8 Must-Have Communication Apps According to Business Leaders

In the quest for the most effective communication app for team collaboration, we turned to eight seasoned professionals, including founders and a CEO, for their insights. From Discord for its simplification of project-specific conversations, to the G-Suite’s specialty with knowledge sharing and accountability, they share their top picks and how these apps have revolutionized communication within their organizations.

• Discord: Project-Specific Conversations Simplified
• Microsoft Teams: Comprehensive Collaboration Tool
• Slack: Convenient and Quick Communication
• TickTick: Task-Sharing and Fun Collaboration
• RocketChat: Customizable and Secure
• Bitrix24: Ideal for Remote Teams
• Magical: AI-Driven Collaboration Tool
• G-Suite: Knowledge Sharing and Accountability

Discord: Project-Specific Conversations Simplified

Discord, originally designed for gamers, has evolved into a serious tool for collaborating with coworkers. The platform’s architecture is particularly well-suited for project-specific conversations. 

Within a single server, you can set up various channels to house discussions on everything from daily tasks to long-term strategy, making it simpler to track conversations and decisions. A single server can host multiple channels, each tailored to a specific project, team, or even a sub-task. So, instead of sifting through endless email threads, you get a well-organized hub where discussions, decisions, and files live. 

Voice channels are another feature of Discord that adds significant value. There’s no need to block time for a conference call. Just hop into a voice channel and get the conversation rolling. This immediate, informal communication model is nearly identical to in-office communications that occur in real time.

Tyler Holliday, Founder, NFTCommunity

Microsoft Teams: Comprehensive Collaboration Tool

One communication app that has proven highly effective is Microsoft Teams. It aids not just in resource management but also in real-time discussions. 

From sending birthday wishes to managing tasks and project deadline support, it has become pivotal for our team’s communication, collaboration, support, knowledge sharing, feedback, team building, and much more. The platform’s features that make all these applications possible are:

1. Helps create posts for messages and threaded discussions.
2. Allows for direct uploads, real-time editing, and version history maintenance.
3. Provides a collaborative notebook for documenting and FAQs.
4. A task management system for tracking to-do lists.
5. Connected to OneNote, it aids in taking meeting notes and brainstorming.
6. Connected to SharePoint for structured document management.

These capabilities make Teams an invaluable tool for NamanHR, facilitating seamless collaboration within the workforce.

Manvika Jhala, Principal Consultant- Projects, NamanHR

Slack: Convenient and Quick Communication

Slack allows employees to stay connected with colleagues and work on projects in any office setting—in person or remote. Workers can send a manager a direct message instead of tracking them down in the office, which makes them more readily available virtually than they would be in person. They can quickly reply to urgent messages during their busy meeting schedule or give feedback in between conference calls. 

Checking messages after hours is highly discouraged, and we advise team members to mute any channels or turn off app notifications on their phone. As the traditional office world evolves, Slack is an effective way to communicate with team members more than ever before. But with that being said, it’s called work-life balance for a reason, and no one should work later than they have to.

Shideh Kaviani, President, Naked Wardrobe

TickTick: Task-Sharing and Fun Collaboration

The one communication app that’s been a total game-changer for seamless team collaboration at Lee Myles Auto Care & Transmissions Southeast PA is TickTick. My boss and I are in sync thanks to this app. We’re able to easily share to-do lists, tasks, and our goals, which has taken our collaboration to the next level.

What’s been super helpful is the progress updates we share, keeping each other in the loop on various projects. But my favorite part has to be the “habit tracker” feature. For instance, my goal was to wake up the first time my alarm goes off (no more snoozing!). Having that little bit of accountability, even within the app, has actually improved my morning routine.

All in all, TickTick has streamlined our communication, kept us on track, and added a dose of fun with the habit tracking. It’s definitely our go-to app for making teamwork smoother and more productive!

Taryn Shillady-Duncan, Marketing Director, Lee Myles Southeast PA

RocketChat: Customizable and Secure

RocketChat is an open-source team communication app with many tools for working together as a group. With RocketChat, teams can talk to each other via text, voice, and video, and chats can be put into channels that can be customized. 

RocketChat also lets users share their screen and files, and work with their team using tools like shared to-do lists and the ability to assign jobs to team members. RocketChat has many ways to connect to other apps, but its self-hosted option is probably its best feature. It’s the best choice for businesses that highly value data security and privacy. 

For example, a company can use it to keep track of attendance groups, daily login and logout times, individual task management groups, tech help groups, finance and accounts groups, and so on.

Lyle Solomon, Principal Attorney, Oak View Law Group

Bitrix24: Ideal for Remote Teams

Our team has opted to use an application known as Bitrix24 for all of our primary communication. This application allows the creation of a channel specifically for employees. It enables one-on-one chats and also designated private group chats for each department in the company. 

Team members sign in using their work email addresses, so they don’t have to divulge any private information, like phone numbers, to the rest of the team if they don’t wish to. This method is suitable as conversations won’t get lost like they would if we used email instead. The system works well, especially considering that everyone is based in different time zones due to remote working.

Amit Raj, Founder, The Links Guy

Magical: AI-Driven Collaboration Tool

Our large global team is using a specific AI tool called Magical, which syncs with Notion, to streamline our call summaries, capture key points from conversations and meetings, and then provide us with actionable items. This helps us make sure that nothing critical is forgotten, especially when dealing with a lot of client and marketing campaigns all at once.

Magical is a very useful communication tool for a business like ours, as our teams can create and share meeting notes, keep track of upcoming Zoom calls between departments, and just makes it easier for our global teams to work together on projects without having to switch between different applications and platforms.

Jason Smit, CEO, Contentellect

G-Suite: Knowledge Sharing and Accountability

Working in G-Suite is the best way to share knowledge effectively across remote and hybrid teams. Anyone can update a document or spreadsheet as projects move forward over time, and it also holds employees accountable. 

For instance, managers can easily review documents and track the progress of business campaigns as they progress. This is a great way to keep businesses organized and collaborative in virtual work settings.

Stephanie Venn-Watson, Co-Founder, fatty15

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