Virtual office software for remote teams
A virtual office is a shared online space where your team is present together all day and can start talking without scheduling anything. Samudaia is virtual office software: a map with rooms on it, live presence for everyone who is working, and video rooms you enter by walking in rather than by sending a link.
The difference from a video conferencing tool is small to describe and large to live with. A call is an event you organise. An office is a place you are already in.
First, the naming confusion: this is not a mailing address
Search “virtual office” and most of the results sell you a registered business address with mail forwarding and a meeting room you can rent by the hour. That is a completely different product that happens to share a name.
This page is about the software kind: a persistent digital workplace for a distributed team. If you need a postal address for company registration, Samudaia is not what you are looking for.
How a Samudaia virtual office works
The map
Your workspace is a 2D office map. Each teammate controls an avatar and moves around it. The map has rooms marked on it: meeting rooms, a coffee area, quiet areas. You choose a theme rather than building a floor plan from scratch.
Presence
Because everyone is on one map, presence is just the truth rather than a status someone forgot to update. You can see who is online, which room they are in, and whether they are free. That single fact removes most of the “are you around?” messages a remote team sends in a day.
Rooms are already-running calls
Each room is a permanently open call. Walk your avatar in and your camera and microphone connect to everyone already inside; walk out and they disconnect. Nobody generates a URL, nobody sends an invite, and there is no join screen. More on link-free video calls.
Everything a conversation needs, in the room
- Screen sharing, for the thing you were about to describe in words
- A shared whiteboard for sketching
- Per-room text chat for links and snippets
- Background blur, for when the room behind you is not a home office
- Knock-to-talk, so you can ask for a minute instead of interrupting
- Approval to enter, for conversations that should stay private
Virtual office vs. video conferencing
| Video conferencing | Virtual office | |
|---|---|---|
| Unit of work | A meeting | A place |
| Lifetime | Ends when the call ends | Open all day |
| Starting a conversation | Create and share a link | Walk into a room |
| Who is available | Unknown until you ask | Visible |
| Unplanned conversations | Rare, they need organising | The normal case |
| Best for | Scheduled meetings, webinars, externals | Day-to-day work with your own team |
Most teams end up using both: a virtual office for their own working day, and a conferencing tool for scheduled calls with people outside the company.
Which teams get the most out of it
- Fully remote teams who lost the corridor and have replaced it with meetings.
- Hybrid teams where the people at home need the same access to a quick question as the people in the room.
- Small companies and startups who work closely and hate scheduling.
- Agencies and studios who work in pairs and need to look at each other's screens constantly.
It is a worse fit for large scheduled events. If you need a 200-attendee all-hands with stage management, use a webinar tool.
Setting one up
Create a workspace, pick a map, invite your team by email or with a single join link, and open it tomorrow morning. It is free to start, so the real test is whether people keep it open in week two, the only benchmark that matters for a virtual office.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a virtual office?
- A virtual office is a shared online space where a distributed team is present together during the working day. Everyone can see who else is around and start talking without booking a meeting. In software terms it is a persistent place, as opposed to a video call, which is a temporary event.
- Is a virtual office the same as a registered business address?
- No, and the overlapping name causes a lot of confusion. Companies such as Regus and iPostal1 sell a "virtual office" meaning a postal address, mail forwarding and occasional room hire. Samudaia is virtual office software: a place your team works, not an address for your paperwork.
- What do you need to run a virtual office?
- A browser and an invite. Samudaia runs entirely in the browser on Windows, macOS, Linux and ChromeOS, and video and audio use WebRTC via LiveKit. There is nothing to install and no server to run.
- Do we have to design a floor plan?
- No. You pick a map theme and you are working. Rooms are already laid out: a meeting room, a coffee area, focus areas. A team can be up and running in minutes rather than spending an afternoon in a map editor.
- Does a virtual office replace Slack?
- It replaces the part of Slack that is really a failed conversation: the long thread that should have been two minutes of talking. Written, asynchronous communication is still better for anything that needs a record, so most teams keep both.
Keep reading
Ready to try a virtual office that starts the call for you?
Create a Samudaia workspace, invite your team, and see who is around. Free to start.