Just when we thought life would go back to normal and workplace norms would restore, Covid-19’s new variant Omicron said, “not today.”

As most of the world still works from home, it is hard to keep track of all our work-related tasks online. Updates on meetings, discussions, schedules, and messages cannot all fit in emails. There are just too many threads and too much clutter. 

Thankfully, there are team chat apps that companies can adopt—to have all conversations under the same umbrella. They save time and ensure efficiency by keeping everybody in the company on the same page. 

But how do you choose the right one for your company? Here are our top picks for the best team chat apps in 2022 to make work from home a cakewalk.

What is a team chat app?

When a company has a lot of clients, there is a lot of data generated.

Team chat apps play a key role in streamlining work activities ensuring data exchanged between various teams remain in the same place. Employees then leverage this information to formulate an approach on how to deal with each obstacle. In short, they act as a center point to all data, conversations, meetings, and communication.

Team chat apps have proven to be especially crucial for work-from-home models as they provide quick access to data and allow seamless collaboration between teams. 

From product updates to productivity meetings, team chat apps are your go-to tools for hassle-free interactions.

Why do you need a team chat application?         

• Facilitates seamless communication: With multi-channel support available on team chat apps, employees have communications streamlined for them. Conversations do not go overlooked since they are saved in the same chain of chats. This also avoids confusion. Furthermore, managers can easily approach the right people on the job for the right assignment due to uninterrupted visibility into real-time chats.

• Ensures streamlined workflow: Team chat apps help companies ensure a streamlined workflow. The apps provide different channels to pursue different work activities. This multi-channel support allows documents, worksheets, and assignments to be stored under their respective channels.

• Saves times: If you have worked on email threads for a long time, you would understand that sorting through emails is a long, tiring job. There are over thousands of conversations, attachments, and documents in the same thread. Finding one document could take a lot of time. But with team chat apps, you can easily find what you are looking for. Meetings can be scheduled in seconds, and work can be easily monitored, which significantly saves time. 

• Improves overall project management: Project management is easier on team chat apps rather than physically. To track progress, update status, and monitor work, project managers will have to go through a long process of individual scrutiny. But with team chat apps, projects can be handled via individual channels based on tasks. This way, monitoring tasks becomes much easier.

• Encourages employee engagement and strengthens relationships: To write an email, generally, people think twice. There is a format and a formal way to address who you are writing to. This makes communication professional, but not strong. However, with team chat apps, employees and managers can stay in touch constantly, not just for queries and assignments. They can chat, talk, and discuss project details at length without unnecessary constraints. This is a win-win situation for both managers and employees as they each get what they are looking for while also building stronger human relationships. 

What are the must-have features of a team chat app?

• Allows organization by topic/group: The ideal team chat app for your company should have multiple options to divide the channels based on groups, topics, tasks, and assignments. Users should have control over what conversations they see and participate in to avoid clutter. 

• Facilitates discussions: Team chat apps should be able to host the best quality audio and video calls to facilitate discussions and meetings. Employees should be able to send and receive messages in real time and have no issues with the quality of the calls they make.

• Easy searching options: The main point of switching to team chat apps is to have easy access to documents. The attachments should be visible to the team members and easily accessible. Users should be able to navigate through the attachments and share them tool. 

• Ability to prioritize: Team chat apps should be able to prioritize conversations and mark them done or under progress. They should be able to make channels that can be organized without clutter to help employees know what is important and what isn’t.

• Mobile-friendly: Remote employees should be able to work from anywhere; to ensure this, they will have to have the option to respond from anywhere. Hence, these apps should be mobile-friendly as well. They should have all the categories that are available on the desktop version and be able to run seamlessly. Without having the provision to work from your iPhone or your android, the team chat apps are not up to mark. 

• Ensures seamless shareability: Team chat apps should be able to have a seamless shareability option, to share conversations, meetings, discussions, and attachments easily. To stream through the shared files, the team chat app should have supported linked applications. 

What are the best 6 team chat apps for 2023?

Here is a list of the most popular team chat apps in the market today:

Slack

Slack is a messaging app that businesses widely opt for. 

