Source Link: https://connecteam.com/best-team-communication-apps/
Whether you have a team of two or 2,000 employees, you need a way to reach them wherever they work. Fortunately, a team chat app can help solve communication problems. Here are some of the very best team communication apps on the market.
Ask yourself honestly: how well is your team really communicating?
Your employees might feel overwhelmed by work-related messages and phone calls, especially when they’re off the clock. Or someone sent a hurtful message to a fellow employee, and you have no way of deleting it. You might also deal with employees struggling with engagement at work.
These problems are just some of your employees’ daily communication struggles. Thankfully, team communication apps make these issues a thing of the past.
Too many communication channels, hybrid working, and the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic make team communication apps more important than ever.
If you don’t have the time to read through our research, jump down to our quick comparison table.
Our Top Picks
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Best all-in-one team communication app.
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Best for secure communication.
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Best for project and task management.
What to Look For in a Team Communication Apps
There are a few things to look for when identifying the best team communication apps:
- Ease of use: Employees need an app that doesn’t waste their time, isn’t too complicated, and has a visually pleasing user interface.
- Multiple modes of communication: There are many kinds of workplace communication, such as instant messaging, video conferencing, employee alerts, and intranets. The more communication modes your team communication app includes, the easier it is for everyone to collaborate.
- Group capabilities: You need a solution that makes it easy to organize conversations into groups. This feature allows teams to break discussions down by topic, event, project, and more.
- Administrative features: Group communication apps should allow managers to easily manage teams, control data, and remove users from the app (including their data) if necessary.
- Workflow integrations: Instead of switching from one platform to the next – integrations to content management apps, payroll systems, and field management systems make workflows more streamlined.
The 12 Best Team Communication Appss of 2022
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Best all-in-one team communication app
Connecteam wins our best team communication app prize as the leading all-in-one management platform that’s purpose-built for the deskless workforce.
With over 36,000 companies (and growing!) using Connecteam daily to streamline their internal communications and daily operations, you know you’re in good hands.
Connecteam is the tool that helps deskless and remote teams take their internal communications to the next level — both for completing tasks and keeping employees engaged. Connecteam was also Capterra’s 2021 Top Pick for ease of use and value for the money.
Chat Your Way
Connecteam’s employee chat feature allows everything to stay in one platform, away from pesky messaging app distractions (looking at you, WhatsApp)! This feature allows your employees to securely chat between themselves and send direct messages to you (or vice versa).
Directory for Direct Communication
Enjoy using Connecteam’s employee directory to easily make phone calls, send emails, or start private chat conversations. With Connecteam, there’s no fiddling around to find the right contact or getting distracted by personal smartphone messages.
Measure and Track Employee Engagement
This solution lets you easily reach every employee, no matter where they are. You can deploy updates and see who has or hasn’t read them in real time.. Then, Send reminders through Connecteam to employees who haven’t responded to you. Connecteam is also the best team chat app for two-way communication.Use this solution to get unlimited feedback via surveys, anonymous suggestion boxes, and live polls.
A Work-Related Social Feed
Connecteam features an interface your employees will start knowing and loving after they create their profiles. You’ll enjoy using this interface to give well-timed employee recognition and distribute engaging content to promote employee interaction.
Connecteam’s employee communication app is the all-in-one platform for connected chat, making it easy to communicate with anyone in your company. Your employees will enjoy how easy it is to interact and share files, gifs, locations, or videos. Upper management will love the security of using Connecteam: Firing an employee and deleting them from this app deletes all their data, with no new company-related information going to their devices.
Who is Connecteam Best For?
Connecteam is the best team chat app for people who long for effective communication, including business owners, HR professionals, operations managers, administrative staff, and people working in similar roles.This solution is also helpful for deskless teams, remote employees, and frontline employees.
