Facebook is trying to make it easier for users to keep in touch with neighbours and know what's going on in their local area with a new neighbourhood feature similar to Nextdoor. 

This new feature is in the testing phase at the moment, but is intended to let Facebook users enter their address and keep up to date on happenings in the local area.

The neighbourhoods feature also has community standards rules in which Facebook encourages people to "Keep It Clean", "Be kind" and "Be Inclusive."

In 2020, it makes perfect sense to see Facebook trying to encourage people to stick together in their local areas and have more intimate interactions via social media now we're all socially distancing. 

In a statement to Bloomberg, a Facebook spokesperson commented on the plans:

"More than ever, people are using Facebook to participate in their local communities...To help make it easier to do this, we are rolling out a limited test of Neighborhoods, a dedicated space within Facebook for people to connect with their neighbors."

The feature was discovered and shared on Twitter by Matt Navarra

It seems that users joining a neighbourhood will be able to see posts and access groups specific to that area, as well as seeing items for sale from people in the neighbourhood too. 

At the moment this feature is being beta-tested in the Canadian city of Calgary, but if it's successful we'd expect to see it rolling out quickly to other areas.