Choosing the Best Chat App to Level Up Communication at Work

Office chat is a fixture at most modern organizations. It’s the first place teammates go to align in real time or asynchronously to brainstorm, engage with colleagues near and far, and collaborate efficiently so work moves forward.

But basic, two-way office chat apps are a thing of the past. The right product can integrate with all your data and third-party apps, unite teams with external partners and customers, and generally make work life more productive and pleasant.

Here’s what you should know about choosing the best messaging app for your workplace and our pick of the best (can you take a guess?).

Understanding office chat

What is work chat?

Office chat apps let employees message one another in a digital workspace, supporting both asynchronous and real-time communication. Teammates can use office chat to collaborate on projects by exchanging text-based messages, voice and video memos, files and documents, and other media.

Instant messaging for office environments is more exclusive and secure than other types of chat. For example, anyone can add a friend on WhatsApp with nothing more than their phone number, but office chat typically requires an invitation and a company email address.

Unique benefits of office chat apps

• Chat apps foster real-time and asynchronous communication among individuals and groups of employees.
• The back-and-forth nature of team chat mimics an in-person conversation, helping to bridge the gap between remote and in-office team members.
• Seamless file sharing, video calls, and app integrations create a robust collaboration experience.
• Smart search functions make it easy to find details and files shared in past conversations.
• No more tracking down email addresses; many office chat platforms come with built-in company directories.
• Office chat tools often support communication methods other than instant messages. For example, Slack allows users to send voice clips and start video conference calls using the huddles feature.

The role of instant messaging in internal communications

Remote and hybrid organizations often employ hundreds or even thousands of workers, located all around the world and across multiple time zones. Instant messaging breaks down communication silos to create a more connected and engaged workforce. Anyone on an office chat app can instantly connect without having to schedule meetings.

Breaking down communication barriers

When employees need to chat with co-workers in other departments, they can use a chat app to look up that person’s profile and quickly send them a message. This makes it easier to communicate on the fly, even outside of a traditional office.

Chat apps help remove geographical and hierarchical silos too. Using an inter-office chat app, any employee could send a message to the company CEO or founder without navigating around their jam-packed schedule.

Promoting real-time interaction

Flooded email and voicemail inboxes can be daunting. Games of phone tag get tedious fast, as do attempts to coordinate meetings across busy calendars. Chat apps support real-time interaction by allowing employees to chat instantly and informally as if they were gathered around the office water cooler. Most apps even indicate when a team member is online and typing their response. What’s more, using emoji reactions in a chat app adds fun and efficiency, allowing team members to quickly — and pleasantly — respond to messages.

And when it’s a bad time for a synchronous chat, you can silence notifications to save incoming messages for later or update your status so co-workers know you’re not active.

Fostering teamwork through chat platforms

Employees often need to work across departments to complete projects and initiatives. Chat platforms bring colleagues together through dedicated channels for specific projects or teams. For example, Slack users can create a channel for a specific project and add all stakeholders, including those from other teams and even outside organizations.

Measuring the impact of office chat apps

How can you tell if your chat platform is boosting productivity? Keep an eye out for these metrics:

Less email

Take some of the pressure off your email inbox. A well-rounded office chat app lets you thread messages, create dedicated channels for projects and teams, hop into real-time huddles, and seamlessly share files to reduce your dependence on traditional email.

More efficient task management and progress tracking

Chat apps like Slack offer task lists and integrations with task management programs such as Jira, Monday.com, and Trello. Users can assign, track, and complete tasks in these management apps directly in Slack, no context switching required.

Quicker resolution of work issues

When facing a critical issue at work, you want an immediate resolution — not the tedious back-and-forth of problem-solving over email. Chat apps, on the other hand, allow you to communicate casually and in real time for quicker resolutions.

For example, Slack Connect replaces the typical back-and-forth of email by allowing external organizations, such as vendors, partners, and customers, to collaborate within a company’s secure workspace. The result? Deeper, long-lasting relationships. In fact, Slack Connect users report 41% faster responses from customers, vendors, and service providers1. And unlike collaborating via email — which leaves users open to the risk of spam and phishing — working in channels allows teams to receive messages and files only from verified members.

Implementing office chat

Now that you understand how a chat app can benefit your organization, here’s how to roll out this useful tool.

Choosing the best office chat app

Look for these benefits and features as you research and compare chat apps.

• Current product suite: The ideal app can integrate with your current tech stack to reduce context switching. For example, Slack is a great office chat platform for companies that already use Atlassian and Google products, as well as thousands of other popular apps, as it integrates seamlessly with those applications.
• Security: The office chat app you select should adhere to your company’s security and privacy standards. Also consider extra security factors such as single sign-on, two-factor authentication, HIPAA compliance, BAA signature, and data encryption.
• User-friendly design: Introducing a new tool to your company can seem overwhelming. Look for an app with a user-friendly interface, which makes it faster and easier to onboard new users and train them on the platform.
• Cost: Don’t forget your company’s budget. A smaller team might get away with the free version of a chat app, but larger organizations usually work better with paid memberships.

Best practices for productive office chat

Create a best practices guide for your employees to reference as they learn to communicate in their new office chat app. Employees should keep conversations professional and respectful, and avoid unnecessary distractions that could hamper productivity.

When you first introduce the app, offer training and resources for employees as they learn to use the platform’s various features and functions. You might even create a dedicated channel for questions and tech support.

Integrating AI tools into office chat

When selecting an office chat, it’s important to choose one that can evolve with your business for the long haul. AI is revolutionizing the workplace by processing data quickly, providing smarter search results, and enhancing customer experience with suggestions and generated chat.

A modern chat app seamlessly and securely corporates AI throughout your workflows. Slack AI, a separately purchased feature, helps workers stay on top of knowledge flowing through their workspace. It includes generative features such as conversation summaries, daily recaps, and intelligent search. Our pilot users saved an average of 97 minutes a week with Slack AI2.

Slack also deeply integrates with Salesforce Einstein, which brings CRM insights and intelligent actions directly into Slack. And of course, you can connect third-party AI assistants through the Slack Marketplace.

Use a work operating system to bring office collaboration to the next level

Slack is a great fit for offices that want to level up their team communication with a feature-packed chat app that boosts efficiency in the workplace. Here’s what you can expect:

• Slack channels dedicated to specific teams, projects, and products make it easy to collaborate with co-workers distributed around the world.
• Slack huddles let users quickly sync with their teammates in on-the-spot audio and video calls.
• Co-workers can collaborate on shared whiteboards with Slack canvas.
• Slack offers seamless file sharing, a shared knowledge search, and task lists for managing projects and tracking progress.
• Slack AI enables smart search functions and instant message summaries.

Contact our sales team to learn how Slack can make the chat experience more pleasant and more productive for everyone at your organization.

1 Slack customer tracking survey, FY22.

2 Based on an internal analysis during the pilot of Slack AI features (channel recaps, thread summaries, and AI search answers)