The mother company of WordPress.com Automattic introduced one today product of team communication and collaboration that served as “the foundation of Automattic's distributed work model” for more than a decade.
Automattic invested in telework long before work from home became the new normal in the global workforce after the pandemic.
Since its establishment in 2005, the Automattic focused on remote work and today its products give more than 1.200 employees in 77 countries complete autonomy to work from wherever they want. THE platform that Automattic announced today is called P2, and it's been used internally for more than a decade as a blog-style conversation pipeline for asynchronous communications.
Since 2008, P2 has also been available as a feature that anyone can incorporate into their blog, but has not been updated for a period of four years.
The new P2 announced today, however, comes as a stand-alone product designed for teams of all sizes. Powered by WordPress.com, P2 is available on the web and through the WordPress app will be for cell phones on Android and iOS.
It is flexible in terms of use, somewhat like a corporate intranet or a Reddit forum, as it attempts to "remove groups and organizations away from incoming emails".
Anyone can create a discussion with topics related to the latest products of the company, new projects, group tours and whatever else you want.
P2 can be configured for private internal group discussions or open conversations with clients and partners. Users can easily switch between P2 from their WordPress.com account. Each P2 has its own unique URL, just like any standard WordPress.com blog.
P2 is available starting today in an open beta version for anyone who wants to use it. Automattic plans to maintain the platform free for everyone – however, it will also add some premium options in the future.
Currently P2 does not work for sites with WordPress which is outside of WordPress.com, but according to the FAQ there will be developments soon.