One Year of hank: Now on Your Phone
On 4 November 2025 we put hank online: a marketplace where you do not browse listings, you post the part you need and sellers come to you. One year later, hank fits in your pocket.
Here is the year in short, and everything that is new since our last post.
hank Is Now an App
hank is now available for Android and iOS. It is the same hank you know from the website, with the same account, your requests, chats and offers, made for your phone.
Push Notifications
The app tells you right away when a new message or offer arrives or your AI search is done. Every step of a deal comes through as well: an offer accepted or declined, a payment confirmed, a part shipped or received. A tap takes you straight to the chat, the offer or the report.
The app asks whether you want notifications. If you said Later, you can turn them on any time under Settings > Notifications. On Android you can also mute messages, offers or AI searches one by one in the system settings.
Made for Your Phone
- Photos straight from the camera. Take a photo of the part right in the request form, no detour through your gallery.
- Pull to refresh. Pull the dashboard down to load the newest messages and offers.
- Zoom into photos. Pinch to zoom into offer and request photos and check the details before you buy.
- More room for the chat. On your phone the chat takes the whole screen, and the bell opens and closes with a tap.
- Login through your browser. Signing in opens your browser, and after that you are back in the app. Passkeys and email addresses are managed on the website, the app takes you there.
Prefer the website? Nothing changes there. Everything you do in the app shows up on hank.parts and the other way round.
One Year in Short
- November 2025: hank goes live. Custom lists send sellers a daily digest of the requests that match their stock.
- December: offers get their full flow, from quote to payment, shipping and delivery.
- January 2026: requests and chats are translated automatically into all seven languages, our first club partnership starts with Club Nacional Seat 1430, 124, 124 Sport, and hank opens in the United Kingdom.
- February: business sellers get a Trader badge, and hank starts searching the web for your part by itself.
- April and May: simpler forms, sharper results and more than 1,300 new specialist shops in the search.
- June: motorcycles arrive, with more than 40 brands.
- July: AI reports get their own page with a live queue, and you can allow equivalent part numbers.
- September: one request can name several parts, a panel shows your search allowance, and AhaSend becomes our first technical partner.
- October: a notification bell, safety hints on first contact, a help form and codes from clubs and partners.
Thank you to everyone who posted a request, sent an offer, reported a bug or simply told us what was missing. Most of what is on this list started with one of you.
Your Inbox, Your Choice
Two switches in your notification settings let you choose:
- Product updates and announcements: a short mail when something new happens at hank, like this post. It is off unless you turn it on, and every newsletter has a link to unsubscribe.
- Reminders to rate other users (new): turn off the mails that ask you to rate a deal if you would rather not get them.
Moderation You Can Follow
When we remove a photo, a username or a request, or restrict an account, the mail now always names the reason. Every such mail also explains how to appeal: write to us within 14 days, through the help form or by email, and tell us why you think the decision is wrong. We answer by email.
East German Classics in the Catalog
Trabant and Wartburg were already in the catalog. Now the rest of the East German range is there too: Barkas, Multicar, IFA, Framo, EMW, Sachsenring, AWZ and Melkus, and on two wheels MZ, Simson, AWO and IWL. DKW, so far only listed with cars, now has its motorcycles as well.
We also added a specialist shop for DDR and DKW motorcycle parts to the AI search, so a request for an MZ or a Simson gets searched where those parts are sold.
A Better Wiki
- Price comparison. Part pages in the wiki now show how a model's typical price for a part compares with other models of the same vehicle class and of the same make.
- Part numbers in the request history. The table of past requests on a wiki page now shows the part number, when the request had one.
- Fuel pumps. Fuel pumps have their own wiki pages now, with model-specific buying advice.
Smaller Things
- Large photos just work. Request photos straight from a modern phone camera are shrunk automatically before upload. Each photo can be up to 25 MB.
- Take a photo on the website too. The request form on hank.parts has a Take photo button on your phone as well.
- More precise AI search. Two separate items from the same breaker's yard no longer get merged into one result.
- Deleting your account, explained. A new page explains how to delete your account in the app or on the website and what happens to your data afterwards.
- Deleted accounts. If the other person deletes their account, the conversation stays readable. You simply can no longer reply.
Here is to year two. If something is missing in the app, use the help form and tell us.
Happy hanking!
Robert - hank team
