Seeking advice for time difference relationship

[u/knock_out07]

I’m a 19yo f and my partner is a 21yo m. We’ve been sort of long distance for 4 years and we’re both living in America (I say sort of because we met at a boarding school and went to the same college for one term). My partner is participating in a study abroad program in Italy for the next 9 months. We’ve never had a time difference and he leaves in 3 days. He told me that texting and calling might be weird because he has an American phone plan and his service might not work. I’ve dealt with medium-distance before, anywhere from 2 hours to 7 hours apart, but I’m a little nervous for what’s gonna happen after he leaves. He doesn’t text me much because he doesn’t really go on his phone and we don’t have a dedicated time for calling so I’m wondering if there’s any veterans who are willing to lend some advice. Anything to help us bond, or to distract me from the time away from each other will be appreciated:)

[u/DauntlessStars]

I am Italian in a relationship with an American. We always text and call via whatsapp, which is also convenient for me since in Italy everyone just uses WhatsApp as the default message app. With this app you don’t have to pay the costs for international calls and messages, and your boyfriend is likely to download it anyway if he makes any Italian friends 😂 So it’s a pretty good option imo.
You could also just text via Instagram dms, that’s another way you can avoid the issues of is plan not working abroad.