Dalai Lama app lets people follow his activities, travels and teachings on the iPhone

'Get official news, videos, and photos from His Holiness’s Office, including live video streams when they are available'

The free app is simply called Dalai Lama (Reuters)

The Dalai Lama has launched a new mobile app.

The 82-year-old Buddhist monk announced its release through his Twitter account, which has more than 16 million followers.

The free app is simply called Dalai Lama, and is currently only available to iPhone, iPad and iPod users.

It promises news, photos and videos related to the Dalai Lama, as well as his official schedule of events, his teachings and live video streams.

“Dalai Lama, the official app from the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, lets you stay up to date with what His Holiness is doing, his travels, and his teachings,” the app’s description reads.

“Get official news, videos, and photos from His Holiness’s Office, including live video streams when they are available.”

At the time of writing, it has a five-star rating from 63 user reviews.

It isn’t clear if the Dalai Lama app will ever come to Android users, but it has been blocked from Apple’s App Store in China.

While the Dalai Lama has embraced modern technology, he has also issued warnings about how we use it.

“Without technology humanity has no future, but we have to be careful that we don’t become so mechanised that we lose our human feelings,” he said in 2015.

A year later he declared, “Whether technology’s effect is good or bad depends on the user. It’s important that we shouldn’t be slaves to technology; it should help us.”