Facebook's Slack Rival Is Coming Next Month and Will Charge Per Employee (businessinsider.com) 63
Facebook will be launching a business communication service dubbed Facebook at Work next month. The service will be very familiar to Slack, a popular communications app. BusinessInsider reports: The enterprise messaging platform, which is called Facebook at Work, has been in closed beta since last January. Business Insider reported in May that Facebook at Work would be made commercially available by the end of this summer or in the fall. Previous reports said Facebook planned to only charge for premium features, like integrations with third-party apps. But one company testing the service that Business Insider talked to in May said that companies would pay a per-user, per-month fee. They had been quoted a cost between $1 to $5 a user by Facebook.
Trade secrets (Score:1)
Surely, the businesses of the world would love to share their trade secrets with Zuckerberg et al.
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All the companies I work with want their software for nothing and their IT development for free.
So good luck charging for it!
Custom kitchen delivereeyeeyee (Score:3)
What's that? Hawaii noises? He's banging on them bongos like a chimpanzee.
No Thanks (Score:2, Interesting)
Team already uses Slack -- not sure why anyone that's using something that already works well would switch. Also, I should mention that I don't have a facebook account, so would this mean I'd have to create one if, say, some team I join happens to use that crap? Boo.
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I should mention that I don't have a facebook account, so would this mean I'd have to create one if, say, some team I join happens to use that crap?
It's a separate account anyway. Facebook users have to create a new account too. Just like Slack, for that matter. I really doubt you'd be required to create a personal account to use it.
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Just never ever ever make a cross post or link them in any way, or the separation you've created is lost forever...oh, and don't let any of your colleagues or friends link them either.... yeah, good luck with that....
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The screenshots make it seem just like the Google multi-account sign-in. They remain completely separate other than the simultaneous authentication being possible in the browser (and the cookies to back it up). Not sure what you're talking about regarding "linking."
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Not sure what you're talking about regarding "linking."
Linking would be my signing my Gmail.com address with my Hotmail.com account /. is an old account and a hotmail.com address.
(I forwarded my Hotmail.com account long ago to Gmail, and the save).
Signature would also be a link, it's been well used.
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Facebook at work (Score:5, Funny)
Facebook at work....you know, sometimes the jokes just write themselves.
Re:Facebook at work (Score:4, Insightful)
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Killer feature #1 most businesses want - blocking Facebook.
That's a huge chunk of a Hosts file.
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If a business wants to block facebook they don't need a facebook app. They need a competent admin.
Re:Facebook at work (Score:5, Funny)
No, they don't. Either make a joke, or don't. You don't get credit for meta-humour.
Apparently I do, Mr Zuckerberg.
Or.. (Score:4, Insightful)
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But how can you compete for who has the most friends and likes with e-mail?
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I find REPLY-ALL to the list reminds everyone that I exists, especially when the mail is to the department mailing list!
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My money's on XMPP protocol.
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A system which has shown itself over and over again to fail miserably in large group collaboration.
No thanks. I personally think the likes of Yammer and such are steaming piles of horse manure, yet in many cases they serve their purpose better than email ever did or ever can.
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For real-time communication?
This is not a Slack Competitor (Score:3, Informative)
This is not a Slack Competitor. This is a version of Facebook and the OpenGraph that is hosted in the cloud that is walled off from everyone who doesn't have the same @companyname.com email address. That is all. You are able to link your company email account to your full Facebook Profile, but that is all.
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This Is Awesome! (Score:3, Insightful)
Now there will be at least two chat websites that I have zero use for.
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Slack is almost a 3 billion dollar company [cnbc.com] based on a recent valuation.
It's pretty fancy. And with all that revenue they made something great out of what XMPP could have been.
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Funny ... (Score:2)
I heard about Slack just today. Installed it on my work Laptop as my customer is using it. I work at his site!
Now on my way home I see a /. article about Slack, oops ... about a competitor, rofl
As we are on it: there is another nice chat/messaging/voice that has great potential, Discord, from http://discordapp.com/ [discordapp.com]
It is aiming at gamers but also at companies.
Re:Funny ... (Score:4, Insightful)
I make an effort to not work with those kinds of people.
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Slack is okay, but I prefer Discord. Especially for large groups that are broken into smaller teams, with fluid memberships. I can see what any team I belong to at anytime, without being inundated by messages for everything. The Voice / Chat separation is also really nice, as we can Collaborate on chat, and on voice as needed.
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Does anyone have any updates to these comparisons ?
Slack vs HipChat
http://slackvshipchat.com/ [slackvshipchat.com]
Slack vs Discord
https://www.slant.co/versus/45... [slant.co]
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Im really fond of Discord myself, but its hard to use it in a work environment, because its missing a ton of features to make it work there. Search, auditing, various integrations (though you could code some of those yourself with the API), etc.
But the Slack client is soooo slow.
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I can see what any team I belong to at anytime,
How often is this really a problem for you?
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LOL techbros
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It's special largely because of all the possibilities for integration into it with their SDK's and the automation you can very easily add into it that will allow you to build and execute all sorts of custom commands from the interface.
The custom commands are pretty much just HTTPS requests (POST or GET) to any http endpoint, so the possibilities are pretty much endless what you can do with that.
