A NEW app created by a residents’ group at Yarrabilba is aiming to form greater connections in the community.
According to chair of the Yarrabilba Community Association Clinton Neumann, the Yarrabilba Connect app, launched in June, was born out of a social media research project at the suburb.
“The initial consultation reviewed the digital landscape surrounding Yarrabilba and made some recommendations in relation to how the community could continue to flourish digitally as the physical space grew,” he said.
“The purpose of the app is to create a single point of reference relating to upcoming events, business listings, community groups, local weather and news and important contact information.”
Mr Neumann said the development of Yarrabilba Connect was given the green light after evaluation of its suitability for the local community, and analysis of its ability to assist building a sense of community and connectedness, which he said were principle activities for the organisation.
- Read more: Clean transport drives into Logan City
- Read more: Aria winner headlines Yarrabilba festival
- Read more: Asbestos concerns at Yarrabilba
“We also believe it can assist us with the development and support of the local economy by increasing visibility of business and community services available within Yarrabilba.
“The analytics for the app show us that we have strong ongoing engagement with users with the week-on-week activity showing a high percentage of activity being repeat users,” he said.
Meeting standards
Mr Neumann said people don't need to feel nervous about downloading and using the app.
“It's a great community connectedness tool and has been reviewed by both Apple and Google to ensure it meets their standards for use on their platforms.
“The app does use location services in some parts to assist with directions if you choose to use it, but the location data is definitely not available to us and we can't identify any users.
“The only information that is available to us is the type of device that a user has used to download the app – and that is limited to brand, either Apple or Android.
“We also use the push notifications sparingly and only to remind people about certain events, activities or offers.”
According to Mr Neumann, Yarrabilba Connect provides a single point of reference which aggregates information from social media in an interactive guide conveniently stored on the user’s mobile device, which gives an advantage over other social media platforms.
“Users can put events from the app into their calendar quickly and easily and it is faster to find information that on the different social media pages,” he said.
“This compliments social media users by capturing certain information and making it quickly accessible and makes it available to people who are not users of social media.”
Download the app from the Apple App Store or Google Play store by searching for Yarrabilba Connect.