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Slack and Atlassian team up for a chat battle with Microsoft (update)
Atlassian and Slack announced today that they're entering a partnership, one that should be beneficial to both as they continue to face competition from Microsoft. As part of the agreement, Atlassian will sell the IP for its HipChat and Stride communication products to Slack and will also take a stake in the company. Slack will make payments to Atlassian over the next three years, Bloomberg reports, and both Atlassian products will be discontinued.
Facebook's Workplace chat app brings screen sharing to the desktop
It seems like everyone wants to take on Slack these days when it comes to virtual office systems. The latest is Facebook, which, according to TechCrunch has quietly added screen sharing and released a desktop client to its Workplace chat app. The program is available for both Mac and PC, and this could signal that similar moves are en route to consumers. That could take a bit, though. As of now, the desktop client is in beta. The screen sharing feature allows for sharing your entire desktop, or just one specific app. Because, seriously, do you really want anyone at work to know you're playing with Facebook's Gameroom desktop app on the clock?
The makers of HipChat are launching their Slack competitor, Stride
The Slack competitor space is a little crowded these days. There's Facebook's Workplace, Microsoft's Teams, Google Hangouts and Doist's Twist. Now, Atlassian, the maker of HipChat, is introducing another option -- Stride.
HipChat resets all passwords after hackers break in
Today, Hipchat alerted its users that someone broke into one of its servers through a vulnerability in a third-party library. The chat service saw no evidence that other Atlassian systems or products like Jira or Trello were affected, but they're forcing every user to reset their HipChat-connected account password as a precaution.
Facebook and Instagram get knocked offline... for about an hour
Snowmageddon might not be all that fun those experiencing it on the East Coast, but it could well be affecting the rest of us too. Starting around 1am ET, Facebook and Instagram were both inaccessible, as well as apps that require FB credentials. Tinder, for exmaple, also went down in the process -- globally. (We saw problems accessing servers across the US, Europe and Asia.) We've also seen Hipchat and, er, AIM also knocked offline at the same time. Snow in the servers? Or maybe it was a DDoS attack? We don't know just yet. Facebook and Instagram have just come back after an hour. Interestingly, as TechCrunch noted, Facebook's other app, WhatsApp went strong through out.
HipChat ditches Adobe Air for a native Mac client
Collaborative chat service HipChat has been available on multiple platforms including Mac and iOS for some time, but the desktop iteration has until now existed as an Adobe Air app. Citing an outpouring of requests from its users and an internal unhappiness with Air as a platform, Atlassian has launched a beta of a fully native Mac client that addresses technical shortcomings and adds new features. Speed and stability are the obvious initial upsides of the move away from Air, and Atlassian claims that the native app isn't just faster, but reduces CPU overhead by more than five times. The new client also features a redesigned left-hand navigation pane for organizing chats, the ability to display inline animated GIFs and full support for OS X staples such as Notification Center, fullscreen mode and Retina resolution. The Mac client beta can be downloaded from HipChat's site. The service itself runs US$2 per user per month and offers a 30-day free trial.
