Flock (messaging service)

Last updated
Original author(s) Bhavin Turakhia
Developer(s) Flock FZ-LLC
Initial release2014
Operating system iOS
Android
Chrome
macOS
Windows
Type Collaborative software, Instant messaging, Online chat
Website flock.com

Flock is a proprietary messaging and collaboration tool, [1] [2] founded by tech entrepreneur Bhavin Turakhia in 2014. [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] The app is available on Windows, MacOS, Android, iOS and Web. [11] [12] [13]

Contents

Flock allows users to configure external apps and integrations from the Flock App Store, and receive notifications and updates directly in Flock. [14] [15] [16]

Flock functions on a freemium pricing model. [1] The application was launched in 2014. [17]

Features

The primary features of Flock are direct & channel messaging, video conferencing, screen & file sharing, and unlimited chat history. [18] [19]

Teams

Flock users can create multiple teams for the entire company, a department or for selective members of the organisation. [20] To join a team and communicate, users can send invites to others or share the Team URL. [21] [22]

Channels

Flock users can create public channels and private channels. Public channels are open for everyone to discover and join, and do not require an invitation from the team admin. These channels are meant for sharing knowledge, interests and experiences. Private channels are meant for more focused discussions, and can be joined by invite only. [23]

Native apps

Flock comes pre-installed with business apps such as: [24] [25] [26]

API

Flock provides its platform, FlockOS, for developers to build apps, bots and custom integrations on top of Flock. Flock conducts regular hackathons to help young developers build innovative apps by using FlockOS's capabilities. [27]

App Store

Flock lets users integrate external apps and services from the Flock App Store. Some common apps include Google Drive, Google Analytics, Trello, GitHub, Twitter and Mailchimp. [28] Developers can also publish apps built on FlockOS to the Flock App Store. [19] [29] [30]

Awards

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Skype for Business</span> Enterprise instant messaging and video conferencing software by Microsoft

Skype for Business is an enterprise software application for instant messaging and videotelephony developed by Microsoft as part of the Microsoft Office suite. It is designed for use with the on-premises Skype for Business Server software, and a software as a service version offered as part of Microsoft 365. It supports text, audio, and video chat, and integrates with Microsoft Office components such as Exchange and SharePoint.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sydenham College of Commerce and Economics</span> College in Mumbai, India

Sydenham College of Economics is a college located in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It is affiliated to the Dr. Homi Bhabha State University. The college offers undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in management. It was awarded a re-accreditation 'A' grade and 3.42 GPA in the second cycle assessment conducted by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council.

Google Workspace is a collection of cloud computing, productivity and collaboration tools, software and products developed and marketed by Google. It consists of Gmail, Contacts, Calendar, Meet and Chat for communication; Currents for employee engagement; Drive for storage; and the Google Docs Editors suite for content creation. An Admin Panel is provided for managing users and services. Depending on edition Google Workspace may also include the digital interactive whiteboard Jamboard and an option to purchase add-ons such as the telephony service Voice. The education edition adds a learning platform Google Classroom and today has the name Workspace for Education.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HipChat</span> Web service for internal/private chat

HipChat was a web service for internal private online chat and instant messaging. As well as one-on-one and group/topic chat, it also featured cloud-based file storage, video calling, searchable message-history and inline-image viewing. The software was available to download onto computers running Windows, Mac or Linux, as well as Android and iOS smartphones and tablets. Since 2014, HipChat used a freemium model, as much of the service was free with some additional features requiring organizations to pay per month. HipChat was launched in 2010 and acquired by Atlassian in 2012. In September 2017, Atlassian replaced the cloud-based HipChat with a new cloud product called Stride, with HipChat continuing on as the client-hosted HipChat Data Center.

WeChat and Weixin are a Chinese instant messaging, social media, and mobile payment app developed by Tencent. First released in 2011, it became the world's largest standalone mobile app in 2018 with over 1 billion monthly active users. WeChat has been described as China's "app for everything" and a super-app because of its wide range of functions. WeChat provides text messaging, hold-to-talk voice messaging, broadcast (one-to-many) messaging, video conferencing, video games, mobile payment, sharing of photographs and videos and location sharing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Google Hangouts</span> Communication software by Google

Google Hangouts was a disconnected cross-platform instant messaging service developed by Google. It originally was a feature of Google+, becoming a standalone product in 2013, when Google also began integrating features from Google+ Messenger and Google Talk into Hangouts. Google then began integrating features of Google Voice, its Internet telephony product, into Hangouts, stating that Hangouts was designed to be "the future" of Voice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nimbuzz</span> Proprietary cross-platform instant messaging

Nimbuzz is a proprietary cross-platform instant messaging and social media and mobile payment developed by Kuraakani Online Private Limited, with the origins of its technology dating back to the early 2000s. As of March 2013, Nimbuzz had 150 million users in 200 countries. By April 2014, Nimbuzz was growing by more than 210,000 new registrations per day. In October 2014, now with over 200 million users, New Call acquired 70% of Nimbuzz, valuing the app at $250 million. Under CEO Sujit Acharya's leadership, Nimbuzz suite of applications enables users to enjoy end-to-end encrypted free calls, instant messaging, games, file sharing,social networking, mobile payments & movies on their mobile device. Nimbuzz has more than 3 million lines of code. Initially, Nimbuzz offered discounted calling rates to most countries in the world. The platform processed more than a billion call minutes and in excess of 100 billion messages a month.

