Gyms are closed. Parties with friends are cancelled and neighbors can’t come over for a coffee. The pandemic has made us socially disconnected from our neighbors, but one app aims to keep neighborhood communities close, even when they must be physically distant. With the latest update to Bestyn, keeping up to date with neighborhood goings-on is even easier.

Bestyn is an opt-in app that connects other users within a neighborhood with each other. Once they’ve signed up, user can keep in touch with the latest news through a messenger and group chat function and a neighborhood suspicious and criminal activity reporting function helps keep everyone safe. The app also features a section for upcoming neighborhood events such as church rummage sales, block parties, garage sales, Girl Guide cookie fundraiser sales and more. With the economy being so tough on small businesses, the app also has a feature to encourage neighbors to support and spend on hyper-local neighborhood small businesses ensuring a vibrant and amenity-filled community.

“We created this app in September not aware of how important it would end up being for neighbors to be able to connect online,” explains Mariana Toncu, founder of Bestyn. “The pandemic has been tough on communities. Where once neighbors could chat over the fence about what was happening, the pandemic has made everyone wary of physical contact. With Bestyn, neighbors get to reconnect. Community small businesses get to inform customers who live close by about any sales or new products they have and can drum up business by advertising to those closest to the shop at a time when sales have slowed down, and shops are closing.”

The latest update to the app sees a vastly improved search logic, meaning users can find exactly what they are looking for quickly and easily. A hashtagging feature has also been integrated into this latest update, allowing neighbors  to follow a event, incident or other topic of interest. The apps design has also been improved thanks to a new menu bar design.

Bestyn has hundreds of five-star ratings from satisfied users who can now stay up to date with their neighborhood community.

Bestyn is a free app and is available to download from The App Store or the Google Play store.

For more information about Bestyn, visit https://bestyn.app.

To connect with Bestyn on social media follow them on Facebook at fb.com/bestynapp and on Instagram @bestynapp.