Kaizala, the messaging app from Microsoft Garage, comes to Office 365

A Microsoft Garage project, Kaizala is a secure chat and messaging app that enables Windows, Android, and iOS users to send instant messages and with Kaizala Actions, share files or send out polls and surveys.

As an Office 365 user, I just discovered that the independent app is now integrated with Office 365. Kaizala has only been available in India, and so is the new Kaizala Management Portal – manage.kaiza.la – that provides management, reporting and extensibility capabilities for Kaizala.

Kaizala was launched in 2016, and instead of competing with WhatsApp or Skype, the chat-based productivity app was focused on helping teams and businesses collaborate using the seamless instant messaging experience most users are comfortable with already. However, it found success and a lot of buzz with Goverment of Andhra Pradesh employing the same for Citizen Connect, enabling citizens to directly reach the state’s Chief Minister. From my sources, I learn that Microsoft is actively pitching the platform to several government institutions for similar deployments – and the Office 365 integration could not have come at a better time.

On the portal, your organization can quickly onboard thousands or millions of users to Kaizala, including employees, partners, vendors, or customers, with just phone numbers. You can create Kaizala groups and add users, and also view out-of-the-box reports for Kaizala Actions such as Jobs and Surveys. Developers can use the portal to either create a new or customize a Kaizala Action and also add a new Connector to integrate their internal or external systems with Kaizala.

• Kaizala users and groups: Create and manage Kaizala groups and users
• Kaizala Bulk Upload: Use CSV files to create and manage multiple groups and users
• Organization Groups (Settings): Map Kaizala groups to your organization to view reports and manage resources
• Kaizala Reports: View reports on Kaizala Actions
• Kaizala Actions: Create new Kaizala Actions
• Connectors: Integrate internal or external applications with Kaizala using REST APIs

If you’re in India, sign in with your Office 365 account and add your phone number to Kaizala. Once the phone number is authenticated, you’ll be able to manage Kaizala with the management portal.