10 Powerful Team Communication Tools of 2019 (Features, Pricing & Ease of Use)

Team Communication Tools

It takes a lot to manage a team remotely-meetings, protocols, and deadlines, and the challenge to keep everyone on the same page. Over the last few decades, the managers have learned, through painful error and trial, that record registers and emails aren’t sufficient tools for people to work together.

The way businesses work virtually is evolving the exponentially-the way we share files, manage work in progress, discuss ways to approach a client, and so forth, requires a team communication tool built for a specific aspect of collaboration.

Let’s be real : Every remote business needs a team collaboration tool.

Top 10 Team Communication Tools in 2019

1. Slack

2. Troop Messenger

3. Teamwork Chat

4. Zoom

5. Microsoft teams

6. Trello

7. Facebook Workplace

8. Asana

9. Ryver

10. Zoho Cliq

While the challenge for today’s industry is to stay productive, finding the right collaboration tool is not short of a daunting task.

A right business collaboration tool not only enables the team members to connect but also promotes team cohesion and makes the communication more effective. While these tools require some investment, this expenditure has a proven return.

Here are a few reasons why every remote business needs an internal communication tool:

1. Collaboration Tools Increase Work Output

53% of managers believe that employees who work from home are as productive as those who work in the office. What they need is more engagement with the company-a collaboration tools in the workplace that’ll help them stay connected with team members. This will make them more engaged, less stressed, and twice as productive.

2. Collaboration Tools Guarantee Easy Tracking Of Projects

Online tools have a variety of features that make it easy for the manager and team members to keep track of projects from day one. From tagging a colleague to review changes to check who made the changes, and adding comments after every stage of work, it’s never been easier to track and manage a project. These tools also remove the need to check e-mails for lost documents.

3. With Collaboration Tools, Actions Are Quicker Than Ever

Businesses are embracing collaboration app as it assures an agile work style. The documents are uploaded into the tools, and the team members can access them when they are notified via the email. The reviewers manage steady workflow on a project with prompt actions and quick annotations.

4. All Documents In One Place

Who likes to carry the storage media or USB stick to access the material and files?

Collaboration tools allow businesses to have all the documents and data stored in one place. Employees don’t need to carry them in their laptops, pen drives, or even the mobile phone. There is also no need to update to different versions because with collaboration tools they know where to find what. A collaborative cloud tool enables access to updated files and documents from anywhere and anytime.

5. Organization Issues Have Become A Thing Of Past

You have a large team, and it’s tough to keep up with the progress-you don’t remember to whom you assigned a specific task, what requirements you sent, and when the deadline is approaching; that sounds like you most certainly need a business collaboration app for your business.

When working in a team, these tools can help you monitor every action taken by you and your team member. From reviewing who you assigned a specific task, how much progress they’ve made, and when the deadline is approaching, every piece of information is available with a swipe of a finger. For those entrepreneurs and managers who struggle with organization issues, collaborative tools are a haven.

Today so many team collaboration apps are available for businesses working remotely. Many are inexpensive (or free), agile, and loaded with such great features that 70% of the young companies rely on work communication applications for communication with employees, keeping track of projects in progress, and organizing the tasks efficiently.

With the ever-increasing demand for these apps, the options are plenty, but if you wish to have an ideal team communication software, these ten team collaboration apps stood out in our evaluation:

1. Slack

Slack

Slack has ousted many of its rivals within two years of its launch. It is one of the most well-known internal communication tools built around messaging in threads and channels. It is suited as one of the strong competitor because it has a flexible platform where conversations can be organized within a thread, and it also supports group messaging, direct text, audio and video conferencing, and documents transfer.

• Pricing: Slack costs $6.70 per user per month.
• Features: Threading, Video call, private and group messaging, notifications, and screen sharing.
• Integration: In terms of integration, one can easily integrate it with the appropriate tools like Google Calendar and other project management tools.
• Ease of Use: This tool is flexible and intuitive to use. But since conversations are organized within a thread, one can miss an important piece of information within a thread.
• Platform: Android, IOS, Windows, Web.
• Design: Slack is a well-designed platform that assures easy navigation and quick access to previously shared information.
• Storage: Slack has a 5GB file storage limit.
• Supported Platforms: Windows, iOS, Android, Mac, and even Linux.

2. Troop Messenger

Troop Messenger

This is one of the best business collaboration apps designed to work as a stand-alone internal communication tool for business that operates remotely and needs to share a lot of media and external links. This user-friendly office chat application has all contemporary features to address business necessities and need. Troop Messenger also allows the users to chat, call, collaborate, and meet to ensure seamless communication across teams.

