Lark Makes Its Next-Generation Digital Collaboration Platform Available For Free In India

Singapore-based technology company Lark Technologies Pte. Ltd. announced that it has made its digital collaboration suite, Lark, available for free in India. 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 around the world are rapidly responding to the COVID-19 outbreak with initiatives ranging from travel restrictions, mandatory work from home and remote learning policies, Lark bridges the gap as a robust, easy-to-use collaborative tool that helps people stay connected.

The service is also extended for free to Educational Institutes including, Schools, Colleges and Coaching Classes across India, enabling remote working between teachers and students that will effectively and rapidly manage workflow.

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.

"With remote working in place, we believe there is a need for effective communication and collaboration. Businesses and educational institutes are working hard to ensure continuity in work as well distant learning. We are committed to providing accessibility via digital collaboration tools and have begun offering Lark for free. This will enable organizations regardless of size to operate effectively with no additional cost.” Said Vinay Bhartia, Lark Head, India

He further added, "At Lark, we strive to help organizations and individuals achieve more and bring efficiency and joy. Our in-built features help remote and multinational teams work together as seamlessly as in person. We are building a culture of effective communication.”

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.

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

With Lark’s powerful Messenger, you 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.

Video Conferencing

On Lark, users can enjoy smooth, upto 100 participants, 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.