Facebook, Twitter, Google, and Microsoft will let employees work from home through 2020 or longer. Here's how tech companies are reconsidering remote work in the wake of COVID-19. (MSFT, AAPL, FB, GOOG, AMZN, TWTR)

Tech giants Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Amazon have announced plans — with varying degrees of specificity — outlining how employees might return to their offices this year.Google, Facebook, and Microsoft have set dates that their offices will tentatively reopen this summer, but will still allow most employees to keep working from home through the fall.Twitter has taken the boldest work from home stance, telling employees they can keep working remotely permanently.Tech giants returning to work are relying on safety measures like thermal cameras, mandatory face masks, and hand sanitizer to reduce the chance of COVID-19 outbreaks.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

As states prepare to lift COVID-19 stay-at-home orders across the US, some of tech's biggest players have started to solidify their timelines for reopening their offices.

In the past month, companies including Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Amazon have started to tell employees when they can expect to return to work in the coming year.

Twitter was the first major tech company to make a bold decision about the future of remote work — in the first week of May, the company went so far as to tell employees that they can keep working from home permanently if they want to. A slew of smaller tech companies have followed that lead, including Spotify, Shopify, and Box.

Meanwhile, Google and Facebook will both return to offices in the coming year, but are planning to limit office capacity to less than 30% in the months after they reopen. Most employees at those companies will be allowed to continue working from home at least through the end of 2020.

Companies returning to offices will face unprecedented challenges to stave off potential COVID-19 outbreaks among employees. Some, like Amazon, are turning to high-tech solutions like thermal cameras that screen workers for fever. Experts say offices may have to implement sneeze guards, one-way corridors, and staggered hours to reduce the density of employees.

Here's how tech giants are planning to return to offices in the coming year.

Original author: Aaron Holmes