May 14 (Reuters) - Meta Platforms ( META ) will

discontinue its work-focused Workplace app as the company shifts

its focus on building artificial intelligence and metaverse

technologies, the Facebook parent said on Tuesday.

Workplace will be shuttered starting June 2026 for customers

but Meta will continue to use it as its internal messaging

board, the company said, adding users can continue to access the

product until August 2025.

"We are discontinuing Workplace (to) focus on building AI

and metaverse technologies that we believe will fundamentally

reshape the way we work. Over the next two years, we will

provide our Workplace customers the option to transition to

Zoom's Workvivo product, Meta's only preferred migration

partner," a Meta spokesperson said.

The enterprise communications app, Workplace, was first

introduced for businesses in 2016 with new features including

multi-company groups and shared spaces that allowed employees

from different organizations to work together.

The move comes as the social media giant has been investing

heavily in AI products and metaverse - a shared virtual

environment that it bets will be the successor to the mobile

internet - stoking concerns of surging costs that could hit

growth.

The company said the billing and payment arrangements will

remain the same for Workplace customers until August this year.

Workplace currently offers a monthly core plan of $4 per

user, which can be upgraded with add-ons starting from $2 per

user each month. Unless an organization has a fixed plan, its

monthly bill is calculated by the number of billable users.