10 secret tips for managing a remote team

Team chat apps aren't just tools—they're the modern office. That's obviously true for remote teams, but the appeal goes well beyond that. Companies that have a shared physical workspace increasingly depend on workplace chat to get things done.

Part of this is about efficiency: information workers are sitting at their computers all day, and it just makes sense for conversations to happen there. Type a quick message, get an equally short reply, then get on with your work. Business messaging apps also mean that everyone can decide to participate in, or at least see, relevant conversations, while crucially also allowing people to ignore messages that aren't relevant to them.

This article shows our picks for the best team chat apps currently on the market. We reviewed and tested 25 apps, and these five are the ones we'd recommend.

The 5 best team chat apps

• Slack for a chat-powered workplace
• Microsoft Teams for large organizations broken down into teams
• Google Chat for G Suite users
• Discord for always-on voice chat
• Mattermost for self-hosted team chat

Communication is tied to culture, and every company is different—this is why there are so many work chat apps on the market.