According to RBC, in the first quarter of 2021, Mail.ru Group and Rostelecom intend to launch the Spherum service, a platform for teaching and communication of schoolchildren.

The platform will be tested in 15 regions of Russia. It is assumed that the video service will be available on desktop devices and through a mobile application: it will be possible to conduct group video conferences with up to 100 participants, each of whom will be able to virtually "raise a hand" or turn on the screen sharing.

It will be possible to register in Spherum through the VK Connect account (Mail.ru Group is the owner of the VKontakte social network) or the Gosuslugi portal operated by Rostelecom. At the same time, a separate profile will be used in "Spherum" — teachers and classmates will not be able to see the user's page on "VKontakte". In addition to video conferencing, schools or teachers will be able to create closed communities and chats to invite parents and students to them. The new service will be integrated with the My School platform from the Ministry of Education.

Earlier, Minister of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media Maksut Shadayev said that Mail.ru Group and Rostelecom are working on a joint video service for schools, but according to him, Yandex would also participate in the project.

In early December, the government published a decree on conducting experiments to introduce a digital educational environment. It will run until December 31, 2022 in some regions of Russia.

Original (in Russian)