At Trulia, we pride ourselves on being at the forefront of innovation, whether that’s releasing new apps, incorporating new design principles, or taking advantage of new technologies. The Trulia Android team moves fast, thinks big, and is constantly brainstorming and considering new ways to obtain users and keep them coming back to our app. Which is why we’re especially excited to share that later this summer, Trulia will be leveraging Google’s new Awareness API to create an even more personal experience for consumers.
Google’s Awareness API brings together context about what a consumer is doing and where a consumer is, and combines it with context about the device (e.g.: if the device is locked, if an app is running, etc.) to create a more personalized user experience. We’re leveraging this technology to create new contextual push notifications for Trulia app users, factoring in their location. The notifications will alert consumers of open homes nearby that they might be interested in, and are triggered only when they’re in a neighborhood or area they recently saved a search for. Creating these contextual notifications can help ensure consumers who are already looking at open houses don’t miss out on others in the area. The notifications can also prompt other consumers to start checking out open houses if they weren’t already planning to.
These notifications will only be triggered when a consumer is walking within close proximity to the properties that match their saved searches. We are particularly excited to be able to leverage this new API to create these “in the moment” notifications; it will allow us to send notifications at times when we think consumers will be most likely to engage, and it ensures we aren’t distracting or irritating our consumers with notifications at inopportune or unsafe moments, like when they’re driving.
Additionally, we know our consumers prefer to hit open houses when it’s a nice sunny day (who wouldn’t?), so we’ll also be leveraging the Awareness API to also factor in the weather. Meaning, if it’s sunny and warm and a consumer is out for a walk and within their geo-fence, we’ll send a notification, encouraging them to check out the open homes near them.
This is just one example of how Trulia is always looking for the next best innovation, and we’re really excited about the potential of this technology and what’s still to come from Google for Android.
