Building an App Like Around Me for Finding Nearby Places

The world is immense, but so are our needs. You might need a gas station, restaurant, hotel, ATM, or hospital at any point. Finding services like these might not be that easy when you are in a new place. But we need not worry when technology has got our back. Our smartphone provides complete insight into the world and beyond at our palms. Gone are the days when you had to tie yourself with a wire to talk to your friend in another city. Your cab is ready to take you to the office at your doorsteps only. 

Similarly, Around Me is also the technological innovation that makes our daily life much easier.

What Is Around Me App? 

Around Me is basically the app that helps to show the nearby services on your smartphone. Let it be a bank, bar, gas station, hospital, hotel, movie theater, restaurant, supermarket, theater, or taxi service, the app provides insight about all these on your phone in no time. You can search for anything by syncing your location on the app. No matter if it is your home city, state, country, or not, the app works the same. 

A Brief History of Around Me App

The app was released in September 2008. Today, the app is available for iOS, Android as well as Windows phones. However, at the time of establishment, the app was available for iOS users only. The app used Google’s location-aware API, and thus, it was the first app to use the Google dynamic mobile advertisement. In less than a year of the release date, 5 million copies of Around Me were downloaded and installed. 

What Market Says About Location App Around Me 

Maps are one of the biggest app domains on the Google Play Store. To be specific, there are more than 33,337 maps and navigation dedicated apps on the Google Play store. The data from the apple app store is yet to be interpreted. Around 3,400 navigation apps on the Google play store have more than 50K downloads.

The biggest maps application i.e., Google maps has a monthly user base of more than 154.4 million. 

How Does Around Me App Differs from That of Google Maps?

There is a very significant difference between Google Maps and Around Me. However, the latter is a more dedicated app for local location information for travelers. Google maps are used to find the best routes, know about traffic, and get insight into nearby services. On the other hand, Around me is meant to find the different locations of interest. You will not use the app to find your way to a new city or your relative’s house. Google Maps is a little complicated as it carries the bulk of tasking for its user, while Around Me is only focused on a single-use case. 

Features That Make Around Me App Useful

1. Dedicated app

The central feature of Around Me is that it is a dedicated app. Instead of working as a complete navigation solution, the platform focuses on finding nearby services for its users. 

2. Coordination with Other Apps

Once you have found the place you want to visit, the app offers you the best route as well. Moreover, in case you prefer google maps or any other application for navigation, you can open the route directly on those apps as well. 

3. Synchronization with Other Devices 

If you are using the app on your iPhone and also carry the Apple Watch, the app can make the task even easier. Start the navigation on your handset and enable it on your watch with just a tap. 

4. Access to a Broad Range of Services

Being a dedicated app, Around Me has ensured that the list for their locations of interest should be long enough. So the app provides insight into a vast range of services, including banks, bars, gas stations, hospitals, hotels, movie theaters, restaurants, supermarkets, theaters, taxi stands, and much more. 

5. Share the Location 

To make it more useful, app developers have also provided the option to share the location you searched with your friends. You can search for the restaurant, bar, or anything and share it with them. It makes your meetup plans happen more easily.

6. Multiple languages 

The app is meant to help foreigners as locals would already be aware of these basic services. So, the platform supports a wide range of languages, making it easier for people coming from different markets to use the app. 

App Alternatives Similar to Around Me

As we interpreted, there are thousands of apps on the Google Play Store as well as the App store that provides navigation services; there are several alternatives for Around Me as well. 

1. Yelp 

• Google Play Store downloads: 50M+
• Rating and Download links: 4.2 (Google Play store), 4.2 (App store)

Similar to Around Me, the app helps you discover the best places in nearby areas like restaurants, handymen, bars, or hair salons. Moreover, the user can also give a review of sites. The app even provides information about hours of operations, phone numbers of the business, pictures of places, etc. 

2. Foursquare Swarm

• Google Play Store downloads: 10M+
• Rating and Download links: 3.9 (Google Play Store), 4.0 (App store)

Foursquare Swarm also offers insight into a range of local businesses to their users. Let it be the restaurant, bar, pub, karaoke, or anything else; Foursquare swarm has got your back. You can even mark your favorite places. So, next time you plan to visit the same cafe with your friend, you need to put pressure on your brain to remember the name. 

