12 Best Team Chat Apps You Should Consider in 2024
Team chat apps are emerging as the modern ‘work hubs’ to collaborate with colleagues, clients, stakeholders, and management right from wherever they are. As workplaces are becoming increasingly hybrid after the pandemic, it is no wonder that these tools are turning into the cornerstone of communication, especially in every scaling enterprise and MNCs that operate from different physical locations.
Apart from interaction, companies are also focusing on apps that can integrate other popular apps to optimize their workflows. As we felt this topic needs an elaborative discussion, we crafted all the details we know into this article.
So, let’s break down a few popular team chat apps on the market, and their unique selling propositions to find which one will deliver the best value to your business.
Our Best Picks as the Top 12 Team Chat Apps:
- Google Chat
- Troop Messenger
- Slack
- Microsoft Teams
- Discord
- Mattermost
- Brosix
- Ryver
- Flock
- Twist
- Pumble
- ProofHub
Table of Contents
Why Does Your Business Need A Team Chat App?
As conversations start to take place among team members within chat apps, it spreads a sense of productivity, transparency, and trust. It naturally makes people comfortable sharing information across various departments and teams.
For example, let’s consider that your developers are connected to clients via a chat app. Using the same app, your sales team can resolve queries of your customers. Aside, the developers and sales team will also be able to make any internal discussion in the same medium.
Thereby your business can achieve immediate response to your clients and customers and an efficient workflow among different internal departments. Plus, having all the communication in the same place will make way for more creativity, idea sharing, and greater innovations.
What We Looked For To Choose The Top Team Chat Apps?
To make your analysis easier, we’ve identified the top factors that are the ‘must-haves’ of any effective team collaboration applications. We’ll quickly explain each one in greater detail below:
Usability : A good team chat app must make life easier, not difficult. The tool you choose must be easy to use – making your team proficient with the features within weeks or months. If not, it could add more complexity to the workflows.
Platform/ Device Compatibility : One primary characteristic of chat apps is their accessibility across devices. When a team member has to contact a colleague from any available device and platform (Android, iOS, or Web), the app must be capable of working on it.
Organized Collaboration : Work apps are not just chat apps. They should enable functionalities that can bring meaningful collaboration within organizations. For example, a team member must be able to make audio calls to have small talk with a colleague, while choosing to make live video calls during an important meeting or a seminar.
Scalability to Business Size: How big is your company? How many departments does it have? Every discussion within the app does not require all members of your organization to participate. It could be within departments or within specific members. Your app must be able to scale accordingly to the existing size of your business. Also, it must be capable of expanding to operate efficiently when your organization expands.
Integration Capabilities: It’s not all about conversations – Companies are looking for smarter ways to make their workforces agile. Getting the apps to integrate with the other popular integrations and extensions has become a niche that most companies love. This makes processes more connected and project management more optimized.
Security and Privacy: Maybe the last in our mention – but this factor is a crucial element of companies partaking sensitive information across departments. When conversations or file sharing with confidential data occurs, the chat apps must guarantee safety and privacy with complete end-to-end encryption.
Top 12 Chat Apps For Your Teams
Thousands of Team chat apps are available in the market, but our recommendations will get your team where they need to be.
1. Google Chat
Google chat was launched in 2017 as Hangouts chat, initially as a communication tool for teams and business environments. The convenient and easy-to-use UI has made Google comfortably introduce the app to the general consumers, who in turn use the same tool in their work environments.
Why use Google Chat?
Chat is accessible across your Gmail inbox and it is completely free if your organization is using Google Workspace.
Google Chat’s Highlight Feature
Integrations with Google’s ecosystem of apps helps employees experience a connected workflow
Google Chat’s Other Noteworthy Features
- Video conferencing
- In-line Topic Threading
- Calendar event creation
- Message pinning
- Task assignment
- Online presence indicators
- Side-by-side document and chat view
App Requirements
- Mobile – Android and iOS
- Desktop – Windows, Mac, and Linux
Pricing
- Free with Google Workspace
- Business Starter: $6 USD/month
- Business Plus: $18 USD/month
Location
- Google Chat has a strong user base in the United States, India and Europe.
