If you want people together in person, your workplace has to work for your people. We see it in our own offices and hear it from customers. People are back in offices – now it's about ensuring their experiences in your spaces feel effortless.

Our team continues to eliminate effort from daily workplace tasks with another way to automatically check into the office. Now, employees on office Wi-Fi who open the Robin platform from any device will be automatically checked into their reservation or have a visit created for them. This means that, in addition to mobile, employees can be checked in automatically via a network connection on the web, tablet, or our Outlook add-in. We recommend using automated check-ins if you plan to make local check-ins mandatory. 

When this feature is enabled, employees will automatically be checked into their desk reservation via their phone when they walk into the office if they:

1. Are connected to the office wifi

2. Have an active Robin user account

More information on how it works and FAQ here. 

How to configure automated check-ins 

Robin uses your office building IP address(es) to detect and communicate when an employee has arrived. Admins, follow the steps below to turn this feature on and add your office IP address(es). 

1. From the web dashboard, navigate to Manage > select an office to open the settings page. 

2. Under the "Automatic check-in" section, click the toggle to ON. 

3. Add your office's public IP address(es). You can add up to 20 IP addresses separated by commas. 

We've outlined some helpful requirements for the building's IP addresses in the next section. 

4. Click Save IP address. 

Hot tip! Follow the "Create a new announcement" link for a quick template to let employees know that automatic desk check-ins are available for this office building!

 

What are the requirements for the building's IP address?

• It should be the IP address you get when using wifi at that location. A simple way to find that is to connect to wifi at the building and go to https://ipecho.net/plain, but admins should check with their IT people to make sure they aren’t missing additional possible IPs (backup connections, ranges, …).

• The IP address should be publicly routable. Private addresses like 192.168.1.100 or 127.0.0.1 are a no-no.

• The IP address should be static - this seems typical for business internet connections. Dynamic IPs are liable to change and might be feasible to use, but the admin will need to keep up with changes and reflect them in Robin.

• The IP address should be one that employees cannot use from home, e.g., via VPNs on employee phones. Otherwise, we’ll get false-positive automatic check-ins.

• CIDR ranges are acceptable, limited to /16 for IPv4 and /48 for IPv6. The limit is just because larger ranges are probably user error but can easily be changed

• Limit of 20 distinct ranges/IPs per building, same reason