Microsoft Garage, the company's "after hours ideas factory," has created a new iPhone app called Forum that aims to make company-wide Q&As easier. The app has a "swiping" feature to register upvotes on a question and a Yik Yak-style homepage with different questions ranked in order of their votes.
Microsoft
The homepage (left) features Yik Yak-style comments with a vote count each of which can be swiped, like Tinder.
One of the screenshots that Microsoft provides with the app describes the Tinder-like functionality. "Express yourself [by] swiping left or right," it reads. "Swipe right to vote up, left to vote down."
Microsoft
The app can facilitate live Q&As with company employees.
The app appears to be able to facilitate live Q&As. It's unclear how this functionality works and whether its all in-app (i.e. questions and answers can only come from Forum) but it seems that Microsoft is now making a move into building trendy apps that help company-wide communication.
Satya Nadella recently gave a keynote address at the Future Decoded conference in London and showed off an "iPhone Pro," loaded with Microsoft apps and services. Forum, while not in wide release, is yet another part of that puzzle and shows Nadella's vision of taking Microsoft products to users rather than expecting users to come to Microsoft.
Forum also fits in with the rush toward trendier enterprise apps, such as Slack, the company-focused messaging client that was recently valued at $2.8 billion (£1.8 billion). By making corporate communication nicer, Slack has grown into a big business with 1.1 million daily users.
Business Insider has reached out to Microsoft to get more details on Forum. We will update the post when we hear back.