[Elena]

We have a tight knit community, and we want to keep everyone aware of what’s going on
Unfortunately, our HOA is still building up a financial safety net, so I’d rather not propose a texting system that requires payment

Is anyone aware of an app or other mechanism that we can use for free that will keep (those who want to subscribe) in the loop on neighborhood events, lost pets, etc via text message?

Google got me nowhere

TIA

[Jeannine]

Would creating a WhatsApp group work?

[Audrey]

Every neighborhood I’ve lived in the last 10 years has had a private fb group.

I’ve never needed anything more intrusive than that.

[Kent]

A text messaging group seems like a bad idea.
I don’t want to get 50 group messages a day from bickering Karens.

[Rayleana]

We use a closed fb group for the neighborhood. People that want to join must answers questions.

Its a large neighborhood of probably 500 houses. Works very well bc a street will be tight knit.

But still helps the rest of the hood to know for example, a house or car were broken into on the other side of the subdivision.

And people dont have to be annoyed with a text chain.

And next door app… isnt as popular as fb.

Any spammers that might sneak past are caught pretty quick bc they try to post spam self promotion.

We self police. And its been great for connecting a sprawling hood like ours.

Literally everyone uses fb over the age of 30.

We do a neighborhood yard sale a few times a year.

And the fb group is advertised on the banners to let neighbors know to join.

[Katie]

Please make sure to include renters, if you have any. We rented in a HOA and emails went to the owner and never forwarded to us.

Obviously, everything doesn’t apply to renters, but a lot of things do.

[Jen]

It’s not text message, but an alternative – our neighbors use WhatsApp for our sub-neighborhood, but it requires installing a phone app (with the option to message on computer + full keyboard).

As an admin for a school related group, I migrated a WhatsApp group to a WhatsApp Community.

It has an announcement only channel in addition to subgroups that can be created.

If you’re familiar with Slack, it’s like that, but lower barrier to entry using cell phone numbers as accounts than creating another username/password.

We don’t use Facebook because not everyone uses Facebook or has an account (or wants an account), and Facebook doesn’t show everyone everything because of its algorithm based on

activity/interactions/engagement and other sometimes non-transparent factors.

[Ron]

Our neighborhood uses a private Facebook group. Works well.

[Caro]

Private fb group. My parents neighborhood even made a small sign for the entrance that says join our fb group

[Jill]

We have a private neighborhood Facebook group and it works great for us! Lost pets, first dibs on anything being given away, babysitting…

my husband and I went out at 1:00 this morning to help a neighbor we didn’t even know get a bat out of her house after she posted to the group

We have several admins, and people have to actually live in the neighborhood (or own a neighborhood business) in order to join.

Zero politics allowed.

[Aatiyah]

WhatsApp but create it as a Community vs just a group text so you can highlight events and stuff going on.

[Lynne]

Current neighborhood uses Nextdoor. Last one used private Facebook page.

[Sandra]

I know people with neighborhood Facebook group. WhatsApp would be my choice but there are be edits to both.

WhatsApp gets a little u wieldy when there are more than a handful

[Kaylie]

I’m on an HOA board and we have an HOA built website that allows us to build a member database and we can communicate through emails or texts and keep the website updated with events, newsletters, calendar, share documents, bill for dues, etc.

It’s $750/yr and pretty easy to administer.

[Author]

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