Google has introduced Neighbourly today, May 31, in India, a dedicated neighborhood app that helps you communicate with your neighbors regarding updated info on availabilities and more of your locality. The tech giant has also launched Files Go, China’s file management tool.
Google Neighbourly lets you instantly add questions routed to relevant neighbors, where they can respond by writing back with the most updated and accurate info. Google’s Voice Recognition can be used for asking and answering neighborhood questions. English and 8 Indian languages have been added so far.
The UI of the app enables users to swipe left and right through questions to give answers. Google clearly states: “The more you answer, the more you’re recognized for your local expertise.” Also, every answer not only directly informs the participating neighbor but also keeps the entire neighborhood informed, for the answers still remain for others to see.
There’s a Neighbourly Promise in the app for every member when they join. The aim is to keep the community in the app safe and helpful. Sharing personal details like contact numbers and full names are kept private.
The beta version of the app has been made available in Google Play Store starting today for all smartphones in Mumbai running Android 4.3 Jelly Bean or higher. The people outside Mumbai can join the waitlist and invite their neighbors. Google hints at a country-wide rollout soon and invites initial users to provide feedback for further development of Neighbourly.
As for China, Google’s Files Go is the second app the company has launched in China after the Google Translate app was launched last year that is being handled by the company’s local joint venture. In case you’ve missed it, this is worth mentioning due to the eight-year-old ban on search engine’s services in the country.
The China-specific version of Google Files Go is a storage management tool for smartphones, and it has a small user base as compared to other flagship search and app store products of Google. It is also the company’s first app launched on third-party app stores in China hosted by Baidu, Xiaomi, Huawei, and others.
Files Go helps users free up storage space and has been developed by Next Billion of Google. This is a program with the ambition to develop markets like India and Indonesia, where there are large communities using low-end smartphones.
This is Google’s recent step to re-establish its position in a major tech market like that of China after the services had been banned.
