Hey There, Neighbor!

It all started when…

On a walk with my husband, we noticed a neighbor’s garage door was open. It wouldn’t normally be an unusual occurrence except for the fact it was so late at night! Being the somewhat antisocial millennials we were, we worried that simply running up and knocking on a person’s door would be a rude thing to do at such an hour. Who knows? Maybe they meant to leave all their goods on display for all to see? Ultimately things worked out and nothing was reported stolen on Nextdoor (ha). But this sparked a new idea.

What if we could just Airdrop them a message, or better yet, why not use an existing app that already connects you with your neighbors to do so?

The problem was: we did not know who lived in that house…if only that didn’t matter!

Introducing Hey There, Neighbor

an Add-on feature to the messaging system of the Nextdoor app that allows you the ability to anonymously “Airdrop” messages to houses nearby to alert them to important information.

Research time!

If this app were to work, there would be a few key parameters we would have to follow:

• Both the sender and receiver would initially remain anonymous by name, with the sender only identifying the receiver by their location on a map and an icon showing the receiver was opted into this feature.

• Would be limited to only users who opt in within the neighborhood, no one registered outside the neighborhood would have access to messaging neighborhoods they are not a part of (safety).

• You must be in the vicinity of the home in order to send a message (much like Airdrop) So no random people from the other side of the neighborhood prank messaging just because! There would be a certain block-radius you would be limited to near your actual physical location.

• Safety measures would, of course, be taken to make sure that the neighbors remain anonymous if they so choose, and a block feature would be available.