Real-time chat help neighbors make plans and grow bonds across shared interests, identities and locations
Interested in meeting other pet parents in your community? Or finding an activity partner for hiking or an afterwork soccer league? Want to connect with others in your apartment building or dorm who are currently just a name on a mail slot? Welcome to Nextdoor Communities!
Communities is a new feature that enables groups of neighbors to connect and communicate with one another in real-time. Through real-time chat, neighbors can make plans, share information and updates, and get things done together. It’s a great way for apartment buildings, condo associations, school clubs, sports teams, hobbyist groups, or other organizations to establish and grow their connection.
To Create a Nextdoor Community:
- Select Chats from the left side menu (web) or the bottom of the screen (mobile).
- Select the ‘+’ icon.
- Select New community.
- Select the scope of your Community: My building, Nearby, or My city.
- View the map and confirm the location is correct. Please note: For Nearby, you will be able to adjust the distance the Community reaches. Tap Next.
- Set the privacy of your Community to Private or Public. Tap Next. Please note: Once you set the privacy for your Community, it can’t be changed.
- Choose 1-3 categories to describe your Community. Tap Next.
- Provide a name and add a description to your Community. Tap Next.
- Add a photo to the Community.
- Click Done.
Now that you’ve created your new Community, it’s time to invite others to join. Click the Invite button at the top of a Community to see a number of ways to invite neighbors:
- Search for a neighbor or choose from a list of suggested neighbors (a list based on both geography and your connections) and click Send.
- Click the Copy link button to copy an invitation link that you can send via text, email, social media post, or any other way you wish to share it.
- Click the Email button which will automatically generate a draft invitation email using your default email client.
- Click the Contacts button to upload a contact list to Nextdoor and select the neighbors you wish to invite. Clicking the Share button at the top of the Community will also allow you to copy a link, send an email, or share a link to the Community on Facebook, WhatsApp, or X.
- Share an invite to your new Community to your Nextdoor Feed, to really encourage new members to join!
Once your Community is created and populated with neighbors, it’s a good idea to explore the chat function. Every Community has a general chat that all members of the community are automatically part of, as well as an Announcement chat for Community admins to share guidelines and updates. With all other chats, just click through to see what topics are being discussed, and click the Join button to participate.
With a new school year coming up on the horizon, Communities is a great place for parents to connect or coordinate; with summer heat and hurricane season bringing power outages and other issues to neighborhoods nationwide, Communities is an excellent way to communicate with and support other residents in your apartment building or neighborhood; and as we enter peak moving season, Communities offers a space for new neighbors to meet others in the community and start putting down roots.
To learn more about Communities visit: https://help.nextdoor.com/s/article/Introducing-Nextdoor-Communities?language=en_US
Or to create your own, go to: https://nextdoor.com/inbox?create_community=true.