What is the best app for neighbourhood communication?

Apps can be helpful for bringing neighbours together

Have you ever wondered what is the best app for strengthening neighbourhood community? Neighbours can provide us with a sense of community belonging, social connectedness and the security that others nearby care about us. It is also beneficial to our health! Thing is, this is only true if we know our neighbours. Which we know can be hard to do. Even awkward!

Luckily, we have a few specialized options when it comes to communicating with our neighbours via our smart phones. In this article, we will talk about the pros and cons of the best apps for neighbourhood communications. We will cover everything from price, to ease of use, to how respectful they are of your privacy.

Can we have real connections on social media?

Neighbours can provide us with a sense of community belonging, social connectedness and the security that others nearby care about us. This is only true if we know our neighbours.

Social platforms promise that we can have real connections with our neighbours, but do they deliver on the promise? And what is the price you have to pay for that promise?

The 4 best apps for connecting with neighbours

Social platforms promise that we can have real connections with our neighbours, but do they deliver on the promise? And what is the price you have to pay for that promise?

Available on Android?	Yes.	Yes.	Yes.	Yes.
Available on iPhone?	Yes.	Yes.	Yes.	Yes.
Helpful when you don’t know your neighbour’s name?	Yes. Designed to have you approach neighbours in order to connect them to the app	No. You need to know their name or email/socials in order to search or send invite.	No. You need to know their name in order to search or send invite..	No. You need to know their name, phone number or email/socials in order to search or send invite.
Initiates physical face-to-face conversations?	Yes.	No.	No.	No.
Conversations between you and neighbour are private?	Yes. You control who sees which message. Messages are encrypted. Algorithm Free.	No. Everyone in Group sees posts. Next Door uses info from subscribers to sell to advertisers.	No. Everyone in Group, plus who they share message with. Meta uses info from your message in algorithms.	Yes. WhatsApp promises encrypted messaging, but does share personal information with Meta.
Control over who you connect with?	Yes. Since connecting requires physical access to the neighbour’s phone, you only connect with people you want to.	Depends. You control who you connect with for 1:1 communication. But you receive all messages via the Group function for all members of the group including unwanted messages from strangers.	Depends. You control who you connect with for 1:1 communication. But you receive all messages via the Group function for all members of the group. including unwanted messages from strangers.	Yes. Although strangers can still connect with you through work-arounds.
Contains advertising?	No.	No.	Yes.	No.
No unwanted messages?	Yes. As you control who you connect with, you reduce unwanted communication.	No. You have no control over incoming posts.	No. You have no control over incoming posts from other members of the group.	No. You have no control over incoming posts from other members of the group.
Easy to block someone in case of harassment?	Yes. You can delete the user. They can’t add you again as you initiate consent in person, not via a link or being searchable.	Depends. You can report and block someone in the platform. But they may be able to be added again by using another user/email.	Depends. You can report and block someone in the platform. But they may be able to be added again by using another user/email.	Depends. You can block someone in the platform. But they may be able to be added again by using another user/email.
Cost (financial as well as privacy)	Free trial with subscription. Trial is 30 days. Subscription $2.50/month if more than 10 connections   Provides true privacy – there is no advertisers and reselling of personal info	You pay with privacy. Have to find the fine print to opt out of reselling personal info to advertisers.	You pay with your privacy. Unwanted advertising and a lot of manual edits to control advertising access to you.	You pay with your privacy to Meta including phone numbers of you and your contacts, how often you open the app, your approximate location and the battery level of your phone.
Organize connections into Groups	Yes – Your connections can be organized into several groups like friends, neighbours, family, book club	No, once you are part of the neighbourhood group, you can not organize people into special groups	No, once you are part of the neighbourhood group, you can not organize people into special groups	Yes – for purpose to chat to many people at once.

Good Neighbour App: a great solution to communicate with neighbours when privacy and control are important to you.

Among the top apps for neighbourhood communication, the Good Neighbour App proves to be a compelling option. The app’s primary strength lies in its ability to facilitate meaningful interactions between neighbors, thereby fostering a strong sense of community belonging. There are no strangers on the app providing higher levels of security. While it may lack some advanced features present in other apps, this makes it simpler to us. The Good Neighbour App focus on consensual connections and getting together in person instead of lengthy chat messages makes it a reliable choice.

If privacy, control of who you get messages from and an advertising free environment are important in connecting with your neighbours – choose Good Neighbour App.

If privacy, control of who you get messages from in an advertising free environment are important – choose Good Neighbour App