Given the threat of Covid-19 still lurking in the background, businesses may be looking at continuing with remote working well into the Autumn, if not into the New Year. The pandemic was upon us so quickly that a lot of companies’ remote working processes were set up ad hoc, but with the ongoing situation you might be looking for a more permanent solution for keeping in touch with remote workers. In this blog we look at five of the top apps for keeping in touch.
Slack
The advantage of this app is that it is a one-stop-shop for messaging, file storage, and working tools. It is primarily designed to use text and images, however it does have one-to-one video calling capabilities on mobile, and video conferencing for up to 15 on desktop devices.
Zoom
If you haven’t heard about Zoom by now then you must have been living on the moon! The free version of this video conferencing software allows you to meet with up to 100 people at a time for 40 minutes, or you can pay monthly or annually for a subscription to increase the time limit and number of participants. Zoom has full webinar capabilities, so you can screen share, set up breakout groups, have a text chat running alongside the main session, and so on.
Flock
This app allows users to chat and share Google Drive files. There is a voting function which can be used at the end of a discussion, and also a shared to-do list function where you can allocate post-meeting actions to each participant.
Microsoft Teams
Another of the big names that you will have come across as the result of the pandemic, Teams allows for seamless integration of text messaging, file sharing and editing, and video and audio calling. If you are already using Office 365 then it makes sense to use Teams as your main method of communication with remote workers.
Google Meet
This app integrates with other Google products such as Gmail and Google Drive. You can have up to 100,000 people on one call, so it’s great for large-scale presentations, and you can start the call from your Gmail inbox, making it easy to invite your contacts.
Whichever solution you choose for keeping in touch while working remotely, make sure that it doesn’t add an extra layer of complication for your workers! Using an app which integrates into the systems and software that you currently use will be easier for your workers, and also might encourage you to keep using it well after everyone comes back into the office.