• Pricing: This is one of the most affordable collaboration tools where basic plans start at $0 per user per month, and the premium plan starts at $1 per user per month
• Features: Video and Audio call, Instant Messaging, File Sharing, Video Conferencing, Work Schedules and Project management, Usage analytics, Group chat, Self-messaging, and Desktop Sharing.
• Integration: Troop Messenger can be integrated with third-party tools like Google Docs, Google Calendar, Gravity Forms, Trello, Gmail, Google Drive, and Dropbox.
• Ease of Use: This real time business chat platform allows the users to carry their office in their pocket. Fast as a Gazelle, the app promises astounding speed, and enhanced user experience.
• Design: This tool has a visually pleasing interface with easy navigation and streamlined conversation.
• Storage: Troop Messenger offers 1 TB storage.
• Supported Platforms: Windows, iOS, Android, Mac, and even Linux.

3. Teamwork Chat

This business collaboration app is designed to work as a stand-alone internal communication tool for business that operates remotely and needs to share a lot of media and external links, like news articles, videos, presentations, and graphics. Teamwork chat also allows the users to tag team members and employees on urgent messages.

• Pricing: Teamwork costs $7.00 per user per month.
• Features: Threading, Video call, private and group chat, notifications, integration, and screen sharing.
• Integration: Teamwork Chat can be integrated with third-party tools like Asana, Slack, Google Docs, Google Calendar, Gravity Forms, Trello, Gmail, Google Drive, and Dropbox.
• Ease of Use: One of the distinct features of teamwork is that it allows the users to answer the emails right within the app.
• Platform: Android, IOS, Windows, Web
• Design: This tool has a visually pleasing interface with easy navigation and streamlined conversation threading.
• Storage: Teamwork offers total file space of 100 GB.
• Supported Platforms: Windows, iOS, Android, Mac, and even Linux.

4. Zoom

Zoom chat offers some of the best features that make for a perfect virtual meeting room. This zoom chat is especially suitable for large scale businesses and bigger teams who need to collaborate with a large number of attendees and interactive participants. Zoom can support as large has 10,000 Audience or attendees and 50 interactive participants for a single meeting.

• Pricing: Zoom paid plans to start at $14.99 per host per month.
• Features: Video or audio conference with multiple attendees, chat during the meeting, screen sharing, dashboard, private chat, content sharing, annotations, and recording.
• Integration: Zoom can be integrated with third-party tools like Google Calendar, slack, outlook, hub spot, and Google Docs.
• Ease of Use: Zoom is undoubted, one of the coolest collaborative platforms with an extensive list of features. Zoom has the conference rooms that allow the host to start meeting through voice commands and calendar system.
• Platform: Android, IOS, Windows, Web
• Design: The interface is smooth as it offers feature parity across all devices, and the facility to start and join a meeting with one touch.
• Storage: Zoom offers total file space of 100 GB
• Supported Platforms: Windows, iOS, Android, Mac, and Linux.

5. Microsoft Teams

MS team is a reliable collaborative tool that offers communication services for business of all sizes. Not only does this tool has great features, but it has also been accolated as one of the most reliable collaborative tools for business operating virtually.

• Pricing: Microsoft teams paid plans to start at $6.00 per host per month.
• Features: Video or audio conference, chat during the meeting, screen sharing, threading, private chat, and content sharing.
• Integration: The best thing about MS integrates is that it allows integration with the whole MS package, and also with some of the favorite third-party tools like Adobe Creative cloud, Trello, Google Calendar, slack, outlook, Survey Monkey, Wrike, Jira, and Folly.
• Ease of Use:There are plenty of features that add to the ease of use. The integration is smooth, and navigation is easy, but MS teams don’t have a notification system, so the users tend to miss out on a few things.
• Design: The interface is pleasing with interactive wireframes and smooth navigation.
• Storage: MS team has a storage space of 1 TB per organization, and 10 TB for the licensed purchases. The file upload limit is 15 GB.
• Supported Platforms: It supports all the major internet browsers like Internet Explorer 11, Microsoft edge, Google Chrome, and Firefox.

6. Trello

Trello is one stop solution for organizing the tasks for each team member through a series of the memo. The tool has many different features that allow great customization. Through Trello, the team leader can assign tasks, review the progress, make comments for modifications, and approve the project on completion.

