Meta is canceling Facebook Neighborhoods product before it is even available to most users. It was first made available to select Canadian users in 2020, with the social network touting it as a dedicated space where people can interact with their local communities.
It expanded its tests last year and provided access to various communities in Canada and the United States.
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According to a screenshot of a post written by a Meta product manager and obtained by social media consultant Matt Navarra, the company’s Neighborhoods test will end on October 1st. After that date, it will no longer be available.
Groups centered on local communities aren’t new or uncommon on the website, but Neighborhoods spaces have unique features.
They enable users to create separate profiles where they can limit their public information if they don’t want people in their immediate vicinity to know too much about them. Through the Neighborhoods tab, users can also find groups for specific activities that are populated with locals.
In their announcement, the product manager did not explain why Meta is shutting down Neighborhoods. According to TechCrunch, the company initially invested in the project after seeing how popular Nextdoor was.
Facebook is shutting down its Nextdoor-clone Neighborhoods on Oct 1st
h/t @grigg_digital pic.twitter.com/Zob6ny5gf5
— Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) September 1, 2022
However, it is said to have decided that the best thing to do in this case is to allow people to form their own local communities using the website’s existing Groups feature.
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Another possibility is that Meta is discontinuing the project as part of its cost-cutting efforts.
It also recently announced the closure of the standalone Facebook Gaming app, which could be a move to help the company weather what Mark Zuckerberg describes as “one of the worst downturns [it has] seen in recent history.”
