Last Updated on August 10, 2022 by Bilal Uddin
Instant messaging platforms are more popular than ever. With the rise of instant messaging giants like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and WeChat, we can only expect more intense communication via texting.
Moreover, instant messaging platforms are taking over business communication as well. Lean and user-friendly messaging solutions have taken over telephone, faxing, and emailing. They enable teams to communicate and collaborate more successfully, even in a hybrid work environment.
As an intro to our subject, get our guide on team collaboration in hybrid work setting!
What is instant messaging platform
Instant messaging platform is one of the essential tools for digital workplaces. It is used for communication and collaboration among employees that work remotely, thus making work easier and faster.
Although instant messaging platforms are first and foremost used for asynchronous communication, the best of them feature calling and video conferencing. That way, they truly embody the meaning of a communication platform.
The business instant messaging market was heavily influenced by its consumer-oriented counterpart. By mimicking features of most popular messaging apps, business messaging solutions were able to provide an organic communication experience to their customers. This has numerous benefits for workplace cohesion, culture, and success of the collaboration.
Best instant messaging platforms for business
Instant messaging platforms that are business-oriented usually cater to organizations that want user-friendly communication solutions. There is a wide variety of instant messaging platforms for small, medium, and enterprise businesses. Some of them even have free versions, and are perfect for trying out on a smaller team before implementing it company-wide.
Here are our top five picks of instant messaging platforms that help with teams with sharing of knowledge.
Rocket.Chat
Yes, this is us, let us have this one! 😉
Rocket.Chat is a rising star among instant messaging platforms for business. Besides our focus on seamless communication and collaboration, we aim to fulfill highest data security standards for our users.
Also, Rocket.Chat has been a remote-first company since its inception, so our features and functionalities come from our own experience as a remote team.
When it comes to instant messaging itself, we support numerous ways of communicating with your colleagues: in teams, discussions, threads, and channels. Since Rocket.Chat is also an open-sourced project, every company can customize the chat according to their own preferences, too!
MS Teams
MS Teams is probably one of the most popular business instant messaging platforms out there. It is mostly catering to enterprise businesses that use the rest of the Microsoft products -the existing Microsoft users can get MS Teams for free.
However, MS Teams is not as flexible as other solutions. It has limited group and channel options, and setting it up is sometimes more complex than it should be.
Slack
At one moment, Slack was almost synonymous with business instant messaging. It was one of the first platforms to revolutionize the way we communicate in the workplace. Its ease of use and flexibility helped it achieve such a status.
Even though Slack is a great instant messaging platform, it doesn’t compare well to its competitors when it comes to data security. Thus, we see more and more people looking for Slack open-source alternatives.
Glip
Since it is a product created by RingCentral, Glip is an instant messaging platform that combines video calling, chat, tasks, file sharing, and event scheduling. Its users praise it for helping them be more productive.
Glip also supports third-party integrations, making it easy for teams that already use a different instant messaging platform to adopt it.
Flock
Flock is an instant messaging platform meant to ease collaboration among team members. With features oriented towards increasing productivity, it enables users to stay focused on their tasks.
Moreover, third-party integrations allow Flock users to streamline their everyday work and connect all of their favorite apps.
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