4 Popular Team Communication Apps Compared
Group communication apps are fundamental to the way teams collaborate and communicate today.
While there is no dearth of modern team communication tools, it makes sense to dive deep, analyze and choose the one that is most suited for your business before investing in one.
We analyzed the four most popular communication apps for teams so that you don’t have to.
1. Twist
Positioned as a team communication app that concentrates on clear and structured conversations, Twist marks a break from the overwhelming cacophony of its competitors.
With a needle-like focus on longer-form conversations that are organized into threads, Twist ensures that information is easy to find — whether you need it today or after a decade! It empowers teams to do their best work, minus the constant digressions of other popular apps such as Slack.
Who is it ideal for?
Twist delivers what it promises — it respects productivity and focused work. Twist shuns out the unnecessary noise from standard group chats and takes away the compulsion to immediately respond to all chat notifications.
With a simple layout that is easy to follow, Twist is the best team communication app for distributed teams that thrive on asynchronous communication.
Extra points for:
The option to select who you wish to notify when you post a message. While all members of a team may be a part of a single channel, Twist gives the user the ability to ping a single team member instead of notifying the entire team unnecessarily.
2. Slack
If Twist comes, can Slack be far behind? Or do you think it should be the other way round? Well, no matter what your preference is, there is not an iota of doubt about the massive popularity and mass appeal of Slack.
Disrupting all standard norms of real-time messaging and sweeping away most of its contenders in a single stroke, Slack has cemented its position as the most popular of all team communication tools. With over 1000+ integrations and an easy-to-use interface, Slack provides multiple modes of communication such as channels, groups or 1:1 message.
Who is it ideal for?
Suitable for both small and big companies, Slack is ideal for real-time group discussions and for those who like to stay on top of things.
Slack’s in-built Slackbot sends out automated reminders and makes sure you don’t miss a deadline or forget an important task, ever again. Slack also has advanced search capabilities and is customizable in terms of keyboard shortcuts and slash commands.
Extra points for:
Ease of use and the ability to share gifs and emojis to make conversations more engaging and fun.
3. Flock
A simple and efficient messaging app that promises easy business communication and collaboration, Flock centres around the concept of making quick decisions over chat.
Flock is also the only messaging tool that comes ‘pre-bundled’ in the sense that, one does not need to pay for any additional services once they opt for the standard subscription plan.
Despite the global adoption of communication tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams, Flock has managed to woo customers with its inbuilt productivity tools, powerful messaging features, superior quality audio and video conferencing, and affordability.
Who is it ideal for?
Ideal for mid-sized teams and large enterprises, Flock is convenient and quick. A user can easily jump on to video calls, conduct live polls with anonymous voting, share files, integrate third-party productivity apps, build custom apps, start 1:1 chat, create and assign tasks, bookmark important messages, and do pretty much everything else.
Extra points for:
Being super affordable! You can even invite vendors or clients to work with you on Flock at no extra cost.
4. Microsoft Teams
Teams is a shared platform for teams to collaborate, communicate and be their productive best. With standard features such as group chat, file-sharing, online meetings, calling, and web conferencing, you can rest assured that your team is always on the same page.
Designed keeping business meetings in mind, Teams offers a seamless video experience across web and mobile apps. You can even customize it to suit your specific business needs by integrating third-party applications and bots, or by building custom apps.
With more than 500,000 organizations as customers, Teams is slowly capturing the group messaging market that is presently dominated by Slack.
Who is it ideal for?
Built-in integrations with Office 365 tools such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and SharePoint makes Teams ideal for businesses that are already using Microsoft products.
Teams is best suited for large organizations that want to digitally empower their firstline workforce in particular.
Extra points for:
Microsoft Teams boasts the best security standards possible, so you know your data is in safe hands.
Bonus: Pushcut
Pushcut is an iOS app that lets you create smart notifications - in other words, to shortcut your way through processes and workflows with the push of a button.
The cool thing about Pushcut is that you can build your own set of custom notifications. It is a nice tool for decision-makers, organizers, and doers that need to make decisions and take action on the go.
Conclusion
Irrespective of your company size and preferences, communication is at the core of teamwork. While clear communication results in more connected and productive team members, it is quintessential to assess the needs of each team at your organization and define internal communication guidelines.
As forward-looking organizations continue to embrace remote work and gig workers, a well-defined communication strategy coupled with the right tools is key to the success of the organization and happiness of its people.
