Google has always focused on helping the audience. A year ago, the tech-giant launched a question-answer based mobile app which ended up creating quite a buzz in the market. The app allows customers to post questions and answers to other users’ queries as well.
However, the app only targets the nearby audience, which means one can only get answers from the local audience. The main focus of the app is to help customers get familiar with their neighbourhood and who can answer better than the local audience.
Why Do We Need an App Like Neighborly?
In today’s tech-savvy world where technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) are on the rise, why do we need an app like Neighbourly? Why would a customer bother to use such apps when they can use AI-based apps like Siri and Google Assistant to get answers to their queries?
The one reason Google has chosen human intelligence over Artificial Intelligence is high accuracy. No matter how advance AI gets, it’s still a machine responding to user queries, which means there’s always room for error. Humans, on the other hand, are most likely to respond with the most suitable answers for a certain user query.
For instance, a local can answer better than any voice assistant when someone is asking for the best places to have Sushi. This is the reason why there’s a huge scope for developing a question answer mobile app like Neighborly. In fact, this is one of the most prominent mobile app ideas in the market right now.
How Does Neighborly Work?
If you’re looking to develop an app like Neighborly, it is important to understand how the app works. Like any other crowdsource platform, the users can either post their own queries or click on the “Tap to Help” button to respond to already existing user queries.
The customer, however, can only view questions posted by the nearby audience. The app tracks user’s GPS location to display the list of questions. Google has also ensured that user information is secured all the times.
So, whenever someone posts a question or answers to a query, the app only displays his name and a profile picture. All the other information is kept secured and is not shared with anyone at all.
Furthermore, the app accepts both text and voice entries in user’s preferred language. It means that users can either type-in the question/answer or simply use the voice assistant.
Features of an App Like Neighborly
Any app like Neighborly is likely to have the following features.
Sign Up/Login-Existing customers can login using their username and password while new users can register by entering their contact details.
Question/Answers-Post questions and provide answers to the existing queries.
Voice Recognition-Customers who want to use voice assistant to post questions/answers.
Push Notifications-Everytime someone answers the customer’s queries, he’ll be notified via push notifications.
Delete Questions-As soon as the customer has received the right answer to his query, he can delete the question from his profile.
Profile View-View profile to find a list of posted questions and the number of users who follow you.
Like Button-Appreciate the answers posted on your question.
GPS Tracking-Automatically detects customer’s location to display all the questions asked by nearby customers.
Social Share-Social Media Integrations so that customers can share a question across their social media profiles.
Post Comment-Comment on someone else’s answers. Customers can also like or dislike an answer.
View Rewards-Customers will receive certain reward points for answering every question. They can check the reward status within their profile.
Block and Report a Person-The user can also block/report a person who have answered inappropriately to his questions.
How to Develop a Mobile App Like Neighborly?
Developing an app like Neighborly is a critical process. Before starting with the actual development, you must figure out the platform on which you want to release your app. Deciding the platform is a critical part of developing any app.
While deciding the platform, always keep your target audience in mind. For instance, the majority of your audience use an iPhone, you need to develop an app for iOS platform. However, if your audience is a mix of Android and iOS users, developing a hybrid (cross-platform) app is the most suitable option.
Once you have decided on the platform, it’s time to hire a team of professional developers. If you’re a business owner, it is less likely that you have an in-house development team. In such a scenario, outsourcing the project to an app development company or freelance developers is the right choice.
While hiring the developers, make sure to go through the portfolio to understand their expertise. It is important that the development team that you hire has the expertise to build a crowdsource app like Neighborly. You can also take a look at the customer reviews to check whether the developers can meet your expectations or not.
How Much Does it Cost to Develop an App Like Neighborly?
The cost to develop a question-answer based app like Neighborly depends on several factors, starting from the platform to the features you want to integrate in your app. In general, the cost can range from anywhere between $5,000 to $15,000. Moreover, it also depends on the developers that you hire. For instance, professional app development companies have higher development rates while freelance developers charge comparatively less.
Wrapping Things Up
A crowd-source app like Neighborly has the potential to attract customers and become a well-recognized brand in the market. Customers always prefer taking advice from locals while looking for a restaurant, hotel, clothing store or even a guitar shop.
As a result, a question-answer based app can help such customers to get in touch with local audience and find answers to any queries regarding the locality. So, if you’re looking forward to investing in a revenue generating and feature-rich mobile app, developing a Neighborly clone is the right way to go.
Sunit Panwar is chief technology officer at RV Technologies. He is very passionate about implementing new technologies in developing innovative mobile app development and website development. He constantly looks forward to various interesting ideas and ways to implement them with advanced functionalities. He keeps on inspiring the developers with new functionalities, ideas as well as tools.