Neighbourly, Google’s hyperlocal social networking app is shutting down

Neighbourly joins Google’s failed efforts to build a social networking platform.

Google admitted that the Neighbourly app didn’t grow as it had hoped. (REUTERS)

Once touted as the new Facebook challenger, Google's Neighbourly hyperlocal social networking app is shutting down next month.

Google's Neighbourly app, which never came out of the beta phase, will stop working starting May 12. The company is asking users to download the copy of the data via Google Takeout on or before October 12 2020.

Google had launched Neighbourly app in June 2018 with a big focus on the markets like India. The hyperlocal social networking platform features crowd-sourced recommendations for different services. Google admitted that the Neighbourly app didn't grow as it had hoped.

"We launched Neighbourly as a Beta app to connect you with your neighbours and make sharing local information more human and helpful. As a community, you've come together to celebrate local festivals, shared crucial information during floods, and answered over a million questions," said Google on why the app is shutting down.

"We plan to take the lessons learned from Neighbourly and use them to improve our other products. If you want to keep sharing your local knowledge with your neighbours, we encourage you to become a Google Maps Local Guide," it added.

The Neighbourly app joins Google's failed attempts at building any kind of social networking platform in a bid to compete with Facebook. So far, Google has built social networking platforms such as Google+, Google Buzz, and Google Wave - all failed to take off.