“Ransomware is expected to attack a business every 11 seconds by the end of 2021,” says a report by Cybersecurity Ventures. The cost of damages due to system security breaches is projected to cost over $6 trillion by 2021. The sad truth is, when sophisticated attackers want to get access to your data, they leave no stone unturned to find a way. Can you think of all the damage malware attacks can cause to your business? The loss of potential data, assets, productivity, and in the worst-case scenario, plant shutdowns. Needless to mention the restoration and deletion of hostage data, post-attack disruption to normal business, reputational harm, forensic investigation, and employee training Because of these threats, many organizations are now choosing to have air-gapped computers or networks. In the military, defense, and industrial world, these air-gapped networks have been supporting control systems where communication is physically isolated from internet networks. In all, air gapping has the potential to act as a security firewall for your sensitive data. And that’s why we are writing about air gapping technology. Can an air-gapped network, including air-gap computers, benefit standard businesses? Can it effectively protect them from security breaches and potential losses? Stay on this page to explore the potential advantages and more! Table of Contents What is Air Gap or Air-Gapping? What is an Air-Gapped Computer/ Network? What is Air Gap Defense Technology? Functions of Air-Gapped Network Troop Messenger on Air-Gapped Server How Difficult Is It to Breach an App Deployed in an Air-Gapped Network? Conclusion: Mind the Air Gap What is Air Gap or Air-Gapping? “Air gapping” refers to the concept that there is an air gap between the computer and other networks. Since there is a gap in the air, the computer isn’t directly connected to the network and so it can’t be attacked through the network. So, to compromise the Air gap computer security, the hacker has to “ cross the air gap” by physically sitting down in front of the computer since there’s no other way to gain access over the Air-Gapped network.  What is an Air-Gapped Network / Computer? An air-gapped computer system has no physical connection to other computers, networks, or unsecured systems, it is solely connected to Air-gapped networks. For example, if you want to work on sensitive business documents or financials without the risk of malware, ransomware, or keyloggers (any attacks done over internet networks), you can simply set up an offline computer that is not connected to the internet. A computer that has been physically removed from the internet or isolated from any other network, is said to be an air-gapped computer. In other words, an air-gapped computer is not either directly connected to the internet or is connected to any other internet-enabled system.   A true air-gapped network is physically isolated from all internet-enabled devices. Hence, data can only pass via removable media such as USB.   One can use Air Gap computers at their home, too. For example, if you have software that runs better on Windows XP, a secure way to use that software is by air-gapping the Windows XP system. Even though Windows XP is vulnerable to malware or ransomware attacks, your data will be safe as long as you create an air gap between the Windows XP system and external networks.   A true air-gapped network is physically isolated from all internet-enabled devices. Hence, data can only pass via removable media such as USB, and no hacker or vandalize can breach the Air Gap server. What is Air Gap Defense Technology? Essentially, an ‘Air Gap Defense Technology’ refers to the absence of a wireless connection into a network connection or computer system. It means that a hacker cannot ‘wirelessly’ hijack your network, computer systems, smartphone, laptop, or WI-FI router. They will need access to wired connections where you can install security software that acts as a firewall. Just like organizations invest in firewall management to minimize risks, the same should be done for computers and networks.  Techopedia defines the air gap as a "security measure implemented for computers, computer systems or networks requiring airtight security without the risk of compromise or disaster. It ensures total isolation of a given system from other networks, especially those that are not secure." Functions of Air-Gapped Network Essentially the two main functions of an air-gapped network are security and working efficiently on low bandwidth. When properly implemented and maintained, the air-gapped defense networks mainly offer security, and they work on low bandwidth as well. That explains why they can be found among some of the most secure global institutions. All in all, Air gap networks are used for protecting different types of critical systems including ones that support the military, the government, and the stock market. Air-Gapped Network’s abilities