Which Team Communication App Will Elevate Your Productivity?

The messaging app market is a booming one, with 2.52 billion users reported in 2019 and projected to grow to three billion users by 2022. This staggering statistic not only gives us insight into the messages we send every day to family and friends at home but also in the workplace, where team communication apps now offer abilities and functions that have become essential.

Another tool that teams regularly require is video conferencing for virtual meetings that accommodate remote attendees. Video conferencing, combined with chat messaging and other team collaboration tools like calendar and task management apps, help teams communicate more effectively. These tools are amazing, but they can be cumbersome if your team has to go back and forth from application to application.

That’s where an all-in-one, intuitive team communication app comes into play. While there are multiple benefits of apps like Slack and Zoom for productive collaboration, there’s a significant value-add to leveraging flexible chat features that are built directly into the centralized dashboard of a project collaboration platform. And when your team communication app also offers calendar integration, a bevy of task management tools, and other productivity-boosting features, the advantages become undeniable.

Why Choose a Team Communication App?

In the vast growth of mobile and team communication apps, chat messaging and video conferencing are among those used most frequently for work. Teams that are thriving will likely use a chat app like Slack and a video conferencing program like Zoom already.

But these aren’t the only tools effective teams use for productive collaboration. Another team communication option that many teams are driving toward is a communication platform that integrates all of your components into one intuitive dashboard, elevating your team’s collaborative abilities.

Which App Will Best Suit Your Team?

As far as team communication apps go, Slack and Zoom are two of the most popular options for chat and video conferencing. Both are fairly simple to use and have a minimal learning curve, but they are separate applications that must be used independently. 

Here’s a breakdown of these three options and a closer look at their advantages and disadvantages.

Slack

Slack is, in essence, a stand-alone service offering an instant messaging platform for private and group chat with the ability to have smaller subgroups, as well as public chat channels.

Advantages:

• Private and public chat channels
• Individual or group messaging
• G-Suite integration
• Allows shared channels with external companies
• Voice and video calling capabilities

Disadvantages: 

• Does not support long messages or large files, so you will have to rely on email or another application
• Inflexibility in separating tasks from chat channels
• Project timelines can be difficult to view and understand 
• Lack of workflow management tools

While Slack is an excellent option for chat-specific purposes, it does not offer the capabilities necessary for complete project management. 

Zoom

Zoom is a highly-useful video conferencing solution that’s easy to use and integrate, though with occasional technical issues and outages. This app enables teams to stay in touch for meetings and regular video collaboration. Zoom offers a plug-and-play system so it’s easy to apply and tools are simple to learn.

Advantages:

• Helpful plug-and-play video conferencing platform
• Direct communication with up to 100 participants for team and project meetings with an add-on for up to 1,000 participants
• Ability to send chat messages throughout calls
• The option to raise your hand for questions
• Easy-to-schedule meetings that can integrate with team calendars

Disadvantages:

• Technical issues such as frozen video during collaborative team meetings
• Limited options for project task management, sharing files, and working on documents or projects

Video conferencing with Zoom is helpful and often essential for project teams, but it generally must be used in conjunction with other apps and tools for complete project management.

All-in-One Integrated Platform

With an all-in-one integrated platform, you have a feature-rich built-in chat tool, task management capabilities, and calendar integration, as well as chat, video, and other app integration all from a centralized dashboard, improving communication across your project teams.

Advantages:

• Built-in chat that enables you to work together on projects, including capabilities for:
  • Direct messaging
  • Group chats
  • In-task conversations
  • Project chat channels
• Ability to mute notifications and chat channels when you need to focus
• Task management
• Calendar integration with Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, and Apple Calendar
• Ability to manage timelines and workloads
• Intuitive centralized dashboard  
• Basic and advanced integrations:
  • Easily integrate tools like chat and video conferencing, as well as DropBox, Google Suite, Harvest, and connect with over a thousand apps with Zapier. 
  • Some additional integration examples include Salesforce, JIRA, Evernote, and Google Forms.
• A simple learning curve that is easy for teams of all technical abilities to navigate 
• Visualize all of your work in one place for streamlined workflow
• Set recurring and prioritized tasks
• Filter and sort project tasks
• Add tasks via email
• Set reminders for tasks
• Secure file sharing
• Complete project tools for remote and distributed teams

Disadvantages:

• If you simply want to use chat only and don’t need to work with other project collaborative tools, then these comprehensive features may not be necessary

If you want a feature-rich, team communication app that allows for multiple integrations and simple use of all-in-one tools like chat, task and calendar management, and integration of your most productive tools, then this solution can be leveraged. It can enable your teams to work productively and collaborate in all of the ways you are accustomed to from a single dashboard. 

Leveraging an All-Inclusive App

A team communication app that’s also a modern, flexible project management tool and allows you to integrate other important apps along with task and calendar management tools can streamline your team’s entire workflow.

With an all-in-one solution, you can keep all of your projects in one convenient place. And, when your built-in chat tool works in conjunction with the ability to create tasks, manage timelines, attach files, and share links, you can elevate your team’s productivity to a whole new level.

Flow provides a feature-rich team communication app and an all-in-one productive collaborative platform with a simple setup to help improve your team’s workflow. Sign up for a free trial today!