by Joe Lonergan

Be My Eyes is in the news again with another feature to add to their already feature-packed app. It has been rumoured for a long time that Be Is My Eyes was introducing the Groups feature for blind users to create a custom network of individuals, friends, and family to help with specific tasks. Now it is finally here.

Creating a group might be more suitable for some individuals than calling total strangers for video call assistance. Custom groups or a personal circle might be more useful for doing more private tasks such as checking a financial document, medical prescription, or anything else you could think that can be too personal for the world to help with, maybe it could even be used to create a group in a work environment or there may be a group of people that know your local area very well and can help you find your laneway or front door if you lose your boundaries.

The Be My Eyes teams said this feature has come from feedback from the Be My Eyes community. “For years we’ve heard from Be My Eyes users that not every person is comfortable asking for help from an unknown volunteer, no matter how kind.  This is why, in addition to our existing 7 million volunteers, now blind people worldwide can also build their custom network of people to help with more personal and sensitive tasks people might not wish to share with an unknown volunteer”.

This new groups feature was released in Beta Mode on December 20th, So to check if it has arrived in your Be My Eyes app, first make sure the app is up to date then go to the home page of the app, here you will find a new section called My Groups, tap in to start creating a group.

When you first access this area, it will explain how it works and who it is for and then you will come to the create group button. Tap on the Create Group button and follow the instructions to the finish, After you have created and named your first Group, you will be able to send an invite link to your friends and family members.

Once you’ve assembled your circle, just press the Be My Eyes Groups button to connect with the first available person who is known to you. You can enter up to 20 people in your circle.

You can create up to five different groups and call them whatever you want.

The groups feature might have been a little overshadowed by the Be My AI feature, but we think it is a really interesting and helpful part of the Be My Eyes app. We would love to know what you think and what use cases you can foresee people using this for.