prompted defense agencies to utilize it for Defense Collaboration Services and it was re-established as Air-Gap Defense Technology. Developed initially for security-conscious teams like military agencies and government organizations. The air gap network has also stepped into the private sector. Due to the rise in cybercrimes, many compliance-minded organizations like health care, utilities, and banking are now embracing ‘ air gapping’ technology for their sensitive applications and network. Considering network security, CCNA certification practice dumps test  equips professionals with safeguarding air-gapped networks. However, Air-Gapped Network, as a whole, is still a new concept for most people. There are a lot of questions, assumptions, and doubts about how it works. Here, on this page, we’ll clear all that, and answer all Air Gap-related FAQs. Let’s learn. 1. What are Air Gaps in Network Architecture and Why they are Important? When the connection between backup data and live data is physically removed, you get what is called an air gap in network architecture. An air gap like this assures that your backup data stays offline and is hence inaccessible to any outside party – making it unreachable for attackers or hackers. With the air gap in network architecture, emphasis is placed on storing data on removable media that can be transported to another secure location. This technology that acts as a firewall between sensitive data and hackers is one of the most effective approaches for thwarting all kinds of cyberattacks. Hence it is considered an important component of a comprehensive data-protected infrastructure. 2. Why Do Certain Businesses Need an Air-Gapped Network? Air gaps networks or computer systems are implemented where the system demands extra security. Take, for example, the payment networks that process transactions for retailers, military networks, or industrial control systems that are used for operating critical infrastructure. Take, for example, infrastructures like power plants. These power plants need computers for operating their industrial systems. But these computers are not exposed to the Internet. In other words, they’re “air-gapped” to enhance security. Since these systems, through air gapping, are not directly connected to the company’s business network, they work well at preventing intruders or hackers from working their way to sensitive systems. A secure air-gapped computer or network means the system is physically isolated from the internet, and data can only be transmitted via removable media such as a USB flash or a firewire connecting two computers directly. The best thing about the air-gapping technology is that it blocks about 100% of malware attacks or hacking breaches made by intruders and yet it’s not an expensive technology. Air Gapping merely requires you to disconnect your computers from the outside world. 3. Who Uses the Air-Gapped Computers/Networks? The answer is simple - security-conscious organizations or enterprises that wish to operate in a high-security environment tend to work with air-gapped computers. Take a look at some more examples of networks or systems that might be air-gapped:   Life-critical systems such as Medical Equipment  Nuclear power plants Aviation Computers such as FADECs and Avionics  Military computer systems and networks Industrial control systems such as SCADA Government computer systems and networks Financial computer systems and networks Payment Networks for Debit or Credit card transactions But, hang on, security concern is not the only use case for an air-gapped network. Here are some other reasons why some businesses opt out of having external network connectivity:   Edge Computing for organizations that wish to conserve bandwidth. Apps can be deployed in areas with a poor internet connection or no connectivity. Salespeople in the field can demo their latest n-tier applications without internet access.   4. Deploying Apps in Air-Gapped Environments Considering the benefits of air-gapping, a lot of organizations are now deploying apps in air-gapped environments. Such apps or systems are managed by being physically plugged into the internal network, although they require an additional step.  Apps deployed in an air-gapped environment are invisible to the internet, and hence to the attackers. Security operations teams create this type of network for incident response. 