Features: Slack huddles are used for in-person conversations. All channels, including direct and group chats, have searchable history. Slack allows direct communication with other users, and individual channels too are available for specific topics, projects, or teams.

Pros:  

Channels: Channels can be public, private, or multi-workspace. This allows you to create a channel based on your requirements.

Control and collaborations: Collaborations are easier in person, but for remote jobs, the interface must be clean and clutter-free to have the best outcome. Slack provides keyboard shortcuts on the desktop, gestures on mobile, and simple methods for quickly switching between channels.

App security: Slack’s security allows for protection within the platform. It can be downloaded on both laptops and mobile devices. It can be easily accessed on any device. 

Easy communication: This app offers both audio and video communication depending on the user’s interests and requirements. It also allows channels for one-on-one conversation, which makes work easy person to person. 

Cons:

Unorganized and messy: The messages of this app can get unorganized and messy as it pushes notifications throughout the day depending on the number of collaborations.  It can be hard to keep track of the messages. Since the conversations get deleted after 14 days, all the important information is lost unless saved. 

Storage: When files are sent via Slack rather than email, it can be inconvenient because you only get as much storage as your company chooses to pay for, so Slack gradually deletes files over time.

Difficulty in communication: Lengthy conversations via instant messages are difficult to hold in comparison to face-to-face meetings. Substantial communication is even more difficult to achieve through group messages.

Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is a business communication platform created by Microsoft. 

Features: 

Chats: Microsoft Teams provides users an effective tool to communicate through chats. It allows them to use emojis and also format texts during the chat. Users can also mark important messages in the chat, which then appear red, indicating they are bookmarked messages. 

Calling: Microsoft Teams allows users to communicate via voice call or video conference according to the requirement.

Meetings: Meetings can be scheduled or created instantly by the user. Microsoft Teams also has Microsoft Outlook to invite others to the meeting via a link.  

Pros:

Unlimited messaging: As there is no limit for messaging in teams, all the important messages are kept in the chat conversations. These can be viewed whenever needed. 

Privacy: As every user is given their own set of ID and password, no third person can access their account without authorization. All the messages and meetings are secured and encrypted. No person can join the meeting unless invited. 

Easy accessibility: This app can be downloaded on any device from both the App Store and Play Store. It is easy to access, and the user interface is very simple. 

Pricing: SharePoint, OneDrive, cloud versions of all Office apps, and Microsoft Teams chat are included with Office 365 Business Essentials and higher for $5/month per user (when paid annually).

Channels: Members of a team can create channels. Channels are topics of discussion that allow team members to communicate without using email or group SMS (texting). Users can respond to posts with text, images, GIFs, and custom image macros. They can also send private messages to a single user rather than a group of people using direct messages.

Cons:

A restricted number of channels: The number of channels allowed per team has been limited to 100. This feature should not be a problem for smaller teams, but larger teams may encounter some difficulties. When the set limit is reached, some channels must be deleted.

Inadequate notifications: One of the major drawbacks of Microsoft Teams is that it does not always provide the adequate notification. If we try to create a group in a previously existing name, the app will not highlight it. As a result, you end up with two groups with the same name, which can waste time and resources when searching.

Discord

Discord is best known as a chat app for gamers, but companies have joined the platform too. It lets us discuss any topic in real-time via chat or video/voice calls. 

Features: Discord provides the users with video backgrounds, screen sharing, slash commands, video calls, and many more. 

Pros: 

User interface: Discord provides a user-friendly interface, which does not require any technical knowledge. It also gives new users a basic tutorial on using the app and allows them to access the app in 29 different languages. 

Customization of the app: Users can also customize the platform’s appearance and other features to their liking. For example, they can toggle between light and dark modes based on their preferences. Similarly, many other customization features allow users to change the application’s features from basic to advanced. They can also connect their bots to their server to add extra functionality like YouTube, receiving e-news, and connecting to game servers. 

Control over servers: Discord also provides server owners with extensive control over their servers. These controls range from basic customization options such as selecting user-group colors to more advanced features such as permissions, widgets, and audit logs.