Slack is an instant messaging program designed by Slack Technologies and owned by Salesforce. Although Slack was developed for professional and organizational communications, it has also been adopted as a community platform. Users can communicate with voice calls, video calls, text messaging, media, and files in private chats or as part of communities called "workspaces." Slack also uses IRC-style features such as persistent chat rooms (channels) organized by topic, private groups, and direct messaging. In addition to these online communication features, Slack can integrate with other software. Slack runs on Web, Windows, Linux, MacOS, Android, Windows Phone and iOS.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hike Messenger</span> Instant messaging app

Hike Messenger, also known as Hike Sticker Chat, was an Indian freeware, cross-platform instant messaging (IM), and Voice over IP (VoIP) application that was launched on December 12, 2012, by Kavin Bharti Mittal and is now owned by Hike Private Limited. Hike worked offline through SMS and had multi-platform support. The app registration used a standard one-time password (OTP) based authentication process. Hike was estimated to be worth $1.4 billion, with more than 100 million registered users and 350.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fuze (company)</span>

Fuze is a cloud communications and collaboration software platform designed for the enterprise. Fuze was acquired by 8x8. The company is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.

Wire Swiss GmbH is a software company with headquarters in Zug, Switzerland. Its development center is in Berlin, Germany. The company is best known for its messaging application called Wire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Microsoft Teams</span> Team collaboration application

Microsoft Teams is a proprietary business communication platform developed by Microsoft, as part of the Microsoft 365 family of products.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Divyank Turakhia</span> Computer-programmer, businessman, entrepreneur and investor

Divyank Turakhia is an Indian-born computer-programmer, businessman, billionaire, serial entrepreneur, and investor. His net worth is estimated at $1.76 billion. He founded Media.net, which he sold in 2016 to a Chinese consortium for $900 million, the third-largest ever ad-tech deal.

Wire is an encrypted communication and collaboration app created by Wire Swiss. It is available for iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, Linux, and web browsers such as Firefox. Wire offers a collaboration suite featuring messenger, voice calls, video calls, conference calls, file-sharing, and external collaboration – all protected by a secure end-to-end-encryption. Wire offers three solutions built on its security technology: Wire Pro – which offers Wire's collaboration feature for businesses, Wire Enterprise – includes Wire Pro capabilities with added features for large-scale or regulated organizations, and Wire Red – the on-demand crisis collaboration suite. They also offer Wire Personal, which is a secure messaging app for personal use.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bhavin Turakhia</span> Indian businessman

Bhavin Turakhia is a serial entrepreneur, and the founder of Titan, Flock, Radix, CodeChef and Zeta. In 2016, Bhavin, a billionaire, was ranked as the 95th richest person in India, with a net worth of US$1.3 billion, along with his brother Divyank Turakhia, according to Forbes. He has been honored as a 2011 Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.

Stride was a cloud-based team business communication and collaboration tool, launched by Atlassian on 7 September 2017 to replace the cloud-based version of HipChat. Stride software was available to download onto computers running Windows, Mac or Linux, as well as Android, iOS smartphones, and tablets. Stride was bought by Atlassian's competitor Slack Technologies and was discontinued on February 15, 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zeta (company)</span> Next-gen Banking Tech & Card Issuer Processor

Zeta is a next-gen banking tech company by founders Bhavin Turakhia and Ramki Gaddipati in 2015. The company provides credit and debit card issuer processing, BNPL, core banking and "mobile experiences". Zeta provides its products to banks and fintechs globally.

Microsoft Kaizala is a secure messaging and work management software application for collaboration among users inside and outside of organizations, including the ability to send and receive instant messages, coordinate tasks, and submit invoices. It was launched in India in 2017, thereafter expanded to 28 countries, and was launched globally in April 2019 as part of the Office 365 package. It is available internationally, except in a few countries as a free Android, iOS, and web application. Kai zala is a Marathi phrase that means "What happened?"

Comparison of user features of messaging platforms refers to a comparison of all the various user features of various electronic instant messaging platforms. This includes a wide variety of resources; it includes standalone apps, platforms within websites, computer software, and various internal functions available on specific devices, such as iMessage for iPhones.

Titan is a business email service founded by Bhavin Turakhia in 2018. The service may be accessed through the Titan website and through the web, Android, and iOS.