Key Features
- In-app chat and instant messaging
- Employee directory
- Social feed
- Surveys
- Suggestion box
- Live polls
- Events announcement and registration
- Direct channels to HR / senior leadership
- Wellness and benefits
Pros
- Designed for the mobile workforce
- Winner of Capterra awards for ease-of-use and value-for-money
- Great customer support
- A true all-in-one solution
- Supports multiple languages
- Affordable
Cons
- Integrations in development
Pricing
Starts at just $29/month for up to 30 users
Free 14-day trial
Free plan available -
Good for: Secure communication
Troop Messenger brings your team together to collaborate and interact using a single interface. The main features of this solution include one-on-one conversations, voice-video calls, screen sharing, audio messaging, and group conversations.
Additionally, your employees can use Troop Messenger to share files, filter content, or bookmark their favorite messages and files. Intra-corporate or government teams rely on Troop Messenger because of this app’s impressive security features and large storage size.
Key Features
- One-on-one or group conversations
- Screen-sharing
- Voice and video calls
- Desktop app
Pros
- File sharing available
- Push notifications
- Audio messaging
- Company directory
Pricing
Starts from $75month/ first 30 users
Free trial: 30 days
Free-forever plan: No -
Good for: Project and task management
Coming in at our third spot is Chanty, an AI-based team chat app that provides in-app chat, video calls, and screen sharing. This app also provides light project management capabilities and can turn messages into tasks. This solution is simple, quick, and easy – a blessing and a curse when it comes to team communication apps!
Chanty integrates with Google Drive, Trello, Dropbox, and GitHub. It holds everything in one place, including organized tasks, conversations, pinned messages, and other shared content types. You might prefer that your group communication apps do a little more than what Chanty offers.
Chanty is available on iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, and the Web.
Key Features
- Chat
- Audio and video calls
- Screen sharing
- Pinned content
Pros
- Useful communication features
- Video calls included
- Great quality screen sharing
Cons
- Lacking important features
Pricing
From $3/user/month
Free trial: no
Free-forever plan: for teams with up to 10 members -
Good for: Sales teams
Slack is one of the world’s best team chat apps, used and loved by high-tech companies worldwide. It has an intuitive interface and loads of solid integration capabilities. For instance, the Slack App Directory features over 1,500 apps Slack can integrate with, including other employee communication apps and project management tools.
Sounds good? It is…with a catch! The catch is that employees must have their own email addresses to invite other employees to join group communication apps like Slack.
Key Features
- One-on-one and group chat
- Individual and team audio calls
- Video conferencing
- Drag-and-drop PDFs, images, videos
Pros
- Loads of integrations
- Intuitive interface
- Widely popular
Cons
- Need a work email address
Pricing
From $7.25per user/month
Free trial: yes
Free-forever plan: yes, up to 5GB of file storage -
Good for: Healthcare teams
The Microsoft Teams app is one of our favorite employee communication apps with a small caveat. Microsoft Teams allows you to chat in groups, meet, call, video conference, and collaborate with your team, regardless of everyone’s location. A solid example of team communication apps done right, Teams allows you to access, share, and edit Word docs, PowerPoint, and Excel files. You can also easily use Teams on desktop or mobile devices.
What we like less about Microsoft Teams is its clunky interface. And, for the price, we expect more from a group communication app.
Key Features
- Online meetings
- Individual and team audio calls
- Video conferencing
- Screen sharing
Pros
- Microsoft Teams is widely popular
- Excellent video quality
- Free version available
Cons
- Users need an activated Microsoft subscription
Pricing
From $4 per user/month
Free trial: yes
Free-forever plan: Yes -
Good for: Education
Rocket.Chat is another one of many great apps to communicate with employees. You can also refer to this solution as a “communication hub,” as Rocket.Chat calls it.This team collaboration tool lets you chat and share files with your team in real-time with video and audio conferencing.
This is one of several employee communication apps that offers complete access to the source code. With this feature, you can fully customize, extend, or add new functionalities to meet your requirements.
