The greatest Android apps for staff collaboration
Stay related and productive wherever you might be with these first-rate collaboration apps for Android.
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Working collectively positive is not what it was.
These days, you do not have to be in the identical convention room — or, heck, even time zone — to work aspect by aspect with co-workers. Thanks to the number of top-notch collaboration instruments for our ever-connected units, you possibly can edit, set up, and talk with anybody as if you happen to have been sitting proper subsequent to them, irrespective of the place your corporeal kind resides.
And you do not even must be perched at a pc for that to carry true: With the correct set of Android apps, you possibly can put the facility of collaboration into your pocket — prepared to leap into motion anytime, wherever.
These are one of the best Android apps for efficient and environment friendly collaboration, damaged down by what they will provide help to do.
[ Related: The best Android apps for business 2023 ]
Collaborate on paperwork
Google Docs or Microsoft Word
For years, Microsoft uncared for Android, with app choices starting from “barely usable” to “completely nonexistent.” Even as just lately as 2017, when the corporate first began taking Office for Android significantly, the software program’s real-time collaboration characteristic was vexingly clunky and inconsistent.
Today, all of that’s historical past. Microsoft Word on Android is now a delight to make use of — and its multiuser modifying system is clean as could be, with real-time modifications and inline commenting absolutely useful throughout a number of platforms.
That places it neck and neck with Google, whose Docs phrase processor has at all times excelled at collaboration and continues to function a shining instance of easy multiuser help.
JR Raphael/IDG
Inviting others for collaboration in Google Docs, left, and Microsoft Word, proper.
The solely actual query is which app you like and which ecosystem makes extra sense in your skilled wants.
Docs is free for particular person use, with company-wide plans beginning at $72 per consumer per 12 months. Word is equally free for particular person use, although with some vital restrictions in place — like read-only entry on large-screen units. Its absolutely featured plans are $70 a 12 months and up for people or $12 per consumer per 12 months and up for companies, as a part of Microsoft’s broader Microsoft 365 subscriptions.
Collaborate on emails
Spark
Email is an space the place staff collaboration is usually wanted — and but the method has remained clunky, inefficient, and largely unchanged over time. Think about it: When you want to get a co-worker’s enter on an e mail you obtained or ask them to weigh in on a response, what do you do? Odds are, you ahead the message to them in some capability, both instantly or by way of some secondary service, and then you definitely alternate messages backwards and forwards or work on edits in another app till you get all the pieces hammered out and able to be pasted again over.
The firm behind Spark thought there needed to be a greater manner — and positive sufficient, they discovered it. The Spark app makes it easy as could be to speak with colleagues about an e mail proper alongside that e mail (think about that!). It does so by providing you with a non-public, inside chat system that lives inside your inbox: You merely point out a staff member within the chat space related to any message, and you may then talk with them concerning the e mail, alternate associated information, assign duties and due dates, and even work on a response collectively proper then and there.
Spark
Spark makes it simple to speak with colleagues privately alongside an e mail, left, and collaborate on a response, proper.
Spark’s Android app is properly designed, too, and chock-full of helpful options and customization choices. The solely actual draw back is that the service nonetheless is not obtainable in a easy web-based kind, although the corporate does now have native macOS and Windows apps obtainable along with the mobile-specific variations.
Spark is free for particular person use with restricted collaboration options and an non-compulsory $60 a 12 months premium improve. For the complete staff model, it prices $84 per consumer per 12 months.
Collaborate on notes
Notion
When it comes to notice collaboration, Notion is in a league of its personal. The service gives a versatile canvas for just about any type of collective brainstorming and idea-storing possible, and it makes it particularly simple to share notes with anybody and management precisely what degree of entry collaborators are granted — viewing, modifying, or each modifying and welcoming different collaborators.
Notion permits a number of folks to edit paperwork on the identical time, in actual time, and the app boasts a strong system for commenting and tagging different members of your staff to assign particular objects and work together all all through your supplies.