Use Case
- Private and Enterprise Communication.
2. Troop Messenger
As goes well with the name, Troop Messenger brings together a business’s entire troop or teams in a single platform. Whether one-to-one conversations, group video chats, or collaboration tools, every feature is beautifully designed to leverage excellent user experience. Additionally, this messenger allows you to share ideas, track work deliverables, and streamline productivity seamlessly.
Why use Troop Messenger?
Businesses of all forms and sizes highly use Troop Messenger for bringing out productive work outcomes and seamless office communication. Instead of relying on different tools for office work, Troop Messenger acts as a single hub for powerful team collaboration supporting real-time work conversations.
Troop Messenger’s Highlight Feature
Troop Messenger’s Orange Member feature, also known as the guest user collaboration feature, is quite a hit in the collaboration market. It allows the admin to add noncompany members and set permissions on whom they can communicate within the chat app.
Troop Messenger’s Other Noteworthy Features
- Forkout
- Chat Area Filters
- Airtime Groups
- Live Tracking
- Network Status Indicator
- Voice-Video Messaging
- Application User Settings
- Google Drive Integration
- Wallpaper and Themes
- Image Slide Show
- Attachment Preview and more.
App Requirements
- Mobile – Android and iOS
- Desktop – Windows, Linux, and Mac OS
- Web – Supports all web browsers
Pricing
- Premium: Experience all the features of the ‘Enterprise Plan’ for 7 days, after which, a price tag of $2.5/user/month is applicable.
- Enterprise: Experience a ‘Free Plan’ for 7 days, after which, a price tag of $5/user/month is applicable.
- Superior: $9/user/month.
Location
- Highly popular in India and is also used in different countries around the world.
Use Case
- BFSI Sector, NGO, Shipping, Politics, Defense and Government.
3. Slack
Slack is a pioneer in introducing chat apps for workplaces as an alternative to email communication. Over 12 million users are improving their day-to-day chat experiences with Slack and the number is undoubtedly increasing. It has ideal features for businesses that involve a large number of teams that has to communicate frequently.
Why use Slack?
Because 65 out of Fortune 100 companies trust Slack to forge work collaboration and productivity among their teams.
Slack’s Highlight Feature
Slack is a highly competitive Channel-based messaging system that helps teams plan their marketing campaigns, review job candidates, negotiate contracts, and more.
Slack’s Other Noteworthy Features
- Real-time messaging
- Audio & Video calling
- Video Conferencing
- Flexible Customization of features
- Screen Sharing
- Integrations for Productivity & Task management tools
- Process Automation
App Requirements
- Mobile – Android and iOS
- Desktop – Windows, Mac, and Linux
Pricing
- Standard Plan: $6.67 per user/month
- Plus Plan: $12.50 per user/month
Location
- Primarily serves the United States, Europe and other countries
Use Case
- Enterprise, IT and software development, Sales and marketing and Customer support.
4. Microsoft Teams
MS Teams is a popular collaboration tool created by Microsoft as a part of its Office 365 products to make conversations at workplaces more convenient and centralized. It allows an abundance of third-party integrations and work-centric features, along with accessibility to Microsoft office products.
Why use Microsoft Teams?
Microsoft is preferred by several enterprises for its standard and quality of collaboration features, products, and services all in one place.
Microsoft Team’s Highlight Feature
Rolled out Microsoft Viva, an employee engagement platform, currently available with community interaction via Engage to boost interaction between team members to share insights and knowledge on their prospectives
Microsoft Team’s Other Noteworthy Features
- Meetings & Seminars
- Powerpoint Live
- Built-in webinar tools
- Shared Channels
- Team Rooms
- Whiteboard
- App Integrations
App Requirements
- Mobile – Android and iOS
- Desktop – Windows, Mac, and Linux
Pricing
- Available as a standalone app for FREE
- Microsoft Teams Essentials: ₹ 100.00 users/ month
- Microsoft 365 Business Basic: ₹ 125.00 user/month
- Microsoft 365 Business Standard: ₹ 660.00 user/month
Location
- Microsoft Teams is widely used across the United States, Europe, and other countries.