References

  1. 1 2 Khedekar, Naina (August 12, 2016). "Flock, an enterprise communication and collaboration app". Firstpost. Archived from the original on April 29, 2017. Retrieved May 18, 2017.
  2. ↑ Chowdhary, Sudhir (April 19, 2017). "Flock messaging app makes communication seamless, brings team together". Financial Express.
  3. ↑ Shivapriya, N.; Chanchani, Madhav (25 September 2014). "Riva's messaging app Flock to compete with Skype, Yammer and Slack". Economic Times. Retrieved September 25, 2014.
  4. ↑ "Directi founder launches business chat service Flock". Medianama. 25 September 2014. Retrieved September 25, 2014.
  5. ↑ Varshney, Rashi (March 23, 2017). "Chat apps: From Flock to Teamchat, 4 team messenger apps you can talk business on". Financial Express.
  6. ↑ Pratik, Mukane (September 30, 2014). "Flock: An app to make team communication easy and keep personal chats private". Daily News and Analysis .
  7. ↑ Shaikh, Shadma (December 20, 2016). "Bhavin Turakhia to raise $25 million to build Flock". The Economic Times.
  8. ↑ "Messenger platform Flock launches feature to identify fake news". The Economic Times. January 20, 2017.
  9. ↑ Barker, Colin (May 10, 2017). "Fewer meetings, more productivity: Can enterprise messaging apps help your team?". ZDNet.
  10. ↑ Mihindukulasuriya, Regina (April 25, 2017). "What's Flock and Why Use it When You Have WhatsApp?". Businessworld.
  11. ↑ Noyes, Katherine (September 14, 2016). "Meet Flock, a Slack rival that claims big productivity gains". InfoWorld.
  12. ↑ Thomas Hector, Dearton (September 8, 2016). "Why Bhavin Turakhia thinks Flock 2.0 will be the next big thing in enterprise chat". VCCircle.
  13. ↑ "Billionaire Turakhias fund own startup to build rival to Slack". Livemint. 1 September 2017.
  14. ↑ "Flock announces the deepest integration with Google Drive in its space". Dataquest. May 11, 2017.
  15. ↑ Preimesberger, Chris (December 30, 2016). "Flock Launches IT's First 'Chat Operating System'". eWeek.
  16. ↑ "Flock app introduces a brand new interface among other features". Deccan Chronicle. September 8, 2016.
  17. ↑ Sahay, Priyanka (25 September 2017). "Directi founder Bhavin Turakhia launches WhatsApp like chat app Flock for professionals". VCCircle.
  18. ↑ Singh, Devika (September 19, 2016). ""The reliance on email will reduce," says Bhavin Turakhia, Founder & CEO, Flock". Business Today.
  19. 1 2 Sathe, Gopal (December 20, 2016). "Flock Announces FlockOS in an Attempt to Take on Slack". NDTV.
  20. ↑ Shekhar, Sidharth (September 8, 2016). "Flock 2.0. Update is Here, Introduces Teams and a Brand New Interface". PCQuest.
  21. ↑ "Flock 2.0 – Introducing Teams and a new interface". Express Computer. September 9, 2016.[ permanent dead link ]
  22. ↑ "Flock 2.0 update brings support for Teams". Indian Express. September 12, 2016.
  23. ↑ "Flock Expands to 5 More Countries With Multilingual Support, New Features". NDTV. March 16, 2017.
  24. ↑ "Flock brings world's first chat operating system FlockOS". ETCEO.com. The Economic Times. December 21, 2016.
  25. ↑ "Enterprise messenger Flock now boasts of new powerful features". Deccan Chronicle. February 18, 2016.
  26. ↑ Rajan, Nandagopal (May 4, 2016). "Flock messaging app: The Indian competition for Slack". Indian Express.
  27. ↑ "Flock launches world's first chat OS". New Delhi: Indian Express. IANS.
  28. ↑ "Flock Channel is now live on IFTTT". Firstpost. Jun 10, 2016. Archived from the original on June 14, 2016. Retrieved May 18, 2017.
  29. ↑ "Flock launches world's first chat operating system". New Delhi: Business Standard. December 20, 2016.
  30. ↑ "Flock launches FlockOS, a Chat Operating System". Digit. December 27, 2016.
  31. ↑ Dutta, Subhayan (July 8, 2016). "GMASA 2016 award winners". Plunge Daily.
  32. ↑ Maharishi, Phalgunn (July 8, 2016). "GMASA 2016 Awards Companies For Innovative Mobile Apps". CXO Today.
  33. ↑ "India Digital Awards: Interactive Avenues is the Digital Agency of the Year, Mukesh Ambani Named Digital Person of the Year". Adage India. February 10, 2017.
  34. ↑ "Winners". Iamaiida.in. Archived from the original on July 16, 2017. Retrieved May 20, 2017.
  35. ↑ "India Digital Awards: Interactive Avenues wins Digital Agency of the Year". The Economic Times. February 10, 2017.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.