JR Raphael/IDG
Notion has all of the instruments you want to create and set up notes after which collaborate securely and successfully inside them.
The app empowers you to publish particular person notes or complete collections to the online, too, and to permit anybody with the hyperlink to view them — even when they do not have their very own Notion account. You can set expiration dates for such hyperlinks, too, to make them public just for a restricted time frame, and you may determine whether or not you need any of your hyperlinks to get listed by serps or stay in an “unlisted” form of standing.
Notion is free for particular person use with an non-compulsory $48-a-year Pro improve that gives limitless file uploads, limitless visitor entry, and a 30-day modifying historical past. Team-level entry begins at $96 per consumer per 12 months with a full set of collaboration and administrative controls.
Collaborate on initiatives
Trello
Need to work with others on organizing concepts and monitoring progress on initiatives? Trello is the Android app for you.
Trello offers you a easy but feature-packed framework for retaining initiatives so as: You simply create a board for every mission or space of curiosity, then create a collection of lists inside every board. The lists then get crammed up with playing cards — particular person objects that include textual content, information, checklists, photos, and different such supplies.
Every card accommodates its personal remark stream for co-workers to depart ideas and concepts, and every card — in addition to the board on the entire — has an in depth exercise log that lists all feedback, additions, edits, and invitations in a single place.
And whereas Notion additionally presents a broadly comparable form of organizational system, Trello’s board-based setup (recognized formally as a Kanban board) really is past evaluate by way of its energy, flexibility, and consumer friendliness — each on the cell entrance and on the desktop aspect of issues as nicely.
JR Raphael/IDG
Trello gives remark streams in each card and allows you to add extra collaborators with a pair fast faucets.
Adding in new customers is as simple as tapping the three-dot menu icon alongside your workspace title inside the app’s major menu. There, you possibly can invite anybody to view your board — with or with out their very own Trello account — and to affix you in modifying it, offered they’ve an account with the service (or are keen to enroll in one). You also can create a shareable hyperlink that’ll let anybody view your mission or particular person playing cards inside your mission with out the necessity for an account or invite.
[ Trello tips for beginners | Advanced Trello tips | Trello productivity power-ups ]
All foundational options apart, Trello actually shines with its spectacular built-in automation capabilities. The service’s Butler system allows you to arrange all kinds of superior “if this, then that”-style guidelines for organizing your boards, updating playing cards, and speaking with staff members each time sure triggers happen. The triggers may very well be something from the arrival of a specific day and time to the motion of a card from one checklist to a different — and even the posting of a remark that features a particular phrase or phrase.
Trello is free, with non-compulsory premium subscriptions beginning at $60 per consumer per 12 months that unlock further options resembling bigger file attachments, administration capabilities, and the power to view your knowledge in a wide range of superior views.
Chat along with your staff
Slack
Slack has turn out to be the de facto communication service for firms and groups — and for good purpose: The app gives a robust, dependable, and easy-to-use system for retaining in contact with colleagues in nearly any manner possible.
[ Slack tips, tricks, and hacks for power users ]
Slack offers you a mix of channels — subject-specific boards for particular members of your staff — and personal direct messaging capabilities to be in contact with particular person co-workers. It has customizable notifications so you may get alerted to exercise as usually as you want, with choices for keyword-specific notifications in addition to channel-wide exercise alerts and pings for direct messages and mentions.
JR Raphael/IDG
Slack excels at each group chats, left, and extra private varieties of communication, proper.
With productivity-oriented integrations for all the pieces starting from Google Drive and Calendar to Salesforce, Zendesk, and Trello, Slack is designed to function the central nervous system for your entire work-oriented communication. It’s free with essentially the most primary set of options (and a few strict limits on each storage and integrations) or $87 per consumer per 12 months and up for limitless use together with superior options resembling visitor entry and impromptu audio calls.
Seamlessly share information
Dropbox, Google Drive, or Microsoft OneDrive
Slack, Trello, and Notion all embrace their very own built-in file-sharing capabilities — however when collectively accessing information is a frequent a part of your staff’s workflow, having a devoted widespread folder could make your life simpler.