Use Case
- Enterprise, Online Education, Healthcare, and Government.
5. Discord
Discord was originally built for gamers to communicate with each other during an ongoing game. Over the years the tool expanded its territory to server business communications to make interactions quicker, easier and clearer. Like any other team chat app, it offers text messaging, voice, and video calls to render a more collaborative experience.
Why use Discord?
Discord is the only best choice for enterprises that prefer discussion via voice calls over text messaging. It is an excellent communication tool to keep the tool running in the background
Discord’s Highlight Feature
Low latency voice calling with crystal clear audio features
Discord’s Other Noteworthy Features
- Screensharing
- Slash Commands
- Screen Reader
- Keyboard Navigation
- Slash Commands
- Find Your Friends
App Requirements
- Mobile – Android and iOS
- Desktop – Windows, Mac, and Linux
Pricing
- Free for all essential features
- Nitro: $9.99/ month and $99.99/ year
- Nitro Classic: $4.99/ month and $49.99/ year
Location
- Discord is widely used around the world but is predominantly used in gaming communities in the United States.
Use Case
- Gaming and esports, Communities and social groups.
6. Mattermost
Mattermost is an open-source chat tool built with enterprise-centric features that work best for teams involving secure data transfer. The interface appears closer to Slack, with similar interactive features. It allows users to integrate third-party tools without compromising the app’s security.
Why use Mattermost?
Mattermost is highly preferred by Enterprises that handle sensitive data transfer. For example, finance, hospitals, and law firms find Mattermost more secure for communication.
Mattermost’s Highlight Feature
This communication software is built for enterprises that allow self-hosting. This means you can run the app on your own server and flexibly customize it as per your needs.
Mattermost’s Other Noteworthy Features
- Chat/Messaging
- Collaboration Tools
- Audio Calls
- Alerts/Notifications
- Active Directory Integration
- Access Controls/Permissions
App Requirements
- Mobile – Android and iOS
- Desktop – Windows, Mac, and Linux
Pricing
- Small Businesses: $3.25 per user/month
- Enterprises: $8.50 per user/month
Location
- Mattermost is used around the world, but is most popular among the users in the United States, Europe and Asia.
Use Case
- IT and software development, Healthcare, Finance and Banking.
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7. Brosix
Brosix is an ideal team chat app that offers the best and most secure messaging platform for teams to share their work thoughts over an idea. Beyond the normal instant messaging feature, it gives its clients a completely private team network with top collaboration features. Adding to this, the presence of administrative features helps to easily manage users in a channel or a network.
Why use Brosix?
This chat app works well to optimize work processes and increase team productivity with a private network. Further, Brosix is committed to never display any type of advertisement in the app.
Brosix’s Highlight Feature
The security is unmatched in Brosix’s chat app as it uses P2P encryption on all communication mediums thereby creating a secure chat infrastructure. Yet another unique feature is the unlimited size of transferring files.
Brosix’s Other Noteworthy Features
- Instant Messaging & Online Chat Rooms
- Audio and Video Calls
- Broadcast Messages
- Live Chat
- Chat App Controls
- Chat Room Controls
- Activity Log
- Web Control Panel
App Requirements
Mobile – Android and iOS
Desktop – Windows and Mac, Web Client
Pricing
- Free: Free up to 3 users
- Business: $4 per user per month and $5 per use/month if billed monthly.
- Premium: $6 per user per month and $8 per use/month if billed monthly.
Location
- Brosix is used across different parts of the world but has a huge user base in Europe particularly in Germany and Switzerland.
Use Case
- Healthcare, Fintech and Education.
8. Ryver
Ryver is a secure chat app whose interface is reminiscent of Slack (mostly what small-scale businesses call it as). It offers both team communication and project management features in a single chat platform. Here, conversations are categorized into Forums, Teams, and People. Under each is chat, Topics, and Tasks. Tasks are a stand out of this team chat app that lets users create, organize, and manage their daily tasks on the Kanban-style board.
Why use Ryver?
