Lark, a quite new collaboration suite is now free for users in India. Lark is now being seen as a popular collaboration platform for both work and education as it is packed with features like Messenger, Online Docs and Sheets, Cloud Storage, Calendar, Video Conferencing and much more. It’s quite possible that due to the free offering, Lark may turn out to the best possible alternative to Zoom, after Zoom faced heavy backlash for lack of privacy.

During this COVID-19 epidemic, as travel restrictions, lockdowns, and work from home are being promoted heavily, it is required that workers to easily collaborate online and for an educational institution, it is the time classes are offered online as well.

Talking about Lark, Vinay Bhartia, Lark Head, India said, “With remote working in place, we believe there is a need for effective communication and collaboration. Businesses and educational institutes are working hard to ensure continuity in work as well as distant learning. We are committed to providing accessibility via digital collaboration tools and have begun offering Lark for free. This will enable organizations regardless of size to operate effectively with no additional cost.” He further added, “At Lark, we strive to help organizations and individuals achieve more and bring efficiency and joy. Our in-built features help remote and multinational teams work together as seamlessly as in person. We are building a culture of effective communication.”

Lark Suite Key features

Lark offers unlimited video calls along with advanced screen sharing, 200GB of cloud storage, online collaborative docs and sheets, a smart calendar, a powerful messenger, unlimited third-party app integrations, and much more.
It also offers the live-streaming so that meetings conducted via video conferencing can be live-streamed to reach millions of people.
With Messenger built into Lark, users can create chat groups for up to 5,000 members.
There are features like emoji replies, threaded conversations, and read receipt.
There is the option to make voice and video calls as well.
In terms of video conferencing, Lark users can have a video conference with up to 100 participants. Lark video conferencing also lets users invite external participants.
Using Lark Docs, users can co-edit online documents with their teammates, even during video calls, and all changes are saved in the cloud in Lark Drive.
It supports rich multimedia content, including images, videos, charts, and even group chats and polls so that there are no restrictions in terms of productivity.
Lark Workplace lets users automate and customize their organizations’ internal workflows such as approvals, reimbursements, leaves, and attendance without having to code or purchase additional software.
They can also integrate Lark with third-party applications, from Jira to Asana to Salesforce.

Lark is being offered now for free and for educational institutions, it will be offered for free for an extended period. So, if you’re not on board yet, visit their official website to get started.