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Facebook Announces 'Work' App for iOS Focused on Workplace Social Networking

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Facebook today plans to launch a new app for iOS and Android, simply titled "Work", that will allow businesses to build their own Facebook-like social networks to facilitate interaction amongst employees.

The service, which will also available on the main Facebook website, has been beta tested in "a very small set" of businesses around the world, Lars Rasmussen, the engineering director at Facebook who is heading up the project, told TechCrunch. Today's launch is the next step in testing the project, a continuation of a process the company has essentially been working on for a decade due to its basis in Facebook's own employees using the service to plan meetings, share files, and collaborate on projects.

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"Facebook at Work's strength is that we've spent ten years and incorporated feedback from 1 billion active users," he says. "All of that is embedded now in the same product but adapted for different use cases."

And it's actually used by staff. "When Mark makes an announcement he just posts it on Facebook at Work," Rasmussen says.
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No details on pricing of the app, or overall service, were given, though TechCrunch points out that Rasmussen never rules out advertisements as a future possibility for the service. Facebook at Work will also be a bit bare bones when it launches today, as the service will allow users to share and receive documents, but due to the company's time crunch to meet today's launch, there won't be any in-app editing yet.

Rasmussen also gave TechCrunch a run-down of how the service functions when starting out, describing linking accounts amongst a user's personal Facebook and an overall similarity to the company's previously established Groups service.
"When an employer adopts Facebook at Work, they can construct it with a set of new accounts. Users can then link their work and personal accounts together so that they are logged into both at the same time." This would work much like Groups and public profiles do today. On mobile, you would have two mobile apps running at the same time, he adds. "Even if the employee chooses to link there is no crossover. The content stays entirely within your personal or work Facebook."
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Though Facebook's new app is decidedly business-focused, it follows the company's recent trend of separating individual aspects of the service into multiple independent apps acting autonomously from the main Facebook app.

The nascent service has a bit of an uphill battle, with competing services already filling the market and ensuring users their personal data won't leak over into the work side of things, but Rasmussen points out he's already seen how a service like this can fail by working on Google Wave, a similar work-focused service. "I can say that the challenges of making work more efficient is something that has been on my mind for a long time," he told TechCrunch, "And I come to it with a lot of passion and the knowledge of a failure of doing this at a different company."

Facebook's Work for iOS app is scheduled to launch later today.

Article Link: Facebook Announces 'Work' App for iOS Focused on Workplace Social Networking
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2015/01/14/facebook-work/
I think we all need a minute or two to finish laughing and giggling at the idea of "Facebook Work". :p

If there's anything Facebook has ever accomplished, it certainly isn't "work".
 
haha and steal all the company info in the process. Are people really this thick?
 
Let Facebook have all our private company communications? Sounds smart. :rolleyes:

Most companies have security policies that would strictly ban using such a setup. Almost all publicly traded companies could face antitrust issues if they were to use it also.
 
Facebook's Revenge

Won't buy our Facebook Phone huh?

Well then, 2,389 FB apps for you then! That'll show you!
 
This is absurd. My company would never allow this kind of thing to be used. We have this interesting thing called the Intranet and SharePoint. Seems to handle our crap pretty well. If I want to communicate with a co-worker I pick up the phone or I send an e-mail. Others likely get off their ass and walk to another cubicle.
 
Another example of throwing something up on the wall to see if it sticks. Too bad for Facebook, though, that their walls have been coated in teflon for a number of years, it seems.
 
This is not needed.

Businesses don't need social networking. Businesses need business apps that have sharing and networking capabilities.

MS Office and it's sharing features covers that need nicely. If a business has the Office infrastructure in place, why wouldn't they just use it's sharing and social networking features?
 
GoCubsGo said:
This is absurd. My company would never allow this kind of thing to be used. We have this interesting thing called the Intranet and SharePoint. Seems to handle our crap pretty well. If I want to communicate with a co-worker I pick up the phone or I send an e-mail. Others likely get off their ass and walk to another cubicle.
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We have Yammer, and while we're cleared to use it to discuss company confidential information, most people use it as a virtual water cooler rather than for any work stuff. Most people create a profile and either lurk or don't bother with it.
 
This sounds better to me than using Google to set up the same stuff.

I trust Facebook with not distributing info I don't want them to more than I trust Google.
 
Apple shouldn't allow this app in their store.

The app opens up a big security hole for the companies.

Facebook must be getting desperate.
 
So I'm presuming this is to compete with Yammer from Microsoft? We use that at work and its really good. Our accounts are linked to our Windows login, so it's seamless.

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GoCubsGo said:
This is absurd. My company would never allow this kind of thing to be used. We have this interesting thing called the Intranet and SharePoint. Seems to handle our crap pretty well. If I want to communicate with a co-worker I pick up the phone or I send an e-mail. Others likely get off their ass and walk to another cubicle.
Click to expand...

We use SharePoint too. Seems to work well.
 
macsba said:
Apple shouldn't allow this app in their store.

The app opens up a big security hole for the companies.

Facebook must be getting desperate.
Click to expand...

I don't believe we need Apple making a decision on whether or not this is good for a business, the business owner should be making that decision.
 
This isn't as crazy as some of you think. We're using Salesforce Chatter at a major retail company and its surprisingly useful to troubleshoot, add suggestions, share great ideas, etc with people, even in the upper echelons of the company. Of course, it'll only be as good as the people using it but it's taken off for us since it was introduced last year. Most of the employees use it as a resource now.
 
I really don't see the point of this app. Is there anything that it can do better than dedicated project management and communication software?
 
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