Each person can adjust their Community Settings in the BN app to connect with people who are varying distances away from them. You can choose a radius from .5 mile, 1 mile, 3 miles, 6 miles, and 20 miles. You can cross-post items that haven't found a home in your BN group on FB to a larger radius in the app, allowing more people to see your gift, and you can do the same thing for requests that haven't been met. You'll also be able to include people who don't use Facebook for a variety of reasons, making Buy Nothing in your community that much more inclusive. 

You only need to enter your address and any pick-up directions (such as "check the box by my front door and only come during daylight hours") once in the app, and this information will be saved privately (and you can update it anytime). Then you can use the app's private messaging to quickly share this information with people from your Buy Nothing group - your address will open in Google Maps and they'll receive any directions you've written, with a simple click from you. 

You can update your BuyNothing Community Location anytime you travel, making it fast and easy to connect with fellow Buy Nothing-ers around the world without having to leave your Buy Nothing group on Facebook. 

We welcome you and your group members in the app however you'd like to use it to enhance your Buy Nothing experience. If you and your group members post your Gives, Asks, and Gratitude to the app as well as your FB group, you'll be able to use the BuyNothing features that only exist on the app: 

You'll each have a record there of all of your own personal activity in a shareable form that easy to scroll through. This sort of personal Buy Nothing archive is useful in many ways. 

You'll be able to toggle between Scroll View (which looks more like Facebook) and Grid View (which is heavy on photos and light on text for quick visual scrolling). 

You'll be able to toggle between Active Posts (only those gifts that are still available and those requests that haven't been met) and All Posts (everything that's ever been posted in your area). 

You can use this as a social tool (we do!) to meet other Community Builders and Admins who are active in the app, whether they're your nearby neighbors or further away. Check for Community Builders in the Community page of the app and send your fellow Buy Nothing leaders a message to say hello and share ideas. 

If you and your group cross-post your Gives, Asks, and Gratitude to the app, you'll be able to see your shared impact in the Community Metrics on the Community page in the app, no math required on your part to add things up! We've learned that seeing your impact tends to motivate more Giving, Asking, and Gratitude, so this part of the app can inspire Buy Nothing action in your Facebook group. 

The app was launched on Buy Nothing Day at the end of November, 2021. It's growing quickly, but it's going to take time for people to come to the app and put it to full use. Changing our online habits takes time! Things pick up in the app when there's a critical mass of people participating, just like they do in a new Buy Nothing group on Facebook. The more you post Gives, Asks, and Gratitudes to the app, the more you comment, the more you welcome people and help them feel at home, the more quickly your community will grow. It's okay to move over at any pace that works for you and your community, and it's okay to use both your Facebook group and the app at the same time, for as long as you and your group like!

Pin a post to your group letting people know you are transitioning. View Sample FB Posts. Modify your group description and add a new group banner in your facebook group settings. View FB Group Description and Banners. 

Share the following post and link on your social media pages to spread the word:
"I’m building a gift economy in the BuyNothing app. Please join me! Let’s share our abundance, reduce our waste, build a circular economy, and strengthen ties within our community: www.buynothingproject.org"

Here's a note you can send to folks trying to join your group, or who live outside of your area who are requesting to join your group, to let them know your community is moving over to the app:
"Hi (person's name)! I'm an admin of the Buy Nothing (group name) group. I see you in the queue to join the group. We've made an app for Buying Nothing! We've moved to the free BuyNothing app, available in the App Store or Google Play. Please download the app and join us all there!"

Take the Buy Nothing Academy. Visit our Build page to get tips, inspirations, and sample posts you can use to foster community-building and local sharing in your part of the world. Join our Community Builders Forum for crowd-sourced person-to-person support and conversation.