5. App Deployment with Gravity Gravity facilitates app deployment and portability into air-gapped environments. It’s an open-source solution used by organizations to deploy multi-tier, highly available apps into air-gapped networks, and reduce the operational overload of managing them. In all, Gravity allows you to manage complex apps (in an air-gapped environment) even if you don’t have a remote internet connection. Gravity operates through a YAML file or Helm chart –called a Cluster Image Manifest. Hence, when creating an image, Gravity specifies how applications are installed, updated, and configured, and packages all the dependencies. The cluster creations by Gravity ultimately create a folder with all files and dependencies you need to efficiently set up an air gap application. Furthermore, the gravity clusters are truly identical, they don’t create any configuration drift. Hence, ensuring that all apps deployed are the same regardless of the environment they’re running in. 6. App Deployment through the SDP framework Apps can also be deployed in an air-gapped architecture through software such as the software-defined perimeter (SDP) framework. These apps that ensure air gapping ensure creating an environment that can sometimes be referred to as a method of virtual air gapping. For creating an air gap, the SDP requires authentication of all available external endpoints that are attempting to access internal infrastructure, and in this way, it ensures that the internal IP address is accessible only to authenticated systems. Troop Messenger on Air-Gapped Server 1. Air-Gapped Installs What makes Troop Messenger one of the most secure team chat apps is its ability to operate efficiently in all isolated and air-gapped networks. Security-minded organizations can even use the app without connecting it directly to the internet. As an Air-Gapped install, Troop allows you to keep all network traffic on your private network. 2. Best of the On-Premise World Data-Sensitive entities like Defense are extra-protected when they deploy Troop Messenger’s on-premise delivery model. That way, they are in full control of their data. As an On-Premise, white-label app, Troop Messenger allows them to fully customize, extend or add new functionality as required, and it is completely compliable to Air Gap networking. Simply put, you can run Troop Messenger on your infrastructure – and no one except you owns the data in it. Apps like Slack or MS Teams don’t offer this level of control since you always have to trust the provider of these services. 3. Data Privacy Ensured As a GDPR-compliant app, Troop Messenger ensures data privacy at all times - offering you best of the all worlds irrespective of any delivery mode you opt for. 4. Advanced Level Admin Control On Troop Messenger, admins get an advanced level of control over their team. That way, they are in control of who’s accessing which feature and who’s interacting with whom. Troop Messenger also has a surveillance feature (TM Monitor) that helps admins closely monitor communication happening between team members. 5. Works on low-bandwidth If your team is working in/on low-bandwidth or poor internet connectivity, Troop Messenger helps there too. As an instant messaging software designed especially for the military, Troop Messenger is designed to fit all network types including low-bandwidth. How Difficult Is It to Breach an App Deployed in an Air-Gapped Network? Put simply, it’s extremely challenging for any intruder to invade an app deployed in an air-gapped network and breach the data. We are saying that because one of the most common requirements for all of these attacks is physical proximity, which an Air-gapped system completely undermines. What we mean by physical proximity is being close enough to record and track electromagnetic radiation and also pick up inaudible sound waves. Through air gapping, we create a firewall to stop all of this and more, making hacking very difficult to execute, making it one of the most reliable methods. Conclusion: Mind the Air Gap For some cyber security experts, an air-gapped network is not the most practical security measure, but it certainly works as an ultimate cybersecurity measure. That explains why most of the high-security industries rely on them such as Military applications, financial institutions, power plants, aviation systems, and payment networks to name a few. Creating an air gap sounds easy theoretically (unplug it). However, the real implementation of this Air gap system/network is not as easy as it seems on paper. It is much more difficult. Having said that, we are not ruling out the potential security and bandwidth effectiveness of an air gap network or computer. We’d encourage you to take into consideration of the cost, constraints, and administrative requirements. Advanced technology that offers stringent defense against cyberattacks is the need of the hour since data theft is becoming one of the major issues for businesses. Once an intruder finds a way into your organization’s sensitive data, your businesses can take weeks or even months to recover because all networked data is infected and encrypted, making it useless. And in case, you’re mainly looking for a secure chat app to interact, share documents, collaborate, track, and join/host virtual meetings, try Troop Messenger. Apart from all the essential features, the E2E encrypted chat app works perfectly in an air-gapped network. Hence, when you say ‘security,’ we say Troop Messenger!

