Slack to communicate in the ways they would in
the office, and apps like Serene can help achieve
maximum productivity every day, reducing the
distractions on your screen to allow you to
get more work done.
Zoom is another tool workers should add
to their arsenal, offering a full suite of video
conferencing and communication tools for
businesses, whilst Chrome Remote Desktop can
help employees access their work computers
from the safety of their own homes, but both
will need to be switched on and active for it to
work. The cross-platform Toggl is a time tracking
app that helps employers see how much
time their staff are spending on tasks, whilst
the Spark email client automatically collects
and categorises emails from every account,
saving time and reducing the need for a personal
assistant or receptionist during self-quarantine.
Microsoft announced that it had seen a 500
percent increase in meetings, calls, and usage
in China since January due to concerns over
the coronavirus, which began its spread
there, and other developers, like Slack, have
announced that they will be offering many
of their products’ features for free. Zoom,
for instance, has promised to lift time limits
on video calls for the free version, Microsoft
is offering anyone its premium version of
Teams for free for six months, and Google
has announced that it will offer its enterprise
videoconferencing features (for example, larger
meetings of up to 250 people and the ability to
record) for free to G Suite customers through
July 1. It’s likely that more companies will follow
suit in the weeks and months ahead to capitalize
on the trends.