Rent an Apartment with Alex
Designing a Messenger-based apartment hunting experience for millions of renters, starting in NYC and later expanding to LA, SF, and beyond.
01
Overview
Alpaca (rentalpaca) operates over 360 Facebook groups across the globe, with more than 4 million members looking for apartments. What started in New York City (one of the toughest rental markets in the world) later expanded to Los Angeles, San Francisco, and other major cities as we refined the product and learned from each market.
I designed the end-to-end apartment hunting experience built entirely within Facebook Messenger. Users could chat with our bot, share their preferences, receive curated recommendations, and browse full listing details in a webview. They could update their preferences at any time, upload their documents once, and apply for apartments with a single tap. We'd send everything directly to the landlord. As new listings hit the market that matched their criteria, users received daily recommendations automatically, keeping them ahead of the competition.
02
The Challenge
Finding an apartment in NYC is brutal. The market moves incredibly fast: you can visit a place, fall in love with it, and get a rejection because someone else signed the lease an hour earlier. On top of that, renters face background checks, broker fees, and the exhausting cycle of scheduling viewings only to hear "no" after investing time and energy.
For our users, this frustration played out inside Facebook groups. Millions of people were scrolling through endless posts with no way to filter, compare, or act quickly enough. Listings got buried, good apartments disappeared in hours, and the whole process felt chaotic and slow.
We needed to give users an edge: a way to find the right apartment faster, get the details they needed instantly, and apply before someone else did. And we had to do it inside the platform they were already using, within Messenger's constraints: webviews, chatbot flows, and a mobile-first experience.
"In NYC, a good apartment is gone before you finish reading the listing. We needed to design for speed."
03
The User Journey
The flow was designed to feel natural, starting from a familiar Facebook post and ending with a fully detailed apartment listing, all within the Messenger ecosystem.
04
Explore the Listing
Once users find an apartment, they can scroll through every detail: photos, pricing, amenities, building info, ratings, and nearby apartments. Everything they need to decide, in one view.
05
Key Design Decisions
Designing within Messenger's webview meant working with real constraints like limited screen real estate, no native navigation, and users who expected the speed of a chat rather than the complexity of an app.
Platform-native experience
Instead of forcing users to download a separate app, we built everything inside the platform they already used daily. This removed the biggest friction point: adoption.
Conversational-first flow
The chatbot made apartment search feel like asking a friend for help. Users described what they wanted in natural language and got curated results, not an overwhelming search page.
Sticky navigation in webview
With listings and details living in a webview, persistent navigation was essential. The sticky header and tab bar kept users oriented and able to switch between views without losing context.
One-tap applications
Users uploaded their documents once (income proof, ID, references) and could apply for any apartment with a single tap. We sent everything directly to the landlord. In a market where speed wins, this was a game-changer.
Daily smart recommendations
Preferences weren't a one-time thing. Users could update them anytime, and as new listings matched their criteria, they'd get daily recommendations automatically. This helped them stay ahead without having to search constantly.
Map-first exploration
In NYC, location is everything. The map view let users explore by neighborhood, see price clusters, and discover apartments they wouldn't have found scrolling a list.
06
Results
4M+
Group members
360+
Facebook groups worldwide
3
Cities launched (NYC → LA → SF)
What started as a solution for NYC's chaotic rental market grew into a product used across multiple cities. By meeting users where they already were and focusing on the fast-paced nature of the market, Alpaca turned a fragmented apartment search into a streamlined, conversational experience. Each city launch brought new learnings that we used to keep improving the product, from the chatbot flows to the listing details and the application process itself.