Back in May we brought you news that CanvasDropr, the collaboration software company that we profiled a year ago, was rebranding its eponymous visual collaboration tool as Kollaborate.io, as well as renaming the umbrella company name as Assemblage. And today, the Danish startup has announced a new Chrome extension to make it as easy as right-clicking to start a new video or voice meeting.
In a nutshell, Kollaborate.io pitches itself as like ‘Skype on steroids’, and goes beyond simple VoIP calls – it lets users collaborate and work on more than forty different types of file, while simultaneously speaking in HD voice and video through the browser.
With a Chrome extension in tow, Kollaborate.io is looking to reduce the number of steps needed from that initial ‘let’s have a call’ moment, to actually discussing a project with colleagues. What we’re talking about here is one-click meetings.
How it works
You will of course need a Kollaborate.io account for the extension to be operational, with prices starting from $9.99 a month.
The Chrome extension allows you to right-click anywhere on the Web, this could be when searching a Web page or writing an email, to initiate a call:
Users can then share files and discuss projects while seeing any supporting asset in real-time.
“Imagine how much time and money we can save – billions of business meetings are held online every year,” says Assemblage co-founder and CMO Cathrine W. Andersen. “It takes at least 10 minutes before even joining every call in conventional browser-based solutions using plugins and clients. Kollaborate.io is aiming to save everyone those extra, valuable minutes.”
Though the Assemblage folks are vying for a VoIP market already dominated by Skype, it’s looking beyond mere online calls to topple other established players in the collaboration and conference-call space, including WebEx and Go-To-Meeting. And upcoming updates include integration into enterprise social networks, as well as other tools that companies already use.
“It’s not just about a Chrome extension”, adds Christian Rasmussen, CTO and co-founder of Assemblage. “It’s a much bigger discussion about new browser technologies such as HTML5 and WebRTC. Collaboration vendors don’t have enough guts to start betting on those new technologies without being scared to loose customers that, for example, use Internet Explorer across the entire organization”.
The new Kollaborate.io Chrome extension is available now. Meanwhile, you may wish to check out Speek, which is setting out to disrupt the conference call market with WebRTC and simplicity.
➤ Kollaborate.io | Chrome Extension
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