Facebook Testing Mac and PC Apps for Workplace

Facebook quietly launched two official Workplace by Facebook desktop apps for the Mac and PC, TechCrunch discovered this afternoon. Workplace is Facebook's enterprise collaboration software designed to compete with Slack and other similar business apps.

The apps are available as a beta, with download links located in the Help section for Workplace. The apps are designed to allow users to communicate with their coworkers through chat, messaging, and screen sharing features. A Workplace by Facebook spokesperson told TechCrunch that Mac and PC apps were a highly requested feature.

Workplace by Facebook spokesperson Vanessa Chan confirmed the launch of the desktop app to TechCrunch, saying "This was one of the most widely requested features by customers, so we built it. The desktop app is still in beta and being tested by Workplace customers who are providing feedback that we'll use to improve the product before a wider rollout."

Prior to the release of the Workplace desktop apps, Workplace by Facebook was only accessible via a browser window, and as TechCrunch points out, it's easy to lose a single browser tab among many other tabs.

While the Facebook desktop apps are limited to Workplace, it's possible Facebook could be testing the waters for an official Facebook or Facebook Messenger desktop app in the future.

Tag: Facebook

Top Rated Comments

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imran5720

13 months ago

No thanks , cannot take any more invasions

Rating: 10 Votes

miknos

13 months ago

No thanks , cannot take any more invasions

Are you saying that you don't like to share professional information with Facebook? Privacy is so 2010...

Let's see how Zuck candidacy goes in the next election. A debate between him and Trump would be hilarious!

Rating: 4 Votes

OldSchoolMacGuy

13 months ago

Seems those in this thread don't understand the purpose of Facebook @ Work. It's essentially a Slack competitor. Allows coworkers to communicate easily, plus have groups and other stuff.

Rating: 3 Votes

BGarza

13 months ago

I actually love it, FB allowed our university to use it free of charge. For our staff of 400, utilizing iPod Touches, it gave us instant communication. I tried Slack, Skype, neither compared this solution.

Rating: 3 Votes

hayesk

13 months ago

Looks like yet another webapp. No, thank you. If I wanted webapps, I’d get a Chromebook. I’d like a native app that utilizes OS features, doesn’t use up all my RAM, and offers a UI consistent with the rest of my system. Is that too much to ask?

Rating: 2 Votes

riverfreak

13 months ago

Seems those in this thread don't understand the purpose of Facebook @ Work. It's essentially a Slack competitor. Allows coworkers to communicate easily, plus have groups and other stuff.

Oh I get it alright. And there isn’t a snowballs chance in heck that anyone I work with would trust a collaboration tool provided by Facebook.

Rating: 2 Votes

Urban Joe

13 months ago

Haha... who in their right mind would trust this? Totally preposterous. Actually, it’s insulting that FB would think companies are so stupid to give FB an open door to surveille sensitive, timely corporate communications.
And of course FB = MZ

Rating: 2 Votes

jamescobalt

13 months ago

This is kind of silly. I am not connected with anyone in my professional life on Facebook, and never would. I am more and more not even wanting to use it for social networking other than my family that lives out of town. LinkedIn I trust with professional contacts, not Facebook.

Workplace is a separate system from regular Facebook. It's like it's own little private Facebook with its own apps and website. You don't use your personal Facebook account on it - it's a separate account on a separate platform. It's actually way more private than LinkedIn, and the focus is on collaboration rather than networking.

Rating: 2 Votes

riverfreak

13 months ago

DOA.

There is absolutely zero chance of this being adopted by anyone I work with. Maybe once all of us dinosaurs die off...

Rating: 2 Votes