Ryver has made team collaboration simple, easy, and affordable with its unique features. It aims to provide team communication and project management in a single app.
Ryver’s Highlight Feature
Provides Single Sign-On (SSO) capability using an existing Google G-Suite or Okta thereby reducing the hurdles related to password reset requests. And, gives its users an option to create boards to manage teams and personal tasks.
Ryver’s Other Noteworthy Features
- Chat/Group Messaging
- File Sharing
- Conversation Searching
- Audio & Video Calls
- Automating Daily Process
- News Streaming
- Assigning & Tracking Tasks
App Requirements
- Mobile – Android and iOS
- Desktop – Windows and Mac
Pricing
- Free trial for 14 days
- Starter: Up to 12 users for $69/month
- Standard: Up to 30 users for $129/month
- Medium Pack: $4.67 per user
Location
- Has a wide user base in the United States, Europe, and Asia.
Use Case
- IT and software development, Sales and marketing, and Project management.
9. Flock
Founded in 2014, it is one of the best team messaging app with exquisite features like polls and note-taking. Though messaging features are common here, they give additional benefits like adding emojis and GIFs to chats and sharing files. It also lets you create Polls inside Channels. Polls come into action whenever decisions are to be made in the company; could be over a logo choice or while planning an event.
Why use Flock?
The channels in Flock help streamline the team’s internal communication and decision-making. Managing and organizing all conversations in a single place can easily hit business objectives.
Flock’s Highlight Feature
Flock gets interested in the feature it offers to its users. This team chats app is the only of its kind to include a built-in ‘Note Taking App’. This feature helps teams to jot down important points and help them share with other members as well.
Flock’s Other Noteworthy Features
- Channel Messaging
- Video Conferencing
- Voice Notes
- Integrated Search
- File Sharing
- Polls and To-dos
- Reminders
- User Permissions
- Authentication and Data Retention
App Requirements
- Mobile – Android and iOS
- Desktop – Windows, Linux, and Mac
Pricing
- Starter: Free for teams with 1 to 20 members.
- Enterprise: Connect with the sales team to get a quote.
- Pro: $4.50 per user per month
Location
- The primary user base of Flock is in India as well as other countries around the world.
Use Case
- Enterprise, Sales and marketing and IT and software development.
10. Twist
Twist is a top chat messaging app that makes collaboration easy with the help of threads and channels. Using threads in conversations can help organize chats under specific categories (private or public), and make it easier to be looked upon in the future. This team chat app, unlike others that offer real-time communication, is into asynchronous communication. It works just like Emails where one can sight an inbox displaying what’s changed when offline.
Why use Twist?
It is highly trusted by enterprises as it works well for balancing productivity from remote teams. Here, it gets easy to share ideas, and thoughts, and grasp knowledge on know-how through channels.
Twist’s Highlight Feature
Usage of the ‘thread’ medium in the chat app helps to keep the information alive and organized. Adding to this context, the existence of channels within the app can group likewise ideas for further discussions.
Twist’s Other Noteworthy Features
- Existence of channels and threads.
- Video and Audio Calls
- Automated Report Generation
- Gets notification on updates from GitHub.
- Offers full control over notifications
App Requirements
- Mobile – Android, and iOS
- Desktop – Windows, Linux, and Mac
Pricing
- Free: Free trial up to a month.
- Unlimited: $6 per user per month.
Location
- Majority of users are from the United States, Europe and Asia.
Use Case
- IT and software development, Remote teams and distributed work.
11. Pumble
Considered to be an internal communication and collaboration software, Pumble alleviates the drawback of Email with real-time instant messaging. It keeps both internal and external conversations decluttered with ‘Threads’ and ‘Channels’. Further, to notify people about important info, feature can be of help.
Why use Pumble?
Unlike the other team chat apps, Pumble is greatly liked by enterprises for its pricing and storage facilities. It lets you store links, files, and messages so that they can be accessed anytime in the future.
Pumble’s Highlight Feature
The ‘Do Not Disturb’ feature in the chat app enhances the work productivity of employees thereby promoting healthy work balance.
