I've been reviewing and writing about software since 2009, working remotely the entire time, so I'm extremely familiar with the ins and outs of team communication software.Communication is tied to culture, and every company is
different—this is why there are so many work chat apps on the market. I think a few features are universally necessary, however, and kept them in mind while I was reviewing apps. The best team chat apps:Organize conversations. Some messages need to be seen by your entire company, others need to happen at the team level, and not every team conversation needs to involve your entire team. The best work chat app organizes conversations in a way that enables this, allowing users to decide what they do and don't see. This means channels that team members can join, or not join, depending on what's relevant to them. Ideally conversations can be broken down even further than that, using threads or similar features to keep people from talking over each other. The ability to tag people and to pull them into conversations they otherwise might miss is also a must.Offer universal search with filtering features. There is nothing more frustrating than having the same conversation multiple times, which is why search is essential. When it comes to work chat, your team should be able to quickly find past conversations for relevant information. Filtering features make this a lot easier.
