For neighbors who want to borrow a cup of sugar, there’s an app for that

Gone are the good old days. It’s hard for us to feel truly connected in a world where so much face-to-face time has been replaced by automation and social media. How often do we peek our heads over the backyard fence anymore like Wilson in the show Home Improvement and have a chat with the guy or girl next door?

Reaching out to our community isn’t a concept that’s gone out of style, it’s just changed a little. The MyNeighbor app has innovated a new way to help us build relationships with our neighbors through the online marketplace. Yes, there’s an app for that! Like a Craigslist for locals, the app facilitates the exchange of goods and services like pressure washers, dog walking hours, or a pickup truck for that big piece of furniture you need to move. Neighbors can donate funds they earn through the app to their favorite charity or set the money aside for a rainy day fund. Who doesn’t love having a little extra cash around?

Choosing to build the marketplace themselves was too heavy of an upfront investment for the MyNeighbor team. They needed to rely on existing technologies that helped customers  communicate via SMS, email, or the website without missing a beat. As a startup in a new market, the MyNeighbor app needed a communications partner who could do all of this without charging them an arm and a leg. That’s when Bandwidth stepped in.

Bandwidth got to work making the client’s requests a reality with a simple pay-as-you-go plan that included practical how-to guides, sample code and API helper libraries. In one short development cycle, a messaging solution was prototyped and delivered. MyNeighbor was able to launch a messaging solution on an efficient timeline at a surprisingly low cost.

As it turns out, borrowing a cup of sugar or a pressure washer doesn’t need to be complicated. The desire to connect and communicate with our neighbors is the same, even while technology has enhanced the ways we communicate. The MyNeighbor app is one technology helping to bridge the gap.