Pumble’s Other Noteworthy Features
- Instant Messaging
- Voice and Video Calls
- Screen Sharing
- File Sharing
- Notifications
- Search History
- Channels and Threads
App Requirements
- Mobile – Android and iOS
- Desktop – Windows, Linux, and Mac
Pricing
- It is a free team chat app.
Location
- Primarily serves users in Russia and also other countries around the world.
Use Case
- Enterprise, Education and Government.
12. ProofHub
Proofhub is a communication platform that brings effective collaboration among members of a team, seamlessly optimizing project management within an organization. Proofhub’s software comes with in-built chat, making interaction within a business environment easy, secure, and confidential.
Why use ProofHub?
Proofhub will serve as a great platform for your business, if you are thinking about investing in one comprehensive collaboration solution, rather than multiple communication tools. It keeps your project communication simple, making it easy to manage teams and maintain productivity
ProofHub’s Highlight Feature
Discussions is a feature you must never miss out when using Proofhub. This is a space where you can connect with like-minded individuals on a particular topic, discuss, argue, exchange notions, and make collaborations more engaging and useful at the same time.
ProofHub’s Other Noteworthy Features
- One-to-one chat
- Group Chat
- Gantt Charts
- File Proofing
- Kanban Boards
- Access to APIs
- Workflows
- Detailed Activity Logs
- RestrictionsOn IP Addresses
- Trash Management
- Priority support
App Requirements
- Mobile: iOS and Android
- Desktop: Windows
Pricing
- Do not charge per-user fee
- Offers 14 day Free trial
- Essential Plan: $45/month
- Ultimate Control Plan: $85/month
Location
- Proofhub is popular among users in the United States, Europe and Asia.
Use Case
- Project management, Marketing, Design and creative teams and Software development.
Competitive Features that a Team Chat Needs
Modern-day communication implies that user expectations over a chat app have increased tremendously. So is with your team members, who expect the best of features to make their day-to-day conversations more effective and productive. Ultimately, the right chat features solve it all!
Below is a list of features that you must look for within a Team chat when aspiring to implement effective workplace communication.
- Multimedia sharing lets users view and share images, videos & documents without leaving the app.
- Offline messages help users within a team send/ receive messages even if the recipient is not online/ does not have access to the internet
- Ready-to-use UI Modules let you create visually appealing interfaces for your app instantly
- Push Notifications keep your team up-to-date on the events occurring across the work environment.
- User presence indicators let a user get to know the availability of another team member.
- Delivery and read receipts give users a confirmation if their messages have been delivered or read by the recipient team member to assure faster workflow.
- Mute/Ban users allow users with authorization to mute or ban another user during meetings/ group conversations
- Message Deletion lets users remove text messages they’ve sent during a conversation within the app.
- Message Translation allows instantly translating messages from one language to hundreds of other languages as per user preferences.
- History Search allows users to search for a particular word/ conversation from the entire chat threads.
- Multi-Tenancy splits and organizes teams thereby users in different groups cannot interact with each other.
- Hiring a dedicated development team supports you in the integration process and maintaining.
Final Thoughts
In our opinion – Each business differs from one other. Each work culture is unique. This being a fact, it might not be completely wise enough to expect an existing team-chat app like the ones mentioned in the article above, to fulfill all your team’s needs. This is because most apps are built based on a common protocol.
Eventually, the lasting solution narrows down to one point – building an in-house team chat app. Although building an app from scratch might sound technologically complex, the option to integrate reliable chat APIs and SDKs into your business-specific app will fairly reduce all the complexities and help you successfully implement a team chat app. To help you build your own team chat apps, MirrorFly offers both cloud-based and self-hosted messaging solution. Like to know more about our chat API & feature-rich SDKs, talk to our expert team now!
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
A team chat app is also known as business chat software, Which is an instant messaging software that allows you to chat with team members in real-time. Team chat apps also provide benefits such as voice and video calls, push notifications, file sharing, presence and typing indicators, etc.
