTR Mobile

MTR Mobile helps riders plan their journey, as well as to identify locations of all sorts of useful facilities.

CitybusNWFB

Sometimes the bus is more convenient than the MTR, and for these times the CitybusNWFB is on hand to help you get where you need to go.

Octopus

The Octopus app can track transactions on up to 20 cards and keep them topped up. You can also shop online and transfer money directly to other app users.

Traffic Hong Kong

Traffic Hong Kong allows users to select from a list of traffic cameras (sorted by district) to check on traffic conditions in dozens of busy trouble spots before hitting the road.

Uber Hong Kong

Well known ride sharing service Uber operates in Hong Kong and although it isn’t licensed by the Hong Kong government, Uber shows no signs of giving up on the city anytime soon.

Spa & Beauty Booking Apps

BloomMe

BloomMe is a beauty booking app featuring a wide variety of spas and salons offering all kinds of treatments, and includes reviews from other users. You can check availability and instantly confirm appointments, and there are lots of special discounts and offers too.

HKHUB Discount: Use the code HKHUB to get $100 off your first booking through BloomMe!

Dining Apps

Eatigo

Discounts on your food bill varying from 10% off right up to 50% are available on Eatigo’s restaurant booking app. Browse your favourite cuisine or restaurants near you and start saving.

Chope

Browse 100s of restaurants, sort them by location or cuisine, check out the prices and menus and then instantly book your table. There are regular discounts and deals too.

Open Rice

This restaurant booking app includes the input of a huge online community of self-proclaimed ‘foodies’ sharing their honest opinions on the restaurants around the city.

Love to eat out? Us too! Check out our food and drink guides here.

Food & Drink Delivery Apps

Get your dinner delivered via the Foodpanda or Deliveroo apps. They each cover a different selection of restaurants so it’s worth exploring both to see which you prefer. Meanwhile Black Sheep Restaurants GO delivers food from that specific restaurant franchise and Chillers is on-hand to deliver cold beverages (particularly alcoholic ones) quickly to your door, or to parks, beaches and junks throughout Hong Kong Island, Sai Kung and Discovery Bay.

Activities & Entertainment Apps

The Entertainer

The Entertainer have thousands of buy one-get-one-free offers on restaurants, spas, tourist attractions, hotels and more. You can try out one offer for free, and after that you pay an annual subscription.

Klook

Klook gives you discounts on all manner of activities and attractions around Hong Kong, for example Disneyland, Sky100, Ocean Park or the Peak Tram. Perfect if you have visitors in town!

HK Movie

View screening times, buy tickets from over 40 cinemas (with its one-of-a-kind, real-time seating plan), browse reviews and share comments on this handy movie app.

Social Networking Apps

Meetup

There’s an active meetup community in Hong Kong and it’s a great way to build your social network. Find an established ‘meetup’ with people that share your interests, or be bold and organise your own group.

VINA

Like a dating app, but for female friendships rather than romance, this app matches women that are open to making new friends. Perfect if you’ve just landed in Hong Kong and need to establish a new social life here.

Shopping Apps

Amazon

Amazon have upped their game in Hong Kong and the Amazon app makes it easy to filter items that ship here. You’ve got the whole world at your fingertips and all kinds of goodies that are just not available in the stores here.

Find lots of online food and drink retailers in this roundup here.

Hiking & Fitness Apps

TrailWatch

This app allows hikers to plan and track their adventures on Hong Kong’s many breathtaking trails.

New to hiking in Hong Kong? Be inspired by our Top 10 Hong Kong Hikes here.

ClassPass

Now there’s no excuse to miss a workout. Search for and book fitness classes on the go at studios all around Hong Kong with ClassPass. This app requires a membership to use it but there’s a free trial period if you want to check it out and make sure it’s for you.

Every Day Essentials Apps

Wi-Fi.HK

This app helps you find free wifi on the go!

Water For Free

Do your bit for the environment and stop buying bottled water. With this app you can easily find your nearest water fountain and re-fill your reusable water bottle around HK.

Gini

No need to spend time wondering where your money goes. Gini is a personal financial app which helps you track your income, budget, expenses and savings. Supports international banks from 60 countries and multiple currencies which is fab news for all of us expats.