Collaboration or co-working apps are increasingly becoming important nowadays. This is due to the continued use of online platforms for interactions across many facets. For example, it is now commonplace for meetings to be held online. It is now commonplace for lectures or lessons to be conducted online. Recently I completed a Data Analytics course that was wholly online. It entailed live lectures, assignments, tests, projects and so on. On the projects, we were placed in groups for collaboration which was all online. My group comprised mostly students from East and West Africa. One of the elements that made everything smooth was a collaboration or co-working apps. Let us look at some of the best such apps you can consider.

Telegram

Telegram is one of the collaboration apps we used during the Data Analytics course I mentioned. The beauty of Telegram is that one group can accommodate a staggering number of people. For example, one of the groups I am in from that course has over 17000 members. So here is the thing, you can have Telegram installed on your PC i.e. either desktop or laptop. Then you can start a live video and share your screen. This is how facilitators for that course conducted lectures. This is an example of the use of Telegram for academic collaboration. I recall that for one of my group projects we used Telegram using a live session. This shows you the possible uses of Telegram for collaboration or co-working is unlimited.

Microsoft Teams

This was another collaboration app that we used. No wonder it is has a ‘Teams’ in its name – it is for collaboration or co-working. When signing up you can set up an individual account or you can set up for your organization. You can send anyone a message, even if they do not have Teams. You can connect over to one or group video calls. You can share unlimited files and photos over chat. For teachers or lectures, they can create a OneNote notebook that they can share with their students. Meetings via this platform can accommodate up to 1000 participants – enjoying all Teams features. You can exceed that number to 10000 – though participants will only be able to view in this scenario.

Zoom

Zoom is most certainly the most used collaboration or co-working app in Zimbabwe. It is used in many contexts e.g. academic sessions, work meetings, events, and many more. By default, you can add up to 100 participants in one meeting. You can scale to 500 or even 1000 by using an add-on called Large Meeting. That add-on does not come free though – it entails monthly subscriptions. Some of the cool Zoom features are the ability to share screens, breakout rooms, and whiteboards. Just a fun fact, the longest ever Zoom meeting was 23 hours and 39 minutes long.

Slack

I am relatively new to Slack. I got introduced to the app about 3 weeks ago. It is also another collaboration or co-working app we used during my Data Analytics course. Slack is all about team communication and collaboration. It helps you structure your communications by organizing them by topics, projects, and so on. You can message or call team members. You can also share and edit documents. Slack can be integrated with other platforms such as Twitter, Google Drive, Dropbox, and many more. Slack was unveiled 8 years ago and to date, millions across the world use it. It is an integrated communication platform for teams and that makes it way better than WhatsApp for collaboration or co-working. You can have group calls with up to 15 team members; you can even share your screen.

Miro

This is yet another collaboration I got introduced to about a month ago. This is an online collaborative platform that features a whiteboard that enables distributed teams to collaborate. With Miro, it feels as if you are working side by side since several people can simultaneously write on the whiteboard. The platform can be used for online meetings and workshops. You can edit, annotate, or mark up documents and PDFs. Online classes can be held since the online whiteboard acts as a physical blackboard. It is an excellent platform for collaborative work that involves the visualization of ideas, concepts, and solutions.

This is my list of the best 5 collaboration or co-working apps. I have used all of them and I know they are good for various contexts. Miro is in a league of its own so I cannot compare it with the others. Slack is also in a league of its own as well. As for Telegram, Teams, and Zoom, it can be a bit hard to say which the best is. I am speaking of video conferencing here. From my experience, I have found Telegram to be smoother most of the time. Teams and Zoom are great when they are running smoothly but they can be extremely erratic at times.