Facebook wants to compete with Slack in the Work IM Chat App market

[AlTech]

Facebook has quietly released a desktop chat app for Businesses.

 

It mainly seems to be competing with Slack except Slack understandably is currently the objectively superior product due to better OS support, more features and stability.

 

As you can probably guess, Workplace Chat, Facebook's new Chat App, is available for Windows 7 + (A mistake in my book but oh well, too many people can't be bothered to upgrade) or Mac OS 10.9 Mavericks which is kind of funny because neither of those operating systems are greatly supported anymore.

 

 

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Facebook has soft-launched official desktop chat apps for Mac and PC complete with screen sharing, reports TechCrunch. At the moment, the apps are only available through Facebook’s collaboration software Workplace, which is similar to Slack.

According to TechCrunch, the desktop chat app has a dashboard that collects your conversations and offers text search, as well as sharing options for photos, videos, voice clips, emoji, and GIFs. If you’re quite busy or easily distracted, you can also get notifications that pop up on the desktop so you won’t miss anything (like those all-important cat gifs). The apps also feature screen sharing where a user can at full-screen or just a portion where there’s only a specific app.

 

Facebook's justification for the existence of this product is:

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This was one of the most widely requested features by customers, so we built it

 

I guess those customers have never heard of Slack, Jira, HipChat, Rocket Chat or any actually respectable IM chats for Business.

 

Oh well .....

 

Source:

https://www.theverge.com/2017/10/6/16434936/facebook-chat-app-workplace-desktop

[ScratchCat]

Isn't this just Facebook + some extra features - some random memes?

Seems like Facebooks current policy is : if you can't buy them fight them .

[Bouzoo]

17 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

I guess those special snowflake customers have never heard of Slack, Jira, HipChat, Rocket Chat or any actually respectable IM chats for Business.

Many people like simplicity and want to have anything under one roof, be it for better or worse. I know few businesses that use workplace by fb, even though I know next to nothing about it. This may be more convenient for them for this or that reason.

There is also the whole facebook mania/addiction.

 

3 minutes ago, ScratchCat said:

Seems like Facebooks current policy is : if you can't buy them fight them .

Facebook is trying to get competitive into pretty much every area nowadays and I can't blame them. You have to expand somewhere, but they just have the means to expand everywhere. 

[Dabombinable]

Umm...Windows 7 is actually still greatly supported (even more so than some versions of Windows 10....which no longer receive security updates).

Anyway, why would anyone use this over pretty much any other alternative? As it is it looks just like the messenger section from FB's website (aka bare boned)

[MorganO]

we use a WhatsApp group in my workplace it  works great

[AlTech]

1 minute ago, Dabombinable said:

Umm...Windows 7 is actually still greatly supported (even more so than some versions of Windows 10....which no longer receive security updates).

That is factually incorrect.  Windows 10 is supported better than Windows 7.

 

The original Windows 10 RTM is dead but all recent versions of Windows 10 are supported and receive monthly security updates.

1 minute ago, Dabombinable said:

Anyway, why would anyone use this over pretty much any other alternative? As it is it looks just like the messenger section from FB's website (aka bare boned)

This is for Businesses as mentioned. Facebook offers services to business for a subscription I believe.

[kirb]

26 minutes ago, Dabombinable said:

Umm...Windows 7 is actually still greatly supported (even more so than some versions of Windows 10....which no longer receive security updates).

Of course Microsoft is going to drop support for older releases of Windows 10, just like how they dropped Windows 7 RTM after SP1 was out for 2 years. Running Windows 10 RTM today is as logical as running Windows 7 RTM today (not very).

[tridy]

IMHO, it would be strange having corporate sensitive data handled to Facebook.

 

Companies using O365 (Active Directory) have an option of using MS Teams that is replacing Skype for Business (ex Lync and ex Office Communicator as well). That is if you are more in MS ecosystem. Hopefully MS will get it integrated more in VS and VSTS. So far, Teams looks pretty good to me.