3. GrubHub

• Google Play Store downloads: 10M+
• Rating and Download links: 4.5 (Google Play Store), 4.7 (App Store) 

When all you crave is food, GrubHub is the best app. It is an even more dedicated app that deals only with restaurants and food points. Search for the nearest, best, or specific food hub of your location. Get the menu on your smartphone. Order the food or visit there by yourselves. 

4. UrbanSpoon

• Google Play Store downloads: 5M+
• Rating and Download links: 3.2 (Google Play Store), 1.5 (App Store)

Another app for food lovers. Know everything about the restaurants and food corners in your nearby cities. Never let your hunger get on your mind. UrbanSpoon provides a list of restaurants from the United States, Australia, United Kingdom, Canada, India, Turkey, UAE, Qatar, Portugal, South Africa, New Zealand, Chile, Brazil, Indonesia, Philippines, Czech Republic, and Poland, Slovakia, and Sri Lanka.

5. World Around Me

• Google Play Store downloads: 500K+
• Rating and download links: 4.5 (Google Play Store), 4.6 (App Store)

World Around Me is one of the most popular apps in this domain. The app helps to locate a number of services in your nearby areas. The app has won the Google Play Awards 2016 as well as Google Play Best Apps of 2017. The significant feature of the app is that it uses your camera and shows the sign boards to guide you toward the location of interest. 

Things to Consider While Developing an App Like Around Me?

1. Don’t Forget Market Research 

You should know what you are stepping into so your journey can be favorable. Make sure you conduct in-depth research while developing the app. You should know about how big the industry is, what key players are dominating the market, what are the user’s expectations from the apps, what are the key features, and many more. 

2. Never Compromise with Features

As you increase the number of features in the app, the cost of app development also increases. However, it doesn’t mean you should compromise with the number of features. You should never forget that features are going to attract the user base to the app. It is crucial to instill unique features to make space for yourself in the competitive marketplace.  

3. Hire a Good App Development Team 

A good team for app development might cost you a little extra, but the app’s quality will be enhanced. Make sure that the app development team you hire is visionary and experienced. The efficiency of your application depends mainly on the team you are in connection with. 

4. Analysis of Prototype 

Your app development team will provide you with a prototype at the early stage of the project. Make sure to analyze the prototype deeply. You can make the necessary changes without hindering the time and cost of development at the early stages, while it might not be that favorable once the prototype has been passed. 

5. Estimated Cost of Developing a Similar App

The app development cost varies significantly with different factors. The time a developer takes to develop the app is directly proportional to developing the app. So, if there are more features to instill in the app, the development team will take more time, and the costlier will be the app. The scenario of vice-versa exists similarly. 

However, the estimated cost of a navigation app development lies anywhere between $20,000-$40,000. 

App Development Team Required for Around Me 

The app development team doesn’t only consist of the developers, coding all the way around. It requires the contribution of different team members to complete the app development. Following are the prominent members of an app development team: 

• Project Manager
• UI/UX Designer 
• iOS/Android Developer
• QA engineer
• Business Analyst 

How Can Emizentech Help You?

As we said earlier, you need the best team to develop the app, Emizentech has it for you. Our firm has several teams that develop the app as per your preferences without any communication gap. Our visionary and experienced developers understand your idea and leave no stone unturned to make it a reality. We don’t only develop the app but also work as your partner. You might not have extensive experience in app development, but we have, so we share our guidance with you, so you never make a wrong step. Talk about your idea with our experts via a free one-hour counseling session and make the right decision. 

Wrapping Up

With the help of apps like Around Me, it has become significantly easier to search for nearby service points. The app shows restaurants, bars, hotels, hospitals, petrol pumps, banks, ATMs, and many other things to make them easily accessible to you. It can be a profitable idea to launch a similar app as people get more familiar with smartphones and the internet. So, the target base of such an app is wide enough to enter anyone.