Meta Platforms 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.

(Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)