Happy employees are both more productive and more likely to remain loyal to the business in the long run, so it makes sense to ensure that the workplace you run is as positive and appealing as possible. To that end, here are just 10 tips that should allow you to improve morale, keep team members satisfied, meet expectations and ensure that everyone feels fulfilled at the end of each day. Table of Contents 1. Optimize onboarding 2. Offer exciting opportunities 3. Ensure safety 4. Harness team-building 5. Embrace employee recognition 6. Encourage social responsibility 7. Allow flexibility 8. Accommodate health and fitness 9. Demonstrate trust 10. Seek out spontaneity Conclusion 1. Optimize onboarding First impressions are formed in an instant, so your approach to enhancing the workplace experience needs to start with a top-tier approach to integrating new hires from the moment they arrive. There are lots of ways to achieve this, from greeting them effectively and introducing them to the rest of the team to checking in regularly to ensure they are getting settled. Just follow these 7 steps for an onboarding process that prioritizes employee wellbeing. 2. Offer exciting opportunities Most people will want to know that the organizations they work for provide a consistent career trajectory to pursue, as this gives them something to aim for and provides meaning and worth to their existing roles. One way to increase engagement and hang onto talented team members is to give them the opportunity to relocate to another office in pursuit of their workplace goals. Of course, planning employee relocation is a process that needs to be taken seriously as there are a lot of factors at play, but for certain people, this will be a major selling point and the key to satisfaction at work. 3. Ensure safety To feel fulfilled and happy, employees also need to feel safe in the workplace, yet injuries are surprisingly common. Each year there are an average of 18.3 injuries per million working people due to falls, slips, and trips in South Dakota alone, so being proactive in your approach to workplace safety is a necessity. This can mean going above and beyond to protect employees, meeting or exceeding industry standards for safety, and ensuring that adequate training is provided to show team members that you care about protecting them. 4. Harness team-building People will feel better about arriving to work each morning if they know and like their colleagues, as well as have confidence in their abilities to communicate and collaborate effectively. Hosting regular team-building events can go a long way toward fostering just such an environment. Once again there are lots of options available, from quiz nights and team drinks to away days and weekend retreats; just pick an approach that fits your business and your budget. 5. Embrace employee recognition Unless employees feel like their efforts are being appreciated, they will likely become disillusioned and will ultimately leave to find greener pastures elsewhere, or else lapse into a rut from which they may never remove themselves. Treating this is simple by formalizing the process of providing recognition to the people you manage. In fact, there are lots of impactful software solutions built around ensuring just that. This is not just about bosses showing their subordinates that they value their contributions, but also about allowing coworkers to pat each other on the back for a job well done. 6. Encourage social responsibility Modern businesses need to view themselves not only in the context of competitors in a marketplace but also as organizations that have a responsibility to the communities they operate within. This is not just a good way of boosting the ethical credentials of a brand in the eyes of customers, but can also help with providing employees with more fulfillment in their roles. By partnering with local charity groups, for example, you can create events and initiatives that team members can contribute to and thus feel part of a wider social tapestry. 7. Allow flexibility While some people are incredibly focused on their careers, most will aim to strike a balance between the responsibilities of their job and their life outside of the office. while this is a crucial part of an employee’s experience at work, options like shift planning show your employees that you value their input and respect their role in your company.   