[JoostinOnline]

I literally only learned about Slack about 4 hours ago.  It was mentioned on a Silicon Valley episode.  This is a really funny coincidence.

The only forms of IM that I've used in the past 10+ years are Facebook, Skype, IRC, and (most recently) Discord.

[AlTech]

8 minutes ago, huilun02 said:

Support for older Windows is great and a smart move.

That doesn't mean new devices should ship with old Windows Versions.

 

New Applications shouldn't be held back by Businesses not willing to upgrade. That's the business's fault. If a program was designed when Windows 7 came out then fair enough if it supports Windows 7 in 2017. If on the other hand the program was designed when Windows 10 came out then Windows 10 would be the most logical target in my eyes.

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Because lots of work computers are still on 7. Its costly to upgrade the OS just for an IM application.

I don't see this is as "just for an IM application" . It's the final straw that killed the Camel's back imho.

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Ofc if its AluminiumTech's opinion anything other than what MS wants us to use is a sin.

I'm currently dual booting Ubuntu and Windows actually. And no I'm not a shill.

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In the end its Facebook, one of the names you don't trust where privacy is concerned. 

Hopefully people don't trust Facebook.

[AlTech]

6 minutes ago, JoostinOnline said:

1. I literally only learned about Slack about 4 hours ago.  It was mentioned on a Silicon Valley episode.  This is a really funny coincidence.

Really? To be fair, Slack doesn't do much marketing other than through Word Of Mouth.

 

6 minutes ago, JoostinOnline said:

The only forms of IM that I've used in the past 10+ years are Facebook, Skype, IRC, and (most recently) Discord.

I've used WhatsApp, Discord and Skype.

 

Never used Facebook IM nor IRC.

[JoostinOnline]

Just now, AluminiumTech said:

Really? To be fair, Slack doesn't do much marketing other than through Word Of Mouth.

The fact that I stuck with IRC so long should tell you I'm not up to date with more modern forms of chat.

[JohnMiller92]

Is this YET ANOTHER electron app (that is slow, has shitty ui responsiveness, uses shit ton of ram, and is not a native app, but marketed as one), or is it actually a native app?

 

if it's the latter, seems cool. If not, not installing this garbage

[AlTech]

57 minutes ago, JohnMiller92 said:

Is this YET ANOTHER electron app (that is slow, has shitty ui responsiveness, uses shit ton of ram, and is not a native app, but marketed as one), or is it actually a native app?

 

if it's the latter, seems cool. If not, not installing this garbage

Seems like it's Electron based but I can't say 100% for sure.

[JohnMiller92]

4 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

Seems like it's Electron based but I can't say 100% for sure.

Developers should really transition into Godot for native UI apps. I cannot stand HTML 5 responsiveness for "native apps"  

[rattacko123]

4 hours ago, AluminiumTech said:

 

 

This looks EXACTLY like facebook messenger, except there is a toolbar at the top with notifications. Seems pretty good if you want to add a person to multiple chats at the same time rather than adding them one by one, but otherwise doesn't seem to look very appealing based on this screenshot alone.

[Misanthrope]

3 hours ago, tridy said:

IMHO, it would be strange having corporate sensitive data handled to Facebook.

 

Companies using O365 (Active Directory) have an option of using MS Teams that is replacing Skype for Business (ex Lync and ex Office Communicator as well). That is if you are more in MS ecosystem. Hopefully MS will get it integrated more in VS and VSTS. So far, Teams looks pretty good to me.

No stranger than having it handled by Microsoft, Amazon, etc. Most corporations are already buying into cloud services in a big way so while your concern is understandable, it's well, kinda moot. Maybe one could make "the devil you know" argument about Facebook but that's about it.

[Jito463]

5 hours ago, AluminiumTech said:

Facebook has quietly released a desktop chat app for Businesses.

 

And more importantly, why would any business use FacePuke for their company communications?

5 hours ago, AluminiumTech said:

is available for Windows 7 + (A mistake in my book

Many business still rely on Windows 7.

