Following 8x8's acquisition of Sameroom back in late 2016, 8x8 has officially launched its new team collaboration app, as part of their newly badged X Series. Eagerly anticipated, 8x8 introduce both team collaboration features and interoperability between platforms to market in one hit.
The move sees 8x8 transition from a recognised leader in Unified Comms as-a-Service to an out and out players in the collaboration space. I met with David Chase, Solutions Marketing Manager at 8x8 to give me a whistlestop tour of the new platform.
Headline Features
Carrying through stock features from their Virtual Office product, 8x8s new team messaging product comes pre-packed with standard features like voice and video calling. We see stock items from the new lobby license through to instant messaging, content sharing and call recording. Where the new team messaging product really comes to the fore, is the new collaboration suite.
- Full Screen Application: moving from a soft phone interface to a true collaboration area and an intuitive user interface
- Public Rooms: multiple people in a chat room with the ability to share files, follow the room and get notifications for @ mentions
- Meet Now: instant meeting setup for one to one messaging and public rooms
- Searchable Archives: persistent chat with the ability to see who has read your messages
- Emojis: when words aren't enough, emojis have become commonplace in business chat
- File Sharing: send, receive and view files across collaboration spaces
- Voicemail Transcription: dictated voice messages natively accessible via the app
How Does The Sameroom Integration Help?
Using the Sameroom integration capability, the 8x8 app now integrates into a plethora of other collaboration apps. When users of other messaging apps such as Slack exist in a business, they can continue to use the app of their choice. David commented on the productivity gains he has seen since using the new app internally:
"I don't have to leave the 8x8 app during the day, so I'm no longer losing all my time switching between apps".
Recognising apps like Slack are stand out players in the messaging world, 8x8 offer the ability to message across platform to those users without having to leave the 8x8 app.