• Pricing: Trello has a free plan, and the paid plan starts at $9.99 per host per month.
• Features: Quick overview of cards, an easy organization with labels and tags, drag and drop elements, easy uploading of attachments and files, In-line editing, deadline reminders, checklists, and data filtering.
• Integration: Trello can be powered up and integrated with over 100 applications and tools. These tools can be multiple categories including analytics, reporting, file management, communication, sales and support, and board utilities.
• Ease of Use: Trello is the perfect solution to organizing and monitoring tasks assigned to team members. The tool is straightforward to use with drag and drop features around the board.
• Design: The design is engaging and fun with cheerful stickers and many colors.
• Storage: Trello paid members to have a storage limit of 250 GB.
• Supported Platforms: It supports iOS, Android, macOS, windows, and all the major internet browsers like Internet Explorer 11, Microsoft edge, Google Chrome, and Firefox.

7. Facebook Workplace:

This tool serves the purpose of streamlining and enhancing the communication between the team members. The tool offers audio conferencing and live video which strengthens the internal discussions. Workplace by Facebook is a cheaper and powerful business collaboration app with a great many features.

• Pricing: $3.00 per host per month.
• Features: Video or audio conference, chat during the meeting, screen sharing, threading, private chat, notification, and content sharing.
• Integration: It allows integration with third-party tools like Google drive, Outbox, Envoy, Zoom, Trello, Google Calendar, slack, outlook, Survey Monkey, Wrike, Jira, and Folly.
• Ease of Use: It has a desktop notification system for getting updates on scheduled events and meetings. The framework is comfortable and familiar.
• Design:The interface is pleasing with interactive wireframes and smooth navigation.
• Storage: The file upload limit is 10 GB.
• Supported Platforms: It supports all the major platforms like Android, iOS, Linux, Windows, and Mac.

8. Asana

Asana is a collaborative tool that has almost all features one can ever think of. This is perfect for teams working remotely. The software has several customizable features that make group work a lot more enjoyable.

• Pricing: $9.99 per member per month.
• Features: Video or audio conference, chat during the meeting, screen sharing, threading, private chat, notification, and content sharing.
• Integration: Integration with third-party tools like Google drive, Outbox, Envoy, Zoom, Trello, Google Calendar, slack, outlook, Survey Monkey, Wrike, Jira, and Folly.
• Ease of Use: The user interface is uncomplicated and clean, but it takes time to grasp every feature and to set it up.
• Design: The interface is fairly rudimentary.
• Storage: The file upload limit per attachment is 100 MB.
• Supported Platforms: Android, iOS, Linux, Windows, and Mac.

9. Ryver

Ryver is a hybrid tool that fulfills the needs of both task management and team interaction. It supports group audio and video conferencing and screen sharing with streamlined communication via threading.

• Pricing: $5.00 per member per month.
• Features: Video or audio conference, threading, group and direct messaging, screen sharing, push-notification, and file sharing.
• Integration: Integration with multiple third-party tools and mainstream social networks like Jira, Trello, GitHub, Dropbox, and OneDrive.
• Ease of Use and Design: The user interface is uncomplicated since it allows workflow automation and task management.
• Storage: Paid subscription have a storage limit of 20 GB per member
• Supported Platforms: Android, iOS, Linux, Windows, and Mac.

10. Zoho Cliq

Though Zoho Cliq is for smaller businesses, it has got plenty of features that could fit for larger organizations as well. It allows access to external guest users and lets them participate in conferences and discussions.

• Pricing: Paid plans start at $3.00 per host per month.
• Features: Video or audio conference with multiple attendees, chat during the meeting, screen sharing, chat, content sharing, and annotations.
• Integration: Integration with third-party tools like Google Calendar, slack, outlook, hub spot, and Google Docs.
• Ease of Use and Design: The interface is smooth as it offers feature parity across all devices, and the facility to start and join a meeting with one touch.
• Storage: Total file space of 100 GB
• Supported Platforms: Windows, iOS, Android, Mac, and Linux.

Summing Up:

Business projects often go off the rail due to poor communication and misunderstandings. This is especially true for those organizations in which people are working asynchronously, in different time zones, and as remote teams. At a time like these, they need a team communication tool that can facilitate conversations between all the members. Manage the ongoing project, and make sure that everyone is on the same page.
Final Verdict:

Having evaluated best of the collaboration tools available for businesses operating remotely, we’ve come to an understanding that Zoom Chat is an excellent team communication tool. Not only does the tool supports as large has 10,000 attendees, but it also has some of the coolest features like whiteboard and annotations. The only trouble is the pricing, which is as high as $14.99 per month.

But if you want to avail the similar experience of managing your work team virtually with excellent features like video conferencing, screen sharing, usage analytics, and 24/7/365 support, then Troop Messenger has to be the ultimate choice. Not only do they offer a thrilling experience of office chat with breach-proof power code, but they also have affordable plan for every organization.