Today, we’re beginning to test Facebook Neighborhoods, a single destination to build and strengthen local communities on Facebook. Facebook Neighborhoods is a dedicated space within the Facebook app designed to help you connect with your neighbors, participate in your local community and discover new places nearby.
People have always used Facebook to connect with their neighbors — rallying to support local businesses, asking for recommendations and tips in local groups, offering support, or meeting neighbors who share common interests. Throughout the pandemic and especially in the past year, we’ve seen just how crucial these connections can be. Facebook Neighborhoods makes it easier to do this, bringing the local experience across Facebook into one place.
How it Works
Facebook Neighborhoods is a section of the Facebook app dedicated to your neighborhood, with a Neighborhoods profile that’s different from your main Facebook profile. To join, you’ll need to be 18 years or older and confirm your neighborhood. You can choose to join just your own neighborhood or, in addition, you also have the option to join your Nearby Neighborhoods to see neighbors and posts from your surrounding neighborhoods.
Meet and Connect With Your Neighbors
When you create your Neighborhoods profile, you can choose to add interests, favorite places and a bio so people can get to know you within the Neighborhoods Directory. You can write a post to introduce yourself, participate in discussions on posts from fellow neighbors and answer Neighborhoods Questions in the dedicated feed. People can also take on roles within Neighborhoods, including socializers who spark friendly conversations.
Engage With Your Local Community
You can find vibrant local Facebook groups about your area, or you can create your own Neighborhoods-bounded groups based on your interests. Admins of local Facebook Groups can add their Group into Neighborhoods to make it easy for people living nearby to find it, and people using Neighborhoods can create or join Neighborhoods-bounded groups that are accessible within the Neighborhoods experience. You can create Neighborhoods groups for local bird watchers, or discuss last night’s game with fellow basketball lovers in your area.
Discover New Places and Get Local Recommendations
If you’re looking for advice on where to get the best coffee or a locksmith in the area, you can use the Recommendations feature in Neighborhoods to get suggestions from your local community. Also, the Neighborhoods Favorite Polls allow neighbors to vote on their favorite places and businesses in the area, including restaurants, parks and more.
Moderation and Safety
We built Neighborhoods to be safe and inclusive, with Neighborhoods Guidelines to help keep interactions among neighbors relevant and kind. Neighborhoods have moderators who use these Guidelines to review posts and comments in the Neighborhoods feed. If a post or comment appears to go against the Neighborhoods Guidelines, moderators can take action by hiding the post, which will then be reviewed by Facebook Community Operations. If the post violates Facebook Community Standards, the post will be removed from Neighborhoods. You can also report a post or comment to a Neighborhoods moderator or via Facebook’s reporting tool if you believe it doesn’t follow the Guidelines or Facebook’s Community Standards.
You can block someone on Facebook or Neighborhoods and we won’t inform them. When someone you’ve blocked is logged into Facebook, they won’t be able to find you in the Neighborhoods directory.
Privacy
Neighborhoods is an opt-in experience within the Facebook app so you choose whether to join Neighborhoods and create a profile. Once you join Neighborhoods, you can decide whether to join just your neighborhood or also your Nearby Neighborhoods.
Your Neighborhoods profile includes your name, profile and cover photo from your Facebook profile and the name of your neighborhood. You can also add optional information to your profile, such as a bio. When you join your own Neighborhood, these neighbors will be able to see your posts and Neighborhoods profile, including the name of your neighborhood. If you decide to join your Nearby Neighborhoods as well, these additional neighbors will also see this information.
When you create a group in Neighborhoods, it can be private or open and visible or hidden. If your Neighborhood Group is private, only members of the group who have joined the neighborhood can see posts. If the group is open, anyone in the neighborhood or Nearby Neighborhoods (if Nearby Neighborhoods is selected) can see who’s in the group and what they post. If the group is visible, anyone in the neighborhood can search for and find this group. If the group is hidden, only members can find the group.
Your activity and information in Neighborhoods may be used to personalize your experience across Facebook Products, including ads you may see. This means that your activity on Facebook may influence what you see in Neighborhoods, and your activity in Neighborhoods may influence what you see elsewhere on Facebook Products. Learn more about how we collect, use and share your data in the Facebook Data Policy. You can access your Neighborhoods data in our Access Your Information and Download Your Information tools.
Availability
This feature is currently available in Canada, and will begin to roll out to select US cities soon.