Cons: 

Privacy: The biggest disadvantage of using Discord is its unfortunate privacy and encryption issues. The application tracks users’ activities and displays them to others. Users can choose whether the application displays the information, but they cannot completely disable the option. Similarly, the platform does not provide the same level of security that other platforms do. Discord has also had issues with privacy in the past.

Video and voice quality problems: Discord’s call quality can be an issue. Some users have complained about random drops in call quality. Technical problems can occur on any platform. These issues, however, are more prevalent in Discord.

Some of Discord’s competitors and other alternatives provide higher-quality services. Quality issues may be disappointing for users who rely on team chat apps for work calls.

Google Chat

Google Chat, formerly Google Hangouts, divides conversations into rooms.

Features: 

One-on-one communication: Google Chat offers one-on-one communication with a person and allows the user to share location and photos in the chat. 

Voice and video calling: Google Chat provides the option of video or voice calling with a group of 10 plus friends. 

Pros: 

Communication: This app provides instant messaging, HD group conferencing, voice calls, and HD video calls. Threaded conversations are also available. Users can view content from Google Drive and Google Docs from within the chat stream, thanks to this feature. The “search” tool allows users to return to the thread’s conversation history.

Built-in screen sharing: Google Chat enables screen sharing in meetings, allowing users to share content from their screens. 

Search icon: The search icon in Google Chat, as the name suggests, will allow you to search for people, rooms, and bots. It enables search for your favorite messages in the left sidebar. After you’ve gone through your preferred conversations, simply click on the reply button.

User interface: Google Chat has a simple user interface. Users can create different rooms for different topics. It’s simple to share files from Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides, and the same technology that powers Google search allows you to quickly find items in your Google Chat conversations.

Cons: 

Message tracking: You cannot tell if the other party has received and read your message using Google Chat. This feature is available in almost all major communication apps. Most people prefer to keep track of their messages. However, Google Chat does not support this feature, which may cause confusion or anxiety.

Online status customization: This app does not provide online status customization; it only shows the offline or online status.

Skype

Skype is a communication service that allows the user to make free calls to other skype users. 

Features: Skype has video and voice calling features. It also provides the user smart messaging, screen sharing, private conversations, and call recording with live subtitles. 

Pros: 

Affordable costing: The subscription for skype starts from as low as $2.99 per month. There is also a free month of Skype Unlimited World that is available to users where unlimited free calls to landlines and mobile phones can be made from Skype, and then just $13.99 per month afterward. 

Secure calling experience: Skype provides a secure calling experience for the users. All calls on skype are encrypted and protected.

Easy to install: Skype can configure itself for the system, and all users need to do is either link an existing account to the communications program or create a new account. Even if you don’t have Skype installed right now, it only takes a few minutes to get it up and running.

Group communications: One of the most appealing aspects of Skype is the ability for multiple people to communicate with each other over a single connection without the need for additional equipment, services, or charges. As long as there is space in front of a computer or smartphone camera, that person can participate in a video call and their voice will be picked up by the microphone, allowing them to participate in the conversation. 

Cons: 

No language translation services: Users can communicate with people from different countries via Skype, but there is currently no way to bridge a communication gap if there are language differences. To communicate via video call, both parties must speak the same language.

Sound quality: The sound quality in Skype is based on the bandwidth. So, if the user’s network is poor, it affects the sound quality of the user also.

Mattermost

Features: Mattermost has a host of content management options and also a customizable branding feature. On Mattermost, users can manage all conversations through channels and forums. The platform supports multiple languages and has real-time chat and call options. 

Pros:

UI: The UI is simple and easy to use and does not have any clutter. 

Cross-platform apps: When users switch from one platform to another, the app supports it seamlessly. 

Tracking: Just like Slack, Mattermost supports conversation tracking and thread tracking on its clean interface. 

Cons:

Content length: The hook limitation of maximum content on Mattermost is one of its major cons, as it isn’t enough for many companies. 

Bugs: Users have often complained about bugs on the app, which will not go away until the app is restarted again.

Conclusion

There are a host of options to choose from when picking the right team chat app for your company. While they all offer almost similar services, it is important to note your priorities to figure out which of the above-listed apps are best suited for your business.

We hope this article has provided you with a thorough insight into the top team chat apps in the market.