Automattic, WordPress’s parent company, is a pioneer in remote working since the company started in 2005. Today they have over 1,000 employees (!!!), fully distributed around the world.

Last week the team at WordPress.com launched their internal remote-team collaboration tool, P2, to the public for the first time.

Email, Slack, and Zoom fatigue is real. P2 helps organize files, projects, and conversations all on one screen, meaning teams can collaborate from anywhere, asynchronously. Maker, Jon Burke, refers to P2 as the “life blood” of their globally distributed team.

Here are some initial reactions from the community:

“‘I love work emails’ - said no one ever. P2 all the way!” – Monica V. Ohara

“What I love about P2s is that it gives time and space to think about important topics. I cannot imagine asynchronous work without a tool like this.” – Artur Piszek

“Big upgrade. Communication is going this way. Nice product 👏” – Alex Papageorge

Famously a distributed team, this launch from Automattic (the creators behind WordPress) could be a step forward in realizing Founder’s, Matt Mullenweg, long-held prediction that remote work is the future.

5 years ago Matt talked to the Product Hunt community about his thoughts on this. And more recently he wrote that “Distributed work happened slowly, then all at once” in reference to recent Shelter In Place needs.

You can use P2 across multiple timezones for things like writing company-wide blog posts or acting as a 'virtual water cooler' to help teammates connect around the world. You could even plan a trip with friends and family using P2 - it's not necessarily only useful for our work needs.

Of course, many tools are emerging to help teams navigate remote working. We wrote about a few lesser-known alternatives back in March.

Whether you enjoy the remote life, or are looking forward to getting back to the office, P2 could help reduce reliance on multiple tools either remotely, in the office, or even for family life.