Key Features
- Real-time or asynchronous team chat
- Audio and video calls
- Screen sharing
- Share files
Pros
- Very intuitive to use
- Fast file sharing
- Source code accessible
Cons
- Lacks a few important features
Pricing
From $7 per user/month
Free trial: yes, 14 days
Free-forever plan: yes -
Good for: Virtual meetings
Formerly called Hangouts, Google Meet began as one of the original team collaboration apps. This app lets team members initiate and engage in different communication channels with minimal effort.
This team chat app offers direct messaging, group messaging, HD group conferencing, voice calls, and screen-sharing. It also supports multiple computing devices and includes custom administrative control options.
As group communication tools go, Google Meet is a little flat. But, we also recognize this team communication software as a good start for simple, quick, on-the-go messaging.
Key Features
- Part of Google G Suite
- Google Chrome desktop extension
- Messaging, Voice and Video Calls
- Virtual rooms
Pros
- Pricing per user
- Excellent G-Suite integration
- Desktop extension available
Pricing
From $12 per user/month
Free trial: yes, 14 days
Free-forever plan: yes, for G-Suite users -
Good for: Employee engagement
Meta’s answer to the “team communication apps” market. Like Slack, this service charges on a monthly, per-user basis. It offers everything from video conferencing to workflow structuring. This tool works best for remote and global teams that consist of professional, managerial, or technical occupations like software developers or data journalists.
While Meta is best known for social media, its Workplace tool is one of the most effective employee communication apps.
Key Features
- Familiar Facebook interface
- Easy for new members to join
- Groups, Chat, Rooms, and Live video
- Third-party storage services integrations
Pros
- Familiar interface
- Range of communication options
- Pricing per user
Cons
- No dedicated enterprise features
Pricing
$4 per user/month
Free trial: yes, for 30-days
Free-forever plan: No -
Good for: Team collaboration
Flowdock by CA Technologies is one of several team chat apps connecting teammates through remote chats categorized and sorted by topics, locations, and time zones. The Flowdock app stores all your conversations, work items, and tools in one place. This tool also helps you prioritize work, and solve communication problems.
Key Features
- File sharing
- Discussion threads
- Real-time chat
- Search
Pros
- Includes instant notifications
- Highly customizable
Cons
- Not so user-friendly
- The mobile app can be slow
Pricing
from $3 per user/month
Free trial: yes, 30 days
Free-forever plan: yes, for up to 5 users -
Good for: File sharing
Flock is popular as it allows for team messaging, project management, and more. It organizes all your conversations, creates discussion channels, and integrates with over 30 third-party apps.
This tool is a good team messaging app for discussing projects, sharing ideas, and completing work in real-time. You can also add vendors as guests on Flock and specify the chats and channels they can access.
Key Features
- File sharing
- Discussion threads
- Chat
- Video conferencing
Pros
- Great for sharing visual insights
- Attractive user interface
Cons
- Web version needs work
- No voice message feature
Pricing
From $4.50 per user/month
Free trial: yes, 30 days
Free-forever plan: yes, for up to 20 users -
Good for: Marketing teams
As employee communication apps go, ProofHub makes direct messaging and meaningful conversations with teams or clients easy. Although ProofHub offers communication features, it began as an online project management app to help teams organize projects and get work done.
With an orderly interface and emphasis on simplicity, ProofHub delivers all the basic tools you need to manage a project. This tool’s homepage for admins gives you an overview of the work you need to track. It also shows a summary of tasks and events assigned to you and lists all active projects in your account.
Key Features
- Group chat
- Project-based discussion
- Workflows
- Project reports
Pros
- Includes a wide range of features
- Integrates with many apps
Cons
- Not the best user interface
- Managing notifications can be difficult
Pricing
From a flat fee of $45 per month
Free trial: Yes, 14 days
Free-forever plan: No -
Good for: Retail
Convo is one of those apps to communicate with employees that enables secure, easy conversations between desk and non-desk workers. This app distills the most effective parts of enterprise social networks, task managers, and productivity apps to become one of the best communication apps for large and agile teams. Convo is available on web, desktop, iOS, and Android.
