Working from home as a result of efforts to contain the COVID-19 spread has never been this viable, productive, and effective with the use of a powerful, Cloud-based all-in-one collaboration and communication suite now available for free in the Philippines.
Singapore-based technology company Lark Technologies Pte. Ltd. announced that it has made its digital collaboration suite, Lark, available for free across the Southeast Asia region, including Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. Lark is an all-in-one platform for collaboration that brings together a multitude of essential work tools, including Messenger, Online Docs and Sheets, Cloud Storage, Calendar, and Video Conferencing.
As businesses and educational institutions around the world are rapidly responding to the COVID-19 outbreak with various initiatives ranging from travel restrictions to mandatory work from home and remote learning policies, Lark bridges the gap as a robust, easy-to-use collaboration tool that can help people to stay connected, no matter where they are.
Beyond supporting remote work, UNESCO has also recognized Lark as a platform that can help students, parents, and teachers facilitate learning and provide social interactions during periods of school closures.
Lark’s free version comes with unlimited video calls (with advanced screen sharing), 200GB of cloud storage, online collaborative docs and sheets, a smart calendar, a powerful messenger, unlimited third-party app integrations, and customizable attendance/approval workflows. These features are all synchronized so there is no longer any need to juggle between applications to get work done — which means Lark is able to offer unique features such as checking team members’ schedules within a chat, launching a video call right from a calendar event, and co-editing a document during video calls.
In addition, Lark has also just launched a live-streaming feature to unlock more possibilities of virtual collaboration. Video meetings can be live-streamed to reach millions of people, which is very useful for large-scale meetings in situations such as senior executives presenting a speech to their thousands of employees around the world, or teachers giving lessons to their students remotely.
“With remote working in place, organizations are grappling to ensure that their employees remain productive while working remotely. The same also applies in schools and universities where educators are working hard to ensure that their students can continue to learn wherever they may be,” said Joey Lim, Commercial Lead, APAC, Lark. “In light of the situation, we saw the need to provide accessibility to digital collaboration tools and have begun offering Lark for free, ensuring that any organizations regardless of size can operate effectively with no additional cost.”
One Suite For All Teams
Lark can help organizations stay connected, no matter where they are. Below are some of Lark’s main features:
Messenger
Lark’s powerful Messenger, can create chat groups for up to 5,000 members, make all-staff announcements, and keep noise to a minimum. Features such as emoji replies, threaded conversations, and read receipt ensure that team members can receive instant feedback on their work, and can stay in sync wherever they are. Users can also launch video/audio calls, check group members’ schedules, send documents—all without leaving Messenger. All chat history is searchable, and locating information is a breeze. Lark Messenger also allows users to automatically translate messages in over 100 languages, making it especially useful for global teams.
Video Conferencing
On Lark, users can enjoy smooth, reliable video calls with unlimited minutes, share their screen or share a Lark Doc (either from desktop or from mobile), and co-edit a Lark Doc together during a video call. A video call can be launched at one click from any chat or calendar event, and users can join on any device. Lark Video Conferencing also supports inviting external participants.
Calendar
Lark’s calendar function allows users to display multiple calendars and check their teammates schedules all at once. In addition to inviting individual contacts to a meeting, users can also invite entire chat groups by adding group names to their guest list. From any calendar event, users can launch a chat group (in Lark Messenger) and an agenda doc (in Lark Docs) at one click, so that the conversation can start even before the meeting, and everyone can get on the same page.
Docs
On Lark Docs, users can co-edit online documents with their teammates, even during video calls, and all changes are saved in the cloud in Lark Drive (200GB of cloud storage included in Lark’s free version). Lark Docs supports inserting rich multimedia content, including images, videos, charts, and even group chats and polls. Using the “Comment” feature, users can have conversations about specific parts of a Lark Doc or specific cells of a Lark Sheet. On Lark Docs, you can easily view and manage document sharing permissions, making it a breeze to keep information secure.
Workplace
On Lark Workplace, users can automate and customize their organizations’ internal workflows such as approvals, reimbursements, leaves, and attendance—without having to code or purchase additional software. They can also integrate Lark with third-party applications, from Jira to Asana to Salesforce. Lark also has an Open Platform where users can build their own apps and bots.