Qlue, a social media app allowing users to report problems directly to the city government and businesses, today announced its new chat feature to the app, #ChatKelurahan. First introduced in early May 2018, the new chat app enables citizens to directly interact with the administrative villages and share major problems piling up nearby their homes, including damaged roads, floods, and road accident. Successfully facilitating the government to complete over 700,000 problems in Jakarta since December 2015, Qlue is now adopted by other cities in Indonesia, including Manado, Trenggalek, Sidoarjo and Cilegon.

“We developed this feature as the official platform for Indonesia’s administrative villages, particularly to dispatch any important issues and updates to all citizens. As our mission to make smart cities accessible for all, through this chat feature, we guarantee two-way communications between citizens and local government. Now, not only citizens can share report through our app, government officials can also post announcement as well as instructions to neighborhood officials relating to any neighbor issues,” said Grady Richata, Group Product Head dari Qlue.

The #ChatKelurahan feature is inspired by user behavior of Qlue. “In Qlue, some users initiated to create their own organic community, called NEO (Neutral-Objective). More than just reporting, Qlue sees this app to connect with like-minded people who have the same idea of building a better city. Some of them even initiated to hold an open discussion with district manager (kelurahan) once the reports are being ignored,” added Strategist of Qlue.

For the app development, aims Qlue to connect each conversation on chat directly to the dashboard app of local and provincial government in many cities in Indonesia. “Thus, the government can rapidly give instructions for any related actions, as notification will not just stop at administrative government levels,” said Grady.

New Chat Group Feature: Safest Method to Ensure transparency and Access to Information

In the wake of the recent launch of a chat group feature similar to Whatsapp and Line social platforms, every Qlue App user will automatically fit into a chat group based on the neighborhood they live in. However, Qlue App allows all group chats’ users to remain anonymous without phone number attached to it. Instead, user identity such as phone number and email, will be replaced by avatar and user name to ensure privacy and security of all users.

Through advanced machine-learning techniques and algorithms, the app development enables faster detection on any keyword and hashtag which is likely a hoax and potentially harmful to society. Moreover, any incoming chat will also be recorded in the Qlue app database. “Thus, when we capture unusual words, we will receive notification and the user can be directly reprimanded, or even blocked,” Grady added.

Qlue is not only used to solve public order problems, but also to map poverty and disaster management. During the great flood disaster in Bima, West Nusa Tenggara, in 2016, the flood waters was able to be 90% recovered within 3 weeks, as volunteers continued to share updates about the disaster through Qlue App and got fast response from local government of Bima as well as related working units. Moreover, since April 2018, Qlue has been officially chosen as a discussion platform between citizen-government, relating to social problems and poverty in Trenggalek, East Java. Since its launch in 2015, Qlue has facilitated government to complete more than 650,000 reports from citizen. Through this chat feature, Qlue will not only focus on the report, but also offer a forum discussion platform for all citizens.