Elevate Team Communications to New Heights with Team Chat Apps

There are a lot of apps out there that are becoming crucial for teamwork. One of the most universally needed ones is the team chat app. 

These seemingly simple apps have a baseline appeal of being an easy and quick way to communicate either remotely or without having to shout across an office. 

Beyond that though, many of these apps pack quite the punch. Conversations can be segregated into different channels and threads. The app can be a source of highlights from other commonly used communication avenues or apps. 

And, it can even be a quicker and more concise productivity tool. If you have been on the fence of implementing one for your team or are interested in learning new ways to use, read on!

The main goal of a team chat app is to decrease the amount of wasted time trying to communicate across scattered platforms with skewed information. In doing so, improve response times and productivity.

By using their own features properly and adding in integrations, this tool can slowly become the all-in-one app your team needs the most.

What is a team chat app?

A team chat app is a platform that provides a secure channel for your team to communicate. 

Features, of course, may vary but they most often allow for creating separate channels, thread replies, group messaging, and uploading files, photos, or sound bites. As well as, offering the capability to use their API to integrate other apps for further ease in communicating (more on that below). 

They all have a different focus, of course. This ranges from being purely chat-based to being a glorified inbox to being the ultimate to-do list. 

Wondering what is out there? Here is a pretty detailed list of the top business team messaging apps to get you started.

Why do you need a team chat app?

The team chat app is the primary location to house all of your teams' internal chatter. 

It helps to organize conversations, retain records of communications, and overall provide an avenue for team members to chat when personal interaction is unavailable due to remote work environments. 

It can also be your final repository where all your other apps feed into, hence integration. 

By integrating all of your communications into one place, you save yourself and your team's precious time from doing long searches across other platforms for a comment or file. It can also be used as the ultimate notification center for changes in other apps or projects. 

Furthermore, it can be used as the culmination point of all your team’s to-do lists to boost productivity.

1. Internal communications

The basic element of a team chat app is that your team can chat within one platform. No more scattered conversations across SMS, losing track of topics or wasting too much time trying to find the file that everyone is referring to but you can’t seem to remember where it’s located. 

With team chat apps you can create as many channels as you would like. Individually message team members, segregate by topic or create multiple group chats depending upon a project. 

With better threading capabilities, it quickly becomes superior to email! 

Email can be overly structured, long, and ineffective to what you may need for quick communication between colleagues. Plus, you can easily send documents or upload files on a messaging app as easily as you would using email. 

Lastly, easily search and find that topic you were discussing last week but can’t quite remember where it is. Use the search bar to find any reference to what you are searching for and return to that topic easily. 

No more scrolling, hunting, and pecking.

2. Communication integration

As one of the biggest team chat apps, Slack states, it’s “Where work happens”. 

And, that is exactly right. Your team chat app can also be the repository for other app communications. By integrating your team chat app with your other apps, you give it the power to do so much more! 

It can notify you and your team members of changes or developments made on other platforms. It can be the place where you store and comment on document drafts created on other applications. Essentially, it can be a mini-productivity tool that all your other apps feed into. 

To find what your chosen app can do, search in the individual app’s integration section to see what apps it integrates with. Most even list third-party solutions that allow you more flexibility in your integrations, like Make.

How can Make help?

Make is the fully-loaded automation tool that allows you to easily connect apps and automate tasks, to work faster and smarter. 

Where it differs from in-app integrations is that it can help you move beyond the singular integrations that are available within the chat app itself. With Make, you can do multiple actions at the same time. 

And, it’s easy. With no coding required you can connect hundreds of apps in thousands of different ways to make almost make any workflow happen. And with our advanced features, you can do even more for FREE. 

For example, a router allows you to branch multiple actions together. Or, you can iterate out just the data points you need with iterators. See an example of using Make below.

Send new Instagram photos to Telegram

For more examples, search in our templates section. Type the team chat app that you have or will have in the search field and see what is already created, ready-to-use, and ready-to-be-build-off-of. 

Get going with this and then we can talk about automating your team responses with chatbots. 

Ssshhhh, it will be our secret though ;). 

In order for a team to be effective, they need to communicate. They need a tool to communicate effectively. And they need that tool to be as effective as possible. 

This is why you need a team chat app and this is how you get the most out of it. 

If this has inspired you or would like to check out our service, visit www.make.com and try it for free today!

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