Microsoft Kaizala, (another) mobile group chat app, being made available to Office 365 commercial plans worldwide

Microsoft Kaizala is essentially a Whatsapp clone. A mobile only (iOS and Andorid) group chat app, where anyone can join any group and identity is tied to phone numbers. Kaizala is focused on mobile first/only workers, more common in developing countries that may not have lots of PC’s and fixed internet connections, but do have mobiles and mobile coverage.

There is a fee version available worldwide and a Pro version that is already available as part of Office 365 commercial plans, or as a standalone purchase in 28 countries; Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, Cambodia, Chile, Colombia, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Israel, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, the Philippines, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, and Vietnam.

Microsoft has announced the Pro version will now be available in Office 365 commercial plans worldwide, rolling out “over time”.

 

 

 

 

It does have some clever tricks including built-in Actions such as schedule meetings, assign and track jobs and location awareness features. Users can respond to Actions . Open APIs.to build your own custom actions.

Flexible network models:

Mainly, I think Microsoft are trying to present an alternative to WhatsApp and Facebook messenger from a more “trusted” “enterprise” provider. You can manage users or groups via the web-based Kaizala Management Portal, where your Administrator can control group membership and data access, easily remove users from all groups, and wipe data from their devices. Kaizala maintains user privacy and stores data in secure and compliant Azure datacenters. Kaizala supports key compliance standards such as ISO 27001, SOC2, HIPAA, GDPR.

It wasn’t enough to have to explain Skype for Business vs Teams vs Email vs Yammer right . In all seriousness this is likely aimed at a scenario where Microsoft Teams is “overkill” and everyone involved only wants mobile chat, which doesn’t fit most enterprise use cases. Another app to explain in the Microsoft Office 365 “toolkit”. No doubt there will be some blow back on Microsoft for providing yet another “chat” option, but this appears to be part of the new agile cloud world in meeting different customer requirements.

More info: https://products.office.com/en/business/microsoft-kaizala

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Microsoft-Kaizala-Blog/Coordinate-work-across-dynamic-networks-of-people-using/ba-p/280233

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/Office365/Kaizala/enable-disable-kaizala

Here is an overview video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35DDZDOzPGM