It is being reported by TechCrunch that Facebook’s “Work” is coming out today for iOS and Android. Based on the report, a version of Work should also be available on the main site according to the report.
The “Work” project was first learned about back in November, and was known by the nickname, “[email protected]”. The goal of “Work” was to help created a work-friendly platform for businesses. Ultimately, “Work” would be a Facebook network, but a version set to specific companies and employee sets. Introducing the service to businesses would mean that Facebook could compete with Slack or Yammer, allowing them to finally get into the workplace for business use.
The product has already been tested by a small set of external businesses around the world, and a similar version has been used by Facebook for the past ten years. After all, it is the main form of communication internally, according to Lars Rasmussen, the engineering director at Facebook. “When Mark (Zuckerberg) makes an announcement he just posts it on Facebook at Work,” Lars told TechCrunch.
The initial goal of the Work launch is to allow companies with 100 or more employees to gain knowledge into the usage of the product. With Work, employers will be able to construct Work with various accounts, create new accounts, and tie together personal and work accounts. For those fearing that there will be issues with tying personal and professional accounts together, there won’t be any bleed through between the two.
On an employee level, Work will let groups of employees share documents and files, and even chat. According to TechCrunch, there isn’t any existing price points yet, although advertising wasn’t ruled out. This could certainly happen, as competitors like Slack uses a freemium model for those who don’t want to forgo payments.
For the full story, head to TechCrunch.