So it's not just a chat platform (though plenty of people use it solely for that), the real value is in it's dead
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Too little, too late .... (Score:5, Insightful)
I'll be *very* surprised if this catches on.
There are plenty of people trying to sell corporate IM solutions -- and Facebook is a late entrant in this category.
We adopted Slack and I had my doubts, initially, that it was even going to amount to much for our company. But it's proven itself to be pretty handy, largely because they gave a lot of ability to link up notifications and error messages from other applications to it, and everything put into Slack is persistent. (I can go back in a search and find a troubleshooting tip or a web URL that a co-worker mentioned months ago, if I need to.) Plus, it's cross-platform compatible with clients that work well on our iPads and iPhones, Windows PCs, Macs, etc.
Still, we're finding ourselves in a situation where we've got an IM client built into our VoIP phone system's control panel on our computers, and Slack for our departmental communications, plus all of our Mac and Windows users long ago standardizing on using AOL's AIM messenger (linkable to Apple iMessages on the Mac) and publishing a directory of all of our employee's IM names in there. We're pretty saturated on corporate chat clients.
Facebook has a relatively poor reputation in the workplace anyway, though. People consider it a time-waster and a site needing to be blocked in some instances.
Re:Too little, too late .... (Score:4, Insightful)
"People consider it a time-waster and a site needing to be blocked in some instances."
I've worked in a few companies that have outright blocked the service. I don't see this catching on outside of some boutique shops that focus on social media... eh who knows.
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I'll be *very* surprised if this catches on.
There are plenty of people trying to sell corporate IM solutions -- and Facebook is a late entrant in this category.
I won't. Facebook may be a late entry but most of the other entries into the solution generally compare themselves to Facebook. The late entry can still be the gold standard on arrival.
Also simplifying this down to "IM" is nonsense. This won't displace IM, and just like most other solutions IM forms a small part of the overall product.
Facebook has a relatively poor reputation in the workplace anyway, though. People consider it a time-waster and a site needing to be blocked in some instances.
Just like a receptionist who spends all day on the phone chatting to her girlfriends the phone as a tool can be used with very great differences in business efficiency dependi
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I won't. Facebook may be a late entry but most of the other entries into the solution generally compare themselves to Facebook.
Wait, what? I've never heard of any IM/chat app comparing themselves to FB.
Facebook is blocked because it's your 100% non-work related friends using it.
No, FB is blocked because we have a data security policy which FB fails miserably. No bank or government department is going to allow this, and the same goes for most large orgs that have similar policies
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Wait, what? I've never heard of any IM/chat app comparing themselves to FB.
Just scroll down slightly to get to the next article talking about another business application which is "like a business version of facebook". Seriously if you haven't heard or seen it then you must just have flat out avoided the marketing of many of these "collaboration" programs built on the principles of social networks.
No, FB is blocked because we have a data security policy which FB fails miserably.
Implying that one data security policy is standard throughout the entire organisation. If you look at it with this level of detail and prejudice then you have no business dictating data
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Just scroll down slightly to get to the next article talking about another business application which is "like a business version of facebook".
Yes but all of those are trying to do the newsfeed/broadcast aspect of social media (eg Yammer) and failing miserably. FB is not IM (even if it has a messenger app), and IM is not social media. Related but different.
The top of the Fortune 500 companies happily partner with the likes of Microsoft for things like OneDrive for business with no mention of the Windows 10 data harvesting.
My background is Finance and Gov and I assure the security/privacy rules here are strict. Sure maybe not for everyone but this model does exist.
If you think FB's data security policies are the same for their business product as for Facebook itself you're delusional.
Doesn't matter, their name is worthless in these circles. Reputation also counts, and FB is like McDonalds trying to get into the Michelin Guide.
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Facebook has a relatively poor reputation in the workplace anyway, though. People consider it a time-waster and a site needing to be blocked in some instances.
Time wasting is the least concern. Data privacy and security is the big one, and FB have a history of being extremely dodgy in this regard.
FB also has a reputation of being a stupid app for teenagers and Kardashian type fans, why would any corporation who wants to be taken seriously want to associate with this universe?
Fuck. That. Shit. (Score:2)
I don't use FB in my personal life, and I consider Slack invasive enough at work to be barely tolerable.
Gitter Is Better (Score:2)
Not sure why everyone loves Slack. I use it for one of my teams... the other uses Gitter.
Overall Gitter is much nicer. Direct integration with GitHub by default and wonderful Markdown integration. You can even put Latex right into the chat window!
Also, we like how you can have public rooms mixed with private rooms... something that's basically not possible with Slack.
Will be interesting to see how Facebook@Work stacks up...
Fascinating ... (Score:2)
I find it fascinating how these days companies can charge bizar amounts of money for things we have enjoyed for free for decades. IRC is a perfect solution and yet people buy into slack - itself an IRC rippoff with an OK web interface included.
Same with Office Products. Office365 costs 40 Euros per seat and month. And people are actually paying for this. Imagine Microsoft coming up with such a thing in the 90ies. People would've peed their pants laughing.
It's fascinating the way our entire society is being
Hey Dawg (Score:2)
I use facebook@work so I can facebook@work on facebook@work while I'm on facebook@work!