Need Something Repaired? Now There’s an App for That

A new app Wants to make it easy for people to get their stuff fixed by helping them find trusted repair services in their neighborhood with a simple name

Repair app Launched today, on a day that is being celebrated International Repair Day. The app is currently available in beta form in the US and France, as that’s where co-founders Robert Lees and Caleb Farooqui live, respectively. If the app improves, more countries should be added soon.

The app comes at a time of renewed interest in the rights to repair movement. Through lobbying efforts and consumer advocacy campaigns, Right to Repair argues that when someone buys a piece of technology, they should have the legal right to fix it, replace broken parts, or upgrade it using services, tools, and replacement parts accessed on the open market.

“You don’t really own something if you don’t have the ability to repair it,” says Lees, co-founder of the app.

It sounds like a position that doesn’t require much advocacy, but is favored by large companies apple, SamsungAnd John Deerehave been resistant to allowing their customers to tinker with their products.

Lees said The Repair App is aimed at platform businesses and service providers that cover everything that can be repaired, from devices like phones and computers to bicycles, clothes and eventually vehicles. To start, they contacted verified repair businesses that they could test for inclusion in the app.

Matt Ziminski, Vice President Repair.org and VP of Repair Market Partnerships iFixitRepair has worked with Lise and others on the app and says he supports the project. He says that if the app is used by enough people, it could find more options to fix your stuff than it does now.

For example, if you search for repair options on Google, Ziminski says, repair shops in your local community may not necessarily come up as one of the top results. Instead, you are presented with a large repair franchise or generic service provider.

The app makes it easy to find independent stores near you.

Courtesy of Marine Relicate; Repair app

The repair app will instead show you the nearest shops that have been verified by the technology repair experts behind the app.

“I think it’s really cool,” Ziminski said. “It’s going to level that playing field and allow everyone to find the services they need and then offer services to people who don’t know those services exist.”

Linking customers to businesses is certainly not a new service. (Remember phonebooks?) Site preferences Thumbtack or enter (formerly Angie’s List) has long served as a repository for finding freelancers for a variety of jobs. like place Upwork And Fiver Put a gig economy spin on the same format. And there are sites looking for more specific services repair sailA resource for auto repair shops. (There was a repair sail Purchased by Yelp last year.)