In recent years, being able to offer more flexibility to team members so that they do not feel overly restricted or penned in by their work obligations, to the detriment of their family and social life, has become particularly important. There are several solutions to improving job flexibility, such as allowing home working and remote collaboration, covering childcare costs, increasing vacation day allocations, break times(in which they can just do nothing or play a card game), and more. 8. Accommodate health and fitness Employees who are fit and healthy will also be happy and satisfied, so it makes sense for you to integrate this with the workplace culture. For example, you could lay on nutritious lunches that are available on-site so that staff does not need to scour the surrounding area for something wholesome to eat. As an extension to this initiative, partnering with meal delivery services like HelloFresh could be considered. This way, even if the onsite lunches don't suit everyone's taste or dietary needs, employees still have a vast variety of healthy options directly delivered to the workplace. You could also partner with a local fitness center to provide discounts to employees, or even have on-site facilities for exercise equipment and even classes led by professionals. 9. Demonstrate trust If employees feel like their managers are always watching over their shoulders or getting involved in every tiny detail of what they do, it will seem to them that their superiors place little stock in their abilities. This can lead to frustration, as too much micromanaging is bad for morale and performance can even be hampered through excessive scrutiny. The answer is to trust the people you have recruited to do their jobs well and only provide input and guidance when it is clearly necessary, rather than being an all-encompassing overseer who can potentially stifle creativity and generate consternation. To avoid such issues, you can do proper research about their past work and performance along with a detailed background check. 10. Seek out spontaneity While a routine is necessary for most workplaces, you should also remember that employee happiness can be increased through the careful use of events that break this cycle from time to time. This does not need to be anything particularly outlandish; sometimes the simple step of arranging a meeting to take place in a different location than usual is enough to breathe new life into the office for the day. Conclusion Ultimately it is important to take a multifaceted approach to build a better workplace and put employee happiness at the top of the agenda since the results will be good for individuals and great for the business as a whole as well.   Experiment with a few of the tips provided, see which ones fit your organizational culture, and make adjustments if issues arise. The ability to adapt will be a major asset in any manager who is looking to keep team members content.

Let’s get straight to the point - Why did you click open an article that compares Google Meet, Zoom, and Webex Meeting? You, most probably, want to know which one, out of these three, will be the perfect buy for your business. Or perhaps you have questions about their features, pros and cons, and pricing. In this article, we’ll answer the question everyone is asking in 2023 - What’s the best online conferencing software to use for both personal and business use? But before we dive into the features and pricing, let’s take a quick look at each of these tools and their growth during COVID-19. Table of Contents 1. Zoom vs Google Meet vs Webex: Introduction 2. Free limitations Google Meet vs Zoom vs Webex 3. Security: Google Meet vs Zoom vs Webex 4. Interface & Ease of Use: Google Meet vs Zoom Vs Webex 5. Plans & Pricing: Google Meet vs Zoom Vs Webex 6. Screen Sharing and Controlling: Google Meet vs Zoom vs Webex 7. Call Scheduling: Google Meet vs Zoom vs Webex 8. Data usage: Google Meet vs Zoom vs Webex The Verdict Looking for Alternatives? Try Troop Messenger: Bottom Line 1. Zoom vs Google Meet vs Webex: Introduction  Zoom Zoom will forever be associated with the coronavirus lockdown, which has exploded into the public consciousness after the introduction of social distancing measures. Because of the coronavirus and nationwide lockdowns, Zoom surpassed 300 million daily Zoom meeting participants. That’s up 50 percent from the 200 million the company reported earlier this month and a huge jump from the 10 million back in December.   But a series of missteps have turned some Zoom users away, many of whom may now be considering alternatives like Cisco Webex and Google Meet.  Google Meet Google Meet, previously known as Hangout, is Google’s video conferencing solution.   Amid the pandemic, Google Meet surpassed 50 million downloads. According to Google, Meet’s peak daily usage has grown by 30 times since January 2022. And now, this video conferencing app hosts 3 billion minutes of video meetings every day.  Cisco Webex Meeting Cisco Webex offers one of the most secure video conferencing platforms on the market, making it a very appealing video conferencing solution. When the coronavirus-led lockdowns forced employees to work from home, Webex registered a record 324 million attendees in March and still has usage more than doubling in the Americas. 