With the majority of people working remotely, team communications tools have become essential to smooth functioning. These tools have expanded from never knowing about their existence to using them in our day-to-day lives.
Be it text messages or audio calls or video conferencing, team communications tools are required just about anywhere in an organization’s daily workflow. But every company has different priorities. So, your choice of the right team communication tool should depend on the features you require.
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What are the Benefits of Team Communication Tools?
Communication is critical to business operation. To work, people need to communicate quickly, effectively and efficiently. The 2021 global crisis that arose due to the COVID-19 pandemic required most of the workforce worldwide to work remotely. Businesses worldwide feared that it would disrupt employee productivity as the distance and lack of communication will leave them unsynchronized.
With the help of communication technology, however, businesses are able to run as they did before the pandemic. Thanks to team communication tools, companies have set up remote working cultures.
Moreover, with the help of these tools, employees could communicate and collaborate with their colleagues. Some communication tools that businesses could integrate with the project management tools eased their process even more.
What Factors Make a Good Communication Tool?
While several factors make a good team communication tool, we’ve listed a few significant factors here.
Encrypted Communication
Organizations work with sensitive business information that should be encrypted and safeguarded at any time. Because information security is crucial, the best communication tool should wrap all the communication information in a protective layer, making it difficult for unauthorized people to see them.
Integration with Management Tools
Many companies work with different ticket management tools like JIRA, ClickUp and Trello. A good communications tool should easily integrate with these tools and help people collaborate easily.
Good Video Conferencing
Almost every communication tool has a video conferencing feature. The only difference that sets the best communication tool from the rest is the list of features. A good communication tool allows people to start a video call, share screens as well as join and speak conveniently.
File Sharing
Since we live in a digital world, all of our work is usually produced in a file. And part of communicating in a business requires us to transact files often. A good team communications tool should allow you to share an unlimited number of files, have a good archive and transfer large volumes of data.
Screen Sharing
A nicely implemented screen sharing feature saves everyone’s time, especially when working remotely. A communications tool that has implemented this feature automatically separates itself from the pack.
The Best Team Communication Tools
Check out the team communication tools that made Benzinga’s list.
1. Best for Segregated Communication: Discord
Discord is a free team communication tool available to everyone. Though primarily designed as a gaming communication platform, it has evolved into something bigger than that. Discord is a popular and versatile team communication tool that you can find in the market.
Discord provides an abundance of controls to the users on how they want to set up their voice channels, text channels and video channels. Discord lets you interact when you need it without any trouble.
From video conferencing to having separate voice and text channels, Discord has it all. And all this costs nothing. However, you will have to pay for some of their premium features.
Pricing: Discord Nitro – $9.99 per month
2. Best for Enterprises: Microsoft Teams
Targeted for enterprise communication, Microsoft Teams has become a go-to tool for a lot of organizations. Microsoft Teams has almost all of the functionalities an organization needs.
You can create teams, conduct your daily meetings and even schedule meetings. Its video conferencing feature is solid and it has implemented screen-sharing correctly. With timely updates, Microsoft Teams has continually improved its UI, which has allowed the application to be more intuitive to use. It also integrates Microsoft Office packages in the application — you can open word documents within the application.
Microsoft also has a free version of teams, but you will have to pay for its subscription to get the best features.
Pricing:
- Basic package – $5 per user per month
- Standard package – $12.50 per user per month
- Office 365 E3 package – $20 per user per month
3. Best for Variety of Integration: Slack
Slack is another popular team communication tool that can do anything — file sharing, voice calls, text messages and video calls. It also provides a variety of integration with other management tools. With more than 100 available integrations, you can get the flexibility to integrate and configure your choice application.
Slack also allows you to share large volumes of data and has other subtle features like viewing code snippets without changing the formatting.
You can use Slack’s built-in video/audio calling functionality or integrate other applications like Skype for customization. It can also incorporate management tools like JIRA, Dropbox and G Suite. Although initially, Slack might feel bareboned, once you fully customize Slack to your need, you won’t need anything else.
You can get a free version of the application, but you unlock premium features by paying for its services.
Pricing:
- Standard – $6.67 per month
- Plus – $12.50 per month
- Enterprise – Requires quote from the Sales team
4. Best for Project Management: ProofHub
ProofHub is one of the unique team communication tools that exist now. It is both a team communication as well as a project management tool.
It fulfills all the good team communication tools’ requirements — nicely implemented text and voice communication services, easy-to-use video conferencing and file sharing. It also integrates essential project management features like to-do tasks, discussions, milestones and timesheets, including third-party applications like Google Docs and Dropbox.
With the help of customer satisfaction, ProofHub has been steadily growing. Its pricing model also makes it a good fit for small to mid-sized businesses that want an all-in-one solution.
Pricing:
- Essential – $45 per month flat rate
- Ultimate Control – $150 per month flat
5. Best for Large Video Conferencing: Fuze
If you need to have large meetings regularly, you might want to consider Fuze. It has all the basics covered — text messaging, HD audio and video calls as well as file sharing.
On top of these essential team communication features, Fuze allows you to have HD video conferencing with up to 1,000 participants. Fuze is also supported on multiple platforms, making it an ideal tool for video conferencing.
While you can use the basic version of Fuze without any cost, you will need to pay for its premium version.
Pricing: Fuse Pro – $39 per user per month
Communication is the Key
A good team communications tool is essential in driving your business forward. Be it an IT business or an accounting firm, if it requires people to communicate, investment in a good team communication tool is always a good bet.
There are plenty of team communication tools available on the market. If you need security, go for tools that provide end-to-end encryption. If you need flexibility, go for all-in-one tools. We recommend you select a tool depending on the features that you prioritize.
