Smartphones for travel are increasingly important as technology has an influential role in our lives, changing the way we communicate, shop, and entertain ourselves. Technology is also influencing the way we travel. We are greatly benefiting from our smartphones in this particular industry. Previously complicated processes, such as finding and booking a vacation, are being simplified to improve the entire experience. Let’s look at how are our smartphones becoming key features of the travel experience.
Smartphones to Choose for Travel
The first aspect of travel is choosing where to go – and online services are in their hundreds to help in this respect. A study found that 80% of people booked travel online, while 90% use the internet to make their choice.
Voice search for travel is something that is expected to take off in the next few years, with a survey finding that half of travelers use voice search for their trips. In places such as China and Turkey, that figure is 70%. Future technology will look at optimizing voice search to make travel sites more appealing to those who use voice search. Sites will aim to ensure that the vacation ideas they are offering match the methods people are using to search, and appealing to as wide an audience as possible.
There is a slew of smartphone apps to help you book travel – such as Hopper, Skyscanner, Kiwi, and Skiplagged – which can be compared on the go. Hotel booking sites such as Airbnb and Trivago are also optimized for mobile users, while TripAdvisor’s app allows travelers to check ratings and reviews for potential destinations.
Reviews have become a deciding factor in choosing where to stay or what to experience. Indeed, 80% of TripAdvisor users feel more confident in booking when seeing positive word-of-mouth reviews from other travelers.
Smartphones for Entertainment
Our smartphones are optimized to give better entertainment solutions now than they once were. This comes in very handy on long-haul flights or sat lazing around the pool. Gone are the days of taking a spare pay-as-you-go phone on vacation. Our smartphones for travel are as much a part of the experience as our guidebooks, which can also be found online, and our sunglasses.
Streaming services such as Netflix and Spotify allow engagement without the internet – allowing you to listen and watch while in airplane mode. The need to maintain our entertainment habits abroad is important. With around 138 million Spotify subscribers, the need to keep content available in different time zones and with limited internet is important, too.
We have gotten used to having the same entertainment we have at home as we have on the go and come to expect this service all across the entertainment sector. This expectation has led to providers giving this service as standard. For example, new gaming innovations like Apple Arcade provide an extensive catalogue of mobile titles in the palm of a player’s hand.
Furthermore, as we evidently like to have easy access to multiple titles all in one place, online casino sites like Betway focus on their fully-optimized mobile site to allow online casino fans to engage with games such as blackjack, poker, roulette, and slots. This shows how prevalent the call for mobile compatibility is, potentially being an advantage over competitors.
Mobile gaming has grown to encompass more than 50% of all global gaming revenue. The industry was previously critiqued for being too draining on battery life, so modern smartphones have circumvented this problem. For example, the iPhone 11 Pro has an A13 Bionic chip, one of the fastest smartphone processors available. The focus on gaming for new smartphone models shows that the industry is an important consideration when it comes to purchasing a new phone and your next trip.
Smartphones While You’re Away
Smartphones can also be used to help protect your home while away – or at least give you peace of mind. Technology such as Ring allows you to monitor the front door with its video set up. To use an existing piece of kit, a spare smartphone can be turned into a camera with Camio and store 30 days of content on the cloud to monitor your property while away. The Belkin Wemo Smart Light Switch home technology set up allows you to turn your house lights on and off remotely using your smartphone.
The car engine had barely cooled when this bear made it onto the sunroof, trying to get to the snacks inside.
“20 minutes after the bear left, (my friends) remembered they left a can of peanuts and went to retrieve it. They didn’t realize the damage until morning.” said Adam. pic.twitter.com/654Ms0ERuw
— Ring (@ring) October 7, 2020
Moreover, communications technology has improved so much that people can not only make calls seamlessly while on vacation but can video chat and have uninterrupted communication. Checking these features should be part of any travel planning. Smartphones for travel, and the network of internet services in most destinations mean that people can communicate with those back home while on vacation and even work in the same way they would at home.
Are Our Smartphones Becoming Key Features of the Travel Experience?
Smartphones are integral to the travel experience. Whether we use them before we go or during the trip, our smartphones help speed up processes and streamline the part of traveling that can be time-consuming. They also provide us with something to do while there and give us peace of mind when we are miles from home.
