What are the essential apps for housing and regeneration people in Wales? Ben Black investigates.
Everyone uses their smartphone in different ways. Some people even use it for the occasional phone call or text message. But it’s the apps that make that mini-computer in your pocket extra special.
We spoke to four people what their favourite apps were and why.
TAMSIN STIRLING
Housing consultant
- Twitter and Facebook for the usual reasons.
- Word Reference is a great app for instant translation (for my French and Spanish classes).
- Google Translate has a nifty capacity to link with the camera on your phone so you can take a photo of a letter in one language and it will translate it in written form to another and read it out if you want too. It’s great for people with very little English. I’m doing a bit of voluntary work with a Syrian family and I only have four words of Arabic at the moment so this is proving very useful.
JULIE NICHOLAS
New homes manager at Monmouthshire Housing Association
- Google maps I could not live without it especially as the traffic updates are instantaneous. It’s essential for rural patches and for those urbanistas without a sense of direction!
- Twitter From policy announcements to good practice to silly housing puns. It helps me to keep up to date, introduce myself to people whose brains I want to pick and is totally addictive. It’s the last thing I look at before I go to sleep and the first thing I look at when I wake up.
- BBC iPlayer radio app You would be amazed how many housing and community-based programmes and interviews feature on Radio 4 in the daytime and this app lets me catch up with them on weekends or evenings . Housing regularly crops up on Women’s Hour, ‘You and Yours’, and ‘More Or Less’. Make the switch from music to words whilst you are mooching around at home – you’d be amazed what you find out.
RACHEL HONEY-JONES
Community regeneration manager at Cymdeithas Tai Newydd Housing Association
- Google maps It has saved me in countless situations across my housing career . By nature of working for a traditional social landlord we have quite dispersed stock – all the way up to Newtown! Meetings with partners, Welsh Government, etc are usually in obscure places that unless you know the area would be impossible to find. Google maps is my go to app without a doubt, I’d be lost without it!
- Twitter More the actual social media platform but Twitter is incredible for keeping up to date on what is going on both in Wales & across the border. If an event is taking place that you can’t make then it’s great hearing from those who are there via the relevant hashtag. And if you are there it’s a fantastic networking tool and gives you the ability to have your voice heard by people you wouldn’t otherwise speak to.
- I don’t have a third to be honest. But we are just starting to utilise Google Drive as a monitoring and recording instrument so that app will be incredibly useful in the future!
JESSICA ROBERTS
Communications manager, Newport City Homes
- Ripl A really simple app that lets you add words and graphics to your photos without the need to be a design wizz. Great for creating quick, shareable content for Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
- Hootsuite For those managing multiple social media accounts, personal and corporate, this is a life saver. It’s not really necessary in that you can manage multiple accounts through a platform’s own app. However, for those worried they’ll tweet something to the work account instead of their own, this helps keep things separate.
- Splice A powerful little app that lets you edit your videos on your phone. You can cut, trim, add text and filters, all from your phone. Great for adding a professional finish to something you need to post NOW!
LEARN MORE ABOUT THESE APPS
Word reference – wordreference.com/tools/Tools.aspx
Google Translate – translate.google.co.uk/
Google Maps – google.co.uk/maps
BBC iplayer radio app – bbc.co.uk/radio
Google Drive – google.com/drive/
Ripl – ripl.com/
Hootsuite – hootsuite.com/en-gb/
Splice – spliceapp.com/