The excellent news: You’ve bought loads of strong choices. Dropbox, Google Drive, and Microsoft OneDrive all have easy capabilities for sharing particular person information or complete folders from their respective Android apps. You can create shareable hyperlinks that’ll let anybody obtain the information in query — or you possibly can share instantly with different registered customers to allow them to each entry the information and add their very own additions. With the respective firm’s software program in place, you possibly can even make a shared folder look and act like an everyday native folder in your desktop laptop for fast drag-and-drop transfers.
JR Raphael/IDG
Sharing a folder with somebody in Google Drive, left, and Microsoft OneDrive, proper.
Dropbox gives 2GB of house free of charge; Google Drive offers you 15GB of free storage that is shared throughout all Google companies (together with Gmail and Google Photos); and OneDrive begins you off with 5GB of storage at its free degree. All three companies supply choices to pay for added house and different superior options, with business-level plans obtainable as nicely.
[ How to use Dropbox | Google Drive | Microsoft OneDrive for collaboration ]
Coordinate your calendars
Google Calendar or Microsoft Outlook
Google Calendar and Microsoft Outlook each do a commendable job of supporting shared calendars for colleague coordination. The major distinction is every app’s related ecosystem — and in addition the truth that Microsoft’s service comes bundled as a part of its broader e mail utility.
Basically, if you happen to’re already utilizing Microsoft apps — particularly Outlook — then utilizing Outlook for shared calendars probably is smart. Otherwise, you are most likely higher off going with Google’s standalone calendar service.
Both apps are free to make use of, with choices to improve to enterprise-level plans. (See Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 enterprise pricing.)
Work collectively on whiteboards
Microsoft Whiteboard
Clichéd as it could sound, generally an image actually is price a thousand phrases. (Or no less than a pair hundred.) The subsequent time you want a shared visible floor for long-distance collaboration, Microsoft’s Whiteboard app is the instrument to strive.
Whiteboard, as its title suggests, places a clean whiteboard floor in your display. You ship a non-public hyperlink to whomever you want to invite, and — whether or not from a cell gadget, a desktop net browser, or the native Windows app — they will be capable to view and work together along with your digital board in actual time.
JR Raphael/IDG
Microsoft Whiteboard has all kinds of instruments for whiteboard-like collaboration.
Together, you possibly can create diagrams, sketch out concepts, and annotate photos. Whiteboard makes it simple to export and save your boards once you’re completed, and it is free to make use of (although any boards you create and save inside it can depend towards your customary Microsoft 365 storage quota).
Share your smartphone’s display
Google Meet
Maybe you want greater than a whiteboard. Maybe you desire a colleague to see precisely what you are seeing by yourself display — one thing inside an app, on the internet, or regardless of the case could also be.
You’d be forgiven for failing to note, however Google’s personal free Meet videoconferencing app makes it extremely simple to share your display in actual time with anybody else you invite into a gathering. Once you are on a name, all you’ve got gotta do to start out a display share is:
- Tap the three-dot menu icon within the lower-right nook of the display.
- Look for the “Share display” choice within the panel that pops up.
- Tap that, then faucet the “Start sharing” textual content to substantiate that you just need to proceed.
From that time onward, anybody else in your room will see a stay view of your smartphone’s display on their very own gadget. Only you possibly can management the telephone, however any distant observers will witness all the pieces you are doing at each step of the best way whereas nonetheless with the ability to chat with you on the identical time.
JR Raphael/IDG
Google Meet makes sharing a stay view of your display so simple as could be.
[ Google Meet cheat sheet ]
Ah…fashionable collaboration. With instruments like these, you may by no means have to depart your favourite chair once more.*
* But please do — no less than occasionally. OK?
This story was initially printed in January 2018 and most just lately up to date in January 2023.
2023-01-05 10:45:03 The greatest Android apps for staff collaboration
Original from www.computerworld.com