How many of your neighbours do you know? How many of them did you know 30 years ago?  The growth of cities, mobility, and distrust have weakened our relationships with our neighbours.  The internet is here to help us recover the past.

If you don’t know your neighbours, now is the time for you to try one of these apps which will help you “create a neighbourhood”.

Nextdoor

This is the most extensive neighbour network.  Available in 8 countries, Nextdoor allows you to create a private social network for the people in your neighbourhood.  You can get to know each other, exchange information about what’s happening in the neighbourhood, give warnings (did you lose your cat?), answer questions, and more.

 

¿Tienes sal? 

Its name hints at its spirit: getting back to the neighbourhood networks of yesteryear and contact with those that live closest to us.   ¿Tienes sal? wants to help you break the ice and take your relationships from the app to real life.  It already has more than 30,000 users in Spain and privacy is guaranteed, as the information is protected from Google searches.

Nebenan.de

The biggest neighbourhood social network in Germany was the inspiration for the Spanish app ¿Tienes sal?.  On Nebenan.de, meetings can be organised so that neighbours can get to know each other, you can recommend shops and restaurants, or even offer to look after a neighbour’s children when there’s no school.  What a dream!

Entre voisines

Entre voisines is not run by neighbours, but rather by a real-estate agency.  The Bouygues group decided to improve the services they offered to their clients by making available an app of their own creation which allows people who live in the same building to contact each other.

Allo voisins

This app, which is 100% French, is focused on renting things and offering services between neighbours.  On Allovoisins, services are categorised (gardening, repairs, animals etc.) and often have a small fee attached.