 

5 hours ago, AluminiumTech said:

I guess those customers have never heard of Slack, Jira, HipChat, Rocket Chat or any actually respectable IM chats for Business.

Not one of those (just based on name alone) sounds like something I would use or recommend for business purposes.

[paddy-stone]

Seems funny to me that any company would actually allow this, I mean think of all those tech illiterates that work in some businesses... now imagine those people want to chat with someone in their own workplace about something business related, but accidentally include their whole friends list or a group, that business only chat has now become widespread and could be very embarrassing for the person involved. Imagine if that chat was about a sensitive issue, or worse yet something that could land that business in a whole heap of trouble such as trade secrets

I bet you all at least know one, two or more people that this would possibly happen to. You know, the person that asks you how you move a file again (for the 50th time).

[LAwLz]

6 hours ago, AluminiumTech said:

As you can probably guess, Workplace Chat, Facebook's new Chat App, is available for Windows 7 + (A mistake in my book but oh well, too many people can't be bothered to upgrade) or Mac OS 10.9 Mavericks which is kind of funny because neither of those operating systems are greatly supported anymore.

Why is supporting more operating systems a bad thing?

I think putting artificial limitations on what platforms a program can run on would be a huge mistake because all it does is piss people off and limiting your userbase. For something aimed at businesses that would be an incredibly stupid move.

 

27 minutes ago, Jito463 said:

Not one of those (just based on name alone) sounds like something I would use or recommend for business purposes.

Don't judge a book by its cover. I don't have much experience with it myself, but Slack is pretty nice.

[Jito463]

16 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

Don't judge a book by its cover. I don't have much experience with it myself, but Slack is pretty nice.

Oh, I'm not saying any of those are actually bad programs.  As I said in my post, I'm just commenting based on their name.  They don't sound very professional.

[JohnMiller92]

7 minutes ago, Jito463 said:

Oh, I'm not saying any of those are actually bad programs.  As I said in my post, I'm just commenting based on their name.  They don't sound very professional.

They use Electron, they are bad programs don't be scared to say that

[Jito463]

Just now, JohnMiller92 said:

They use Electron, they are bad programs don't be scared to say that

As I have no experience with any of them (and in fact, have never even heard of a single one of them prior to this thread), I couldn't say either way.

[tridy]

3 hours ago, Misanthrope said:

No stranger than having it handled by Microsoft, Amazon, etc. Most corporations are already buying into cloud services in a big way so while your concern is understandable, it's well, kinda moot. Maybe one could make "the devil you know" argument about Facebook but that's about it.

I think that having O365 in the company gives a huge exposure of data to MS. The same company could be using Amazon for hosting some services ir similar, but email system is very sensitive. Using cloud services does not mean that you will expose email/documents data. Using O365 does mean that. So, I personally would not like trusting one more company with the chat correspondence data.

 

I did close my fb account 2 years ago due to their policies about handling personal data and photos. So, I am very biased here, and would definitely go Slack over FB, if I had to choose. At the same time, I am a .Net/VS developer as well, so MS world is closest to me. Hence MS Teams.

 

In the end, if one has a choice, probably a tool that makes you the most productive should be chosen.

[AnonymousGuy]

11 hours ago, tridy said:

I think that having O365 in the company gives a huge exposure of data to MS. The same company could be using Amazon for hosting some services ir similar, but email system is very sensitive. Using cloud services does not mean that you will expose email/documents data. Using O365 does mean that. So, I personally would not like trusting one more company with the chat correspondence data.

 

I did close my fb account 2 years ago due to their policies about handling personal data and photos. So, I am very biased here, and would definitely go Slack over FB, if I had to choose. At the same time, I am a .Net/VS developer as well, so MS world is closest to me. Hence MS Teams.

 

In the end, if one has a choice, probably a tool that makes you the most productive should be chosen.

When you have an enterprise service agreement with a cloud company, you're guaranteed goingn to have it written in there that they don't ever touch or look at your data.  Wouldn't surprise me if it's encrypted in such a way that they don't even have access.