2. Google Meet vs Zoom vs Webex: Free Limitations Google Meet, Zoom, and Webex - all three video conferencing tools have a free plan, but with certain limitations. Where Google Meet offers a meeting time limit of sixty minutes for its free users, Zoom and Webex each offer 50 and 40 minutes the time limit. This means that free users of these video conferencing solutions can’t hold a conference for more than the stipulated meeting time limit. Furthermore, each of these tools offers a participant size limit of 100. Here’s a tabular analysis of free limitations of Google Meet, Zoom, and Webex Features  Google Meet  Cisco Webex   Zoom Video  Direct Web Access  Yes  No  No  Participants limit  100 100 100 Meeting Time Duration  60 Minutes  50 Minutes  40 Minutes  Screen Sharing  Yes  Yes  Yes  Recording Support  No  No   Yes  Multiple participants on a single screen  Yes  Yes  Yes  Availability  Web, Android, iOS macOS, Android, iOS, and Windows  macOS, Android, iOS, and Windows    Who’s Got an Edge on Free Limits?     Google Meet: With 60 minutes of meeting duration, Google Meet is a step ahead of both Webex and Zoom’s free plan. As for the other features, all three giants are offering pretty much the same services. But if recording support is a priority for your business, Zoom’s free plan may suit your team better because both Webex and Meet don’t offer that in the free plan. 3. Google Meet vs Zoom vs Webex: Security    Google Meet Google Meet is touted as one of the most secure video conferencing tools pertaining to its encryption measures. All Meet data is encrypted in transit by default between the Google and client on both the web browser and iOS or Android apps. Recorded meetings are also stored as encrypted data in Google Drive by default. Google Meet adheres to security standards such as Datagram Transport Layer Security (DLTS), Secure Real-time Transport Protocol (SRTP), and Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).    Cisco Webex Meeting Like Google Meet, the Cisco Webex platform also protects user data by encrypting stored and shared content during meetings. All communication in the Cisco Webex is encrypted both in transit and at rest. It uses the TLS 1.2 protocol for all media streams including VoIP, screen sharing, video calling, and document sharing. Once configured by the users, Webex Meeting protects all user data using SHA-2 protocol and encrypts all passwords for recording and meeting. The files are encrypted with master keys that are based on AES 256 and hardware security modules.  Zoom Zoom has recently been in the limelight for its security concerns. A lot of users reported security breaches and data theft issues. However, Zoom has released the 5.0 version to address such concerns and now uses AES 256-bit GCM encryption to enhance its security standards. Yet, the app is still seeing Zoombombing issues, which calls for more robust security features than the current one. Who’s Got an Edge on Security? Cisco Webex & Google Meet: In terms of Security, both Cisco Webex Meeting and Google Meet wins. Zoom loses many points because of past security issues, and 4. Google Meet vs Zoom Vs Webex: Interface & Ease of Use  Google Meet Google Meet’s interface is simple and clear. Users can start, join, or plan meetings through the right panel of the screen, and the interface has clear buttons that can be used for adjusting the audio, video, and other general settings.   The best thing about Google Meet’s interface is it’s quite sorted. You see very limited options on the start screen and the other options are located at different (but easy to locate places). The clean interface makes Meet very easy to use as compared to other video conferencing tools.    Zoom If a user has already installed the Zoom app, participating in a meeting hardly takes two clicks and five seconds. Even with the web app, it’s so easy to join the meeting. Zoom’s interface is clutter-free. But one aspect that makes it more interesting is that the admins can review information about the participant's connectivity during the call. The host can easily recognize if a participant is having a problem with their internet connection. As for the participants, they can connect and chat with the host. The host has quick access to multiple features such as creating a waiting room, adding new participants, turning on/off participants’ microphones, enabling chat, and more. Despite these many options, Zoom’s interface doesn’t feel overwhelming and one can easily navigate.     Cisco Webex  Cisco’s Webex has a very intuitive interface that looks similar to other services during a phone call. There’s a clear dashboard where you chose to start, join, or plan a meeting. On the right side of the screen, there are options to schedule meetings and review previously scheduled meetings. When you’re planning a conference or meeting via Webex, you can use standard functions such as date, time, and meeting duration, and also send invites to the participants. Furthermore, there’s an option to add meeting agendas as passwords to enable restricted access. Who’s Got an Edge on Interface? It’s a tie: All these three giants exceed in terms of interface. They all focus on making it clear, easy to use, and have a sharp learning curve. 