Google has recently launched the much awaited Google Neighbourly app nationwide across India. With this app in your phone, you can now easily tap into your daily neighbourhood locality to seek help and ask questions, relying on your neighbours to help you out. Rolled out as a part of Google’s ambitious Next Billion Users team, this app has already received much attention from users across the country.
Neighbourly was launched in Mumbai back in May and quickly spread across Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Coimbatore, Kota, Mysore and Vizag. Aimed at helping people source out and gather local information from their neighbours, this platform is soon to be launched across other cities, starting with Delhi and Bengaluru. Already a hit among users, Google has already reported a positive download rate with around 1.5 million downloads from its servers with around another half million on its wait-list.
The app is being released on a demand basis across cities. According to Google, in a press release on Wednesday, Delhi and Bengaluru topped the waiting list and therefore this cities would be the first after its debut on May, to avail the services of this app. With the waiting list growing, the company is planning to add more cities and make the app available across Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Kolkata, Chandigarh, Lucknow and Indore in the next few weeks. The demand of this app is growing nationwide and Google plans to roll out Neighbourly on a daily basis, so that cities outside the wait-list could be added at the earliest.
The initial roll out being a great success, Google took feedback from its users to upgrade and personalize the app according to the local needs of the cities. Users have demanded the option to avail and join different neighbourhoods. Taking into account these feedback’s new add-ons such as automatic suggestions on the nearest neighbourhood, options to switch between multiple neighbourhoods personalized questions and tips on how to pose a response- attracting questions have been personalized into the app.
In our research, we’ve found that most of life happens within a 1km radius of where you live. We’ve also found that when finding local information, people prefer to ask or discuss with another person. Neighbourly makes it easy to seek advice and recommendations from neighbours who know the area and have similar tastes. That’s why we built Neighbourly, that’s why people use it, and that’s why we’re so excited to make it available to everybody across India.” – Ben Fohner, Google’s Next Billion Users team Senior Product Manager.
Every city has its distinct personality that represents the essence of its various neighbourhoods. With questions varying from city to city, these questions help Google personalize the app according to the needs of its users. Neighbourly also helps people stay updated about the on-going in their neighbourhood. Questions such as Gas leaks from Immediate neighbour’s home to celebrations on the street, everything could be easily known directly from neighbours with just a tap on your phone.
Working on devices having at least Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, people now can easily download Neighbourly through Google pay and avail its services.