Key Features
- Brainstorming
- Calendar management
- Discussion boards
- Task management
Pros
- Good for file sharing
- Simple and easy to use
Cons
- Desktop version is better than mobile
- No CRM integrations
Pricing
From $6.67 per user/month
Free trial: no
Free-forever plan: yes, for up to 20 users
Compare the Best Team Communication Appss
What Are Team Communication Apps?
Team chat apps are software solutions that make it easier for team members to communicate and collaborate. This software allows multiple people to communicate in a variety of ways, including one-on-one chats, group messages, or online meetings.
These apps also centralize information, giving users a shared platform to share files and work with each other. Team communication solutions also let users work on projects together.
How Do Team Communication Apps Work?
The best team chat apps include features like the ability to send group messages or audio clips and video conferencing capabilities. The most prevalent of these features is undoubtedly team chat.
The ability to message any other user in your shared network is integral to the team communication app experience. More often than not, users can also share different kinds of media via a chat feature. This media can include videos, GIFs, images, files, audio recordings, and emojis, among other things.Another common feature in team communication apps is the ability to search for any other user via a directory.
What Are the Benefits of Team Communication Apps?
There are many reasons why using a team communication app is incredibly beneficial for your business. These benefits include:
- Keeping all employees on the same page: It seems obvious but boosted communication is one of the main by-products of using a team communication app. Having a digital solution to manage deskless or remote teams, share information, and track the progress of projects minimizes communication issues.
- Employees are more engaged: Digitally bringing employees closer together helps boost employee engagement. Using a popular team communication app makes it easy to reach any employee. These apps also make all users feel like part of something greater than themselves.
- Employees become more accountable: With the best communication apps, managers can easily track employees’ progress. With increased transparency across the board, employees are easier to reach and more responsive.
- Workflows become more streamlined: Instead of waiting for team members to assign tasks in person, they can do this digitally to reduce decision-making lag time.
How Much Do Team Communication Apps Cost?
Depending on their features and capabilities, the best team communication apps can vary drastically in price. For example, some solutions like Flowdock and Workplace each start at $3 per user/month. However, other options like Convo are more expensive, starting at $6.67 per user/month.
Remember that most of the apps on this list include free trials of varying time periods. These trials allow you to figure out which solutions best suit your company’s needs.
Connecteam’s free trial lets up to 50 employees do the following from their smartphones:
- Receive company updates and engaging posts
- Communicate via team chats
- Find contacts using the directory
- Give feedback via surveys
- Access knowledge bases
If you upgrade to Connecteam’s Basic plan ($39/month), you’ll receive a much more advanced range of sub-features and add-ons. Otherwise, you can simply stick to the free plan.
FAQs
Why are apps good for team communication?
Mobile apps streamline workplace communication and provide employees with quick access to important information or digital work-based tools. The features that group communication apps possess eliminate needless back and forth between employees and managers while keeping all employees aligned and engaged.
Why is team communication important?
When teams communicate effectively, they can collaborate while wasting less time. Other benefits of effective team communication include:
- Better project execution
- A rise in the quality of generated ideas
- A boost in team morale.
What are the best team communication apps?
The previously mentioned apps on this list are the very best communication apps on the market. If we had to pick one of these apps, it would have to be Connecteam. This is because of its incredibly simple user interface, making workplace communication more engaging than ever before.
The Bottom Line On Team Communication Apps
Team communication apps are slowly but surely becoming a go-to solution for improving employee communication from small businesses to massive enterprises in every industry. And it’s only natural: not only do these apps create a well-organized workflow, but they also keep employees engaged and loyal. And when you’re dealing with remote employees, there’s no other way to effectively manage them than without such an app. The question is, which group communication app will you choose?
