Facebook releases work version called Workplace

Workplace is the latest move by Facebook to take on competitors in all areas of social networking and mobile communications.

The seed for the new service actually grew from a specially adapted version of Facebook that the company itself has been using for years in-house. Facebook says the pilot included 1,000 multinational companies such as Danone, nonprofits such as Oxfam, banks such as YES Bank in India and the government of Singapore. We realized the value of being connected, and when you bring something like Facebook into the workplace, awesome things happen in terms of productivity, collaboration, efficiency.

The apps, which are available on Android and iOS, are based around the entire Facebook platform and, in the same way that Facebook siloed its Messenger app, there is a standalone app for Workplace chat.

Workplace allows users to create groups and to communicate with different companies and share projects.

The tech firm is charging companies a monthly fee per active user to use the product.

In many companies, blue-collar workers do not have email addresses, which Mr Codorniou said hampered communication.

NEW YORK (AP) You probably already use Facebook at work.

Facebook wants to appeal not only to white-collar professionals who are already using enterprise software, but all employees from all fields, especially considering that many of them may already be using Facebook outside work.

“You don’t need any training to use the tool”. There won’t be an unlimited free version of Facebook’s Workplace for businesses, though the company is offering a 3-month free trial.

Since Workplace is aimed at businesses, Facebook is going to charge money for this platform.

Originally called “Facebook at Work”, Facebook chose to change the product name to something short, snappy, and easy to use in a sentence.

The tool itself, though, has been in the works for much longer; it’s based on an internal service that the company’s own employees have been using for nearly as long as Facebook has existed. Facebook is introducing a new feature that lets you chat in groups that include people outside of your company, say partners or vendors.

Social communication tools have risen in popularity among businesses as more Millennials enter the workforce. $2 per 1,001 – 10,000 monthly active users/ $1 per 10,000+ monthly active users. Members won’t be able to see any information in the other organisation’s Workplace community. The multi-company group conversations are secret by default, so unless a user is in the group or has been invited to the group conversation, he or she won’t even know of the group’s existence.

Now, more than 1,000 organizations around the world use Workplace (formerly known as Facebook at Work). Employees can use News Feed to stay updated on company announcements, join groups to collaborate, share photos and videos, create events, send messages and instant chats, and get notifications about topics important to them. Stated by FB, the service already has more than 1,000 organizations around the world utilizing it and hopes to bring on many more by opening it. Voice and video calling also come standard with Workplace.