The 10 apps you actually need in Dubai

More of daily life runs through a phone here than almost anywhere else: your identity, your visa status, the electricity bill, the road tolls, dinner. Which is excellent, once someone tells you which ten to install.

Do UAE PASS first. Most of the others get easier once it exists, and going in the wrong order means creating accounts you never needed. Everything here is free, on either phone.

UAE PASS — your national digital ID

The foundation. UAE PASS is the government's digital identity and it opens both federal and Dubai services, plus it signs documents with a legally valid signature — which takes printing, signing and scanning out of your life in one go.

It wants your Emirates ID issued first, and depending on how you register you may still need a kiosk visit to finish verification. Once that's done it stays done. The Emirates ID guide covers where this sits in the visa sequence.

DubaiNow — every government bill in one place

Super app is an overused phrase and this one earns it. DEWA, Salik, traffic fines, visa status, licence renewals — a pile of things that used to mean a different portal each, in one place.

Sign in with UAE PASS and most of it is already populated. The visa and Emirates ID status checks on their own will spare you three anxious phone calls in the first year.

RTA Dubai — nol top-ups, parking, fines

Two jobs you'll do constantly. Topping up the nol card without finding a metro machine, and paying for street parking — including extending it from wherever you're sitting, which pays for itself the first time lunch runs long.

Driving licence renewals and traffic fines are in here too. It's trying to be everything and the menus show the strain. For planning an actual journey, use the next one.

S'hail — metro, bus, tram and taxi in one route

RTA's journey planner, and better at routing than RTA's main app. What makes it worth the space is that it plans combined journeys — metro for the long stretch, taxi or scooter for the last part — which is how most Dubai journeys really work.

Google Maps is fine for a straight metro hop. S'hail is for everything else.

Neither will warn you that a 700-metre walk is a different proposition in July.

Careem — rides, food, and half your errands

The regional super app, with the deepest coverage here including hala taxis. Rides, food, groceries, bikes, payments.

Uber works and is worth keeping for a price check. But Careem is the one that turns up at 3am at the airport, and the one colleagues will assume you already have.

talabat — food, groceries, pharmacy

Widest restaurant coverage in the city, plus talabat mart for the midnight grocery run. In August, when leaving the building becomes a decision rather than a reflex, this shifts from convenience to infrastructure.

Watch the fees, which are small individually and not small monthly. The subscription is only worth it if you're ordering weekly — which, be honest, you will be.

Dubai Police — the one you'll be glad you had

Nobody installs this until they need it, which is precisely the wrong moment.

A minor traffic accident here gets reported through this app from the roadside, and your insurer will want that report before doing anything at all. It also handles fines, lost property and police clearance certificates without a station visit.

Anything serious still means calling 999 and waiting. But for the bumper tap that happens to everyone eventually, this turns a two-hour roadside afternoon into about fifteen minutes. The car accident how-to has the full sequence. Install it this week.

Property Finder — rentals, priced by the cheque

The main portal, and it has one filter you've never needed anywhere else: number of cheques. Rent is quoted annually and paid in one to twelve instalments, and how many a landlord will accept changes what you can afford far more than the headline figure does.

Bayut and Dubizzle carry much of the same stock — agents list across all three — so pick whichever interface you can stand.

Verified listings help. The unusually cheap flat in the good building has still gone.

Once you've signed, the Ejari guide covers registering the contract, which everything downstream depends on.

Smart Salik — tolls, before they become fines

Every pass under a Salik gate costs AED 4. Let the balance hit zero and the charges become penalties, which is a genuinely irritating way to lose money.

The app does one thing properly: low-balance alerts and auto top-up. Set it once, forget it.

If you're already living in DubaiNow it's arguably redundant, and if you don't drive it's nothing at all.

noon — the regional Amazon

For furnishing a flat without giving up three weekends to malls. Next-day delivery across most of the city, sales frequent enough to be worth waiting a week for, and cash on delivery still supported — which matters more than it sounds when your local account hasn't opened yet.

Amazon.ae is the alternative and usually better for electronics. Marketplace quality on both is a coin toss.

What you can leave

A VPN "to make things work". Some voice and video calling is restricted, and that's a licensing question rather than a technical one. The workarounds traded in expat groups range from unreliable to unwise. Use the licensed calling apps — Botim and the rest — and skip the argument.

Telecom apps, at first. Etisalat and du both have decent ones and you'll be pointed at the right one when you take out the line.

Attraction apps. You live here. The fountain isn't going anywhere.

A currency converter. The dirham is pegged to the dollar. Learn the one number.

Beyond the ten: Deliveroo as a talabat backup, InstaShop for groceries, and whichever padel booking app your friends are currently complaining about.