Facebook is making Workplace Advanced free to emergency services and governments

(Image credit: Facebook)

In an effort to help emergency services and governments deal with the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, Facebook has announced that it will offer the premium version of its workplace chat service, Workplace Advanced, to them for free for 12 months.

Facebook's Workplace competes with other workplace chat apps such as Slack and Microsoft Teams and has both free and paid tiers available.

Through the app, customers get access to their own internal version of Facebook which includes video calling, groups, file sharing, instant messaging and even a News Feed to keep up with what's going on at their organization.

Workplace Advanced offer

Facebook Workplace is already being used by a number of public organizations including the Government of Singapore, the London Fire Brigade and Ambulance Victoria.

Any agencies or government organizations that are interested in taking advantage of the company's offer have until June 30th to sign up for Workplace Advanced.

They will get access to the service for one year for free and then after that, they'll have the option to switch to either the free or paid version of Workplace. Anyone can use the free version of the service but the paid version comes with more features such as admin controls.

In addition to providing Workplace Advanced for free to emergency services and governments, Facebook has also offered free ad space to the WHO on its social network to help keep its users more informed about the coronavirus.

Via Business Insider

Anthony Spadafora

After working with the TechRadar Pro team for the last several years, Anthony is now the security and networking editor at Tom’s Guide where he covers everything from data breaches and ransomware gangs to the best way to cover your whole home or business with Wi-Fi. When not writing, you can find him tinkering with PCs and game consoles, managing cables and upgrading his smart home.