There are a number to choose from!

Moving to a new city and being away from home for a long time can be challenging and it's totally normal to feel homesick during your time as a student.

Being a student is a unique experience so it's important that you try to enjoy yourself at university and look after yourself. Here are some apps that might help distract you or ease your homesickness...

Widgetable

Want to smile every time you look at your phone? Widgetable is a new app that can do just that! With cute and customisable widgets that you can link with your friends or family, it can help you feel a lot closer to those who are far away.

Not only can you set a daily step goal with your friend and monitor each others' steps in real time, you can also choose to display the distance widget so you can always know how far away you are from your friend. These can help you get active, keep you distracted and get out of the flat even when you don't feel like it.

If you're feeling down, you can even send virtual hugs or tap the 'Miss You' widget to show your friend or family member how much you've missed them!

Facetime/Skype

Organising a quick video call is a foolproof way of feeling closer to your family and friends. Having a phone call with family is always comforting, but being able to see your loved ones' faces is so important when you're feeling homesick.

Think about inviting others to the video call and have a virtual family gathering when you need a bit of a pick-me-up! 

Daylio Journal 

Taking care of your mental health is also incredibly important as a student. If you think that your homesickness is impacting your studies or you can sense a negative change in your feelings, downloading a mental health or self-care app can help.

Homesickness can effect different people in many ways and the Daylio Journal app offers a variety of options to help you cope with your struggles, from sleep and motivation to negative thoughts. By tracking your mood and writing short journal entries you can reflect on your emotions and organise your feelings.

So taking five minutes out of your day to write down your thoughts is definitely worth it! 

BeReal

If you're looking for a low-maintenance app that can make you feel closer to others, capture what you're up to in real time with BeReal! All you need to do is take a picture once a day as soon as the notification pops up so your added friends can see what you're doing as you do it and vice versa. 

The only downfall is that if you've told your parents that you're having a study night in and are actually dancing in the bar...you might have some explaining to do. 

SharePlay

Watch a movie with your loved ones miles away, listen to music together and even watch TikTok videos at the same time with this app. Even though they might be miles away, with Shareplay you feel like they're actually there doing the activity with you.

Although this isn't technically an app, this is a great feature that you should be aware of. It's so much easier than having to try and press the play button at exactly same time and text all the way through a movie, you only end up missing the best bits! 

Meetup

Struggling to make friends with similar interests at university? This app makes meeting new people that little bit easier. All you need to do is join a group that you're interested in and start chatting, then you can all meet at events organised by the group. This is a great way to get outside and make new friends. 

You can even start your own group if you can't find anything you're interested in...you never know who'll you meet!

Handle your homesickness in the best way that suits you, these apps are a great place to start.