5. Google Meet vs Zoom Vs Webex: Plans & Pricing When it comes to choosing the best video conferencing tool for your business, pricing is the most important aspect. When two tools have relatively similar features, it’s the price that breaks the tie. Companies often look for flexible and cost-effective software that fits their budget and also allows them to scale whenever required.  Google Meet Pricing Google Meet is part of G Suite, which means it's available for free for all businesses having a G Suite subscription. Starting at $10 per user/month, Google offers a basic tier plan of all G Suite apps bundled with a cloud storage capacity of 30 GB. There’s also the Business and Enterprise plan - the $20 per user/month plan offers 1 TB cloud storage, whereas the $25 offers unlimited cloud storage, advanced management options, and enhanced security.  Plan Name Cost  Participant Limit   Meeting Duration  Free $0 100 60 Minutes G Suite Essentials $10 USD per active user/month*  150 300 Hrs  G Suite Enterprise Essentials $20 USD per active user/month*  250 300 Hrs    Zoom Video Conferencing The Zoom starts at $14.99 per month/host for the pro plan - which is considered an ideal plan for a small team of 100 participants and meeting a time limit of 24 hours. Zoom offers the most extensive video conferencing features with the Business tier plan starting at $19.99 per host per month.   Plan Name Cost  Participant Limit Meeting Duration  Basic Free 100 40 Minutes Pro $14.99/mo/host 100 24 Hrs  Business  $19.99 /mo/host 300 24 Hrs  Enterprise  $19.99 /mo/host 500 24 Hrs     Cisco Webex Pricing Like Google Meet, the Webex meeting is also an integrated Webex service. So, if you’re already using Webex solutions, it’s a great choice. Webex has multiple pricing plans named Agile User, Power User, and Modern Workspace. Starting at $16.82 per host per month, the Agile User plan offers unlimited toll dial-in, unlimited meetings, 10 GB of cloud storage, and up to 1000 participants in each meeting. At $40.71 & $55.73 per host per month, the Power User and Modern workspace plan offer additional features such as Cisco video cloud, content management, Webex assistant, and more.   Plan Name Cost  Participant Limit   Meeting Duration  Free $0 100 50 Minutes  Agile User  $16.82 per host per month 1000 24 Hrs Power User $40.71 per host per month  1000 24 Hrs  Modern Workspace  $55.73 per host per month  1000 24 Hrs    Who’s Got an Edge on Pricing?  Google Meet: Comparing the price of these three video conferencing tools is difficult since Zoom as a standalone web/video conferencing app costs much more than Webex and G Suite, which are integrated collaboration suites. At $6 per user/month, G Suite’s Google Meet offers similar features at a cheaper rate. So, when it comes to pricing, Google Meet is the undisputed winner. 6. Google Meet vs Zoom vs Webex: Screen Sharing and Controlling  Google Meet On Google Meet, users can share their whole screen or a specific window, or a Chrome tab during the meeting. Through screen sharing, one can share documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and more. When you share a Chrome tab, it shares the tab’s audio by default. Hence, when you can play an online video as well.        Cisco Webex With Cisco Webex Meeting, one can easily share their device screen with meeting participants. There's an option to choose between sharing the complete screen to a specific app or document such as Powerpoint or MS Word.     What makes Cisco Meetings convenient is anyone in the meeting can share a screen without having to request control. With the screen-sharing features, the control is at the fingertips. Video layouts are also customizable, allowing hosts to easily toggle back and forth from video conferencing to screen sharing.    Zoom Video On Zoom, Screen sharing is both super convenient and cool. There are so many options when it comes to sharing your devices’ content. Zoom gives you the following sharing options when it comes to content sharing:   A specific application Entire desktop or phone screen A portion of your screen Content from a second camera Whiteboard Device audio iPhone/iPad screen     Furthermore, Zoom allows hosts to have a distinct level of control during the meeting. They can enable or disable the participant’s ability to share audio, video, and the screen. For example, in a webinar, only a host, panelists, or co-host can share their screen. Who’s Got an Edge on Screenshots? Zoom Video: Zoom leads way ahead in terms of screen sharing with advanced features such as a whiteboard, content sharing from the second camera, and more. Cisco meeting is great too but when it comes to screen-sharing features, Zoom certainly wins. Google Meet doesn’t have any advanced functionality