A new generation of intra-office messaging services hopes to replace email, while letting users do way more than just type. Here are some of the competitors.
Launched in 2013, Slack is one of the best-known cloud collaboration tools. Slack claims it won't ever completely replace email, but a company spokesperson said offices using Slack massively reduce how many emails are sent.
Slack lets users send messages in customized chat rooms as well as one on one, and allows for file-sharing and the creation of virtual assistant users (bots) that can provide automated services.
Slack offers a free tier for small groups that limits searches to the most recent 10,000 messages. Paid plans are charged per user starting at $6.67 per user per month, and allow users to integrate other services into their chats. It's available on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and has mobile apps for iOS, Android and Windows Phone.
One of the first to herald the death of email, Hipchat launched in beta in 2009. Like Slack, it offers chat rooms and one-on-one messaging. Unlike Slack, Hipchat also offers screen sharing, though Slack is reportedly working on offering the same thing.
Hipchat offers a free entry-level tier and charges $2 per user a month on its paid tier, with a 30-day trial available. It's available on Mac, Windows and Linux, and has mobile apps on iOS and Android.
Yammer is Microsoft's attempt to create a social network within its Office suite of products. Visually, it's more Facebook than Slack, but it offers many of the same features, such as file collaboration and group chats.
Yammer is available for people who have a Microsoft 365 Enterprise subscription, which starts at $5 per user per month. It's available on all major desktop and mobile platforms.
Campfire offers a free service for up to four users, and starts its basic package for 12 users at $12 a month. It's web-based and compatible with Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Internet Explorer. It also offers an iOS app. Third-party apps exist for Android. It's also part of Basecamp, a more comprehensive software platform made by its parent company.
Fuze combines the features of other collaboration platforms, with a focus on phones. Users are tied to a phone number and can participate in video and audio chats, as well as messaging on their cellphones and collaboration on the web. The company also focuses on call-centre solutions.
Fuze does not provide any pricing information on its website.
Bitrix24 offers standard chat and collaboration, but also includes around 35 specialized tools that let users do things like audio chat, social networking and integrating with Google Docs and Microsoft Office.
The company charges by storage instead of by user, and has a free plan that includes 5 GB of storage. The paid plans go up to an unlimited storage option that costs $199 a month. It's a web-based tool, and also has mobile apps for iOS, Android and Windows Phone.
Glip advertises its inclusion of apps people might integrate with other platforms, including calendars, documents and notes. The service also integrates with other popular cloud services like Google Drive and Dropbox.
Glip offers a free plan for an unlimited number of users but restricts the video chat to 500 minutes. Other plans start at $5 per person per month and 1,000 minutes of video chat per person. It also offers iOS and Android apps.
Source: 7 products that could be the next email
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