Here are the best team chat apps for the workplace. 1. Slack 2. Google chat 3. Microsoft Teams 4. Troop messenger 5. Discord 6. Mattermost 7. Brosix 8. Ryver 9. Flock 10. Twist 11. Pumble 12. Proofhub
A Team Chat App is an instant messaging software developed within an organization with chat, voice and video calling features. It acts as a powerful tool for staff, management and customers to communicate and collaborate with each other, without having to rely on third-party chat solutions.
The core team chat app features that will make your app more user-friendly and functional are: Private Chat: To directly message a coworker. Group Chats: To connect with a group of co-workers instantly. Audio and Video Calling: For seminars, webinars and client meets. Cloud Collaboration: To share files and media resources. End to End Encryption: To protect every confidential information and know-hows exchanged between team members
Yes, MirrorFly APIs allows you to integrate chat features into your app along with voice and video calling. You will be able to deliver crystal clear audio and video experiences to global users at ultra-low latency with average response time as low as 3 ms.
Yes, Microsoft Teams offers team chat software with enriched features, such as push notifications, voice and video calls, team collaboration, file sharing, team meetings, calendar invites, emojis and GIFs, rich-text editing, chat threads, and more.
Determine your requirements. Hire developers, Design UI and UX, Develop, test, and debug, deploy, and monitor. Instead of undergoing a year-consuming project, you can easily integrate MirrorFly’s group chat APIs in just 30 minutes. Step 1: Sign up and complete registration. Step 2: Get access to the messaging APIs. Step 3: Get the Licence key. Step 4: Easily integrate them with your preferred platforms. Step 5: Start communicating with enriched chat features.
Vigneshwar is a seasoned digital marketer and blogger, extremely passionate about driving search engine visibility for websites. He thoroughly enjoys exploring emerging technologies and is currently honing his expertise in Chat APIs and their associated tech stacks.
Nice post MirrorFly team, keep writing more such blogs. It is very informative and knowledgeable.
Thanks a lot, Felix for an amazing response to my article. Glad that you found my post to be informative and we will soon meet with yet another blog.
What are the benefits of the white label team chat app?
Hello! The benefits of using a white label messaging SDK for building white label team chat service includes: personalizing chat features as per your business needs, showcasing your brand identity thereby strengthening app integrity, enriching customer experiences, and driving user engagement to team chat apps. Well, there are several other benefits of using a white label messenger solution, and so, we suggest you click on the link to get a detailed insight.
Teams or Google Chat, which is better?
Hello Vaibav, good day to you! Both Microsoft Teams and Google Chat are powerful team chat applications that serve different purposes and the choice as to which is the best depends on your business needs and requirements.
If you are a business that fosters remote work, then Teams is the ideal choice for you as it offers instant messaging, file sharing, video conferencing, and other management tools.
Whereas, Google Chat is into offering basic chat features like messaging, and document sharing, and supports integration with the Google product suite thus making it a perfect option for organizations that use Google workspace products.
Thus, the decision is entirely based on your business needs.
I want to integrate a white label team chat app, is it possible with MirrorFly?
Hello Victor, good day! Yes, it is possible to integrate our white label messaging SDKs into your web and mobile apps and develop a branded communication app with your logos, fonts, and themes for a one-time license cost. Above this, our SDKs let you take complete control of our call and chat features and give the flexibility to host apps on your premises or third-party cloud servers. If this information delights you, please talk to our team of experts to proceed further.
What a super-comprehensive list.
Thank you for taking the time to write it…. you have helped me a lot…
I had never heard of them before I read your article.
Thanks a ton for such wonderful and positive feedback on my article. Glad that my post was helpful in your learning process. Please keep visiting back for more such articles.
Hi Team I’m Roshan Chaturvedi,
I want to know about pricing for yearly plan for Only Text, text + voice chat app
Hello Mr. Roshan Chaturvedi, thanks for considering our in-app chat solution. MirrorFly offers 4 different annual pricing plans. You can customize and choose the direct messaging and voice features for your app. The highlight of our pricing plans is that you’ll pay only for the features you use. For more details on our annual plans, I recommend you to contact our sales team directly for complete guidance.
Hi Parthiba, Great article about team chat app. Thanks for sharing!