Neighborhood Social App Nextdoor is launching a redesigned version of the service called “New Nextdoor.” The app adds local news, real-time alerts, and AI-powered features called “Faves” designed to discover local businesses and spots. Nextdoor also updated the overall design to make it look more modern.
Released 15 years ago, Nextdoor has long served as a popular platform for neighborhood conversations. But ultimately, its growth stagnated and engagement decreased as the platform became associated with posts that contained misinformation and racism.
Now, the company aims to turn things around and attract more users by making the platform more friendly, convenient and timely. With this redesign, Nextdoor is considering increasing the quality and volume of local information on its platform, Nextdoor CEO and co-founder Nirav Tolia told TechCrunch.
Nextdoor partners with 3,500 local publications in the US, UK and Canada to bring news to the platform. Notable outlets include the San Francisco Standard, London Standard and Toronto Star.
Image credit: NextDoor
“The reason this is so important to us is historically that Nextdoor has 100% relied on user-generated content, only content created by neighbors,” says Tolia. “It was a great source of information. But you need to introduce local news to really see if it's happening in your neighborhood. So this is the first time you've had a third-party publisher use distribution.”
Tolia said these are not commercial contracts as Nextdoor does not pay for the content and the publishers don't pay the company either. Furthermore, NextDoor does not host any content. Simply displaying headings, snippets, images and directing traffic to the publication. Users can discuss the news in the comments section below each post.
Tolia said the publisher is just the first new type of content to come to Nextdoor as the platform plans to allow small businesses, schools and organizations to have a native presence in the app in the future.
Regarding new alerts, Nextdoor shows real-time updates for weather, traffic, power outages, storms, wildfires and more. These alerts appear on dynamic neighborhood maps, allowing neighbors to have a timely conversation about safety and preparation.
The service is affiliated with Samdesk and Weather.com and has enhanced these alerts, including the Weather Channel App and Weather.com.
Image credit: NextDoor
“When there is something that definitely deserves attention, we call it the yellow state, and we make sure that it is on top,” Tria said. “When there's something important, we'll call it a red state and that's going to take over the entire app, because at that point you don't mind the conversation your neighbor has about pickleballs. You really don't care about reviews of new restaurants with local publishers in it.
Tolia noted that these alerts are hyperlocalized because Nextdoor is built on a geospatial platform. So unlike Amber Alerts, which are sent to everyone in a particular location, Nextdoor says that you can personalize your alerts to your home. For example, if there is a power outage, the app will send an alert to someone who is generating power.
As for the favourite launch, Tria says recommendations from neighbors are more valuable than going to Google or ChatGpt when looking for a local restaurant or a place to spend time with family on weekends. The new Faves feature also allows you to view a curated list of recommendations and ask specific questions to get suggestions.
“We have LLMs in every neighborhood we've had our neighbor conversations for 15 years, and we can answer questions about that information in a truly compelling way,” Tria said. “So, as far as we know, we have the first truly local AI driven by the conversations of our neighbors.”
You can ask questions like, “What is the best place to hike with your kids?” Receive a quick, summary response that pulls information from posts from real users of NextDoor. Under the summary, you can view and click on the post that references the summary.
Image credit: NextDoor
“This content is unique to Nextdoor,” says Tolia. “We've never shared it. It's not indexed by Google. It's not available in ChatGpt. We know where you live, so we can target information to you in the most relevant way.”
Tolia noted that the unique value of Nextdoor is its digitization and capture of local word of mouth, a type of focus information that is not available on platforms like Google or ChatGpt.
“Give me some interesting examples. If you want to know all the lemonade stands that kids are operating in the neighborhood, you can't go to Google Maps and find them,” Tria said. “You can't go to ChatGpt and ask questions. The only way is to ask your neighbors. That's the next door. So are we trying to do this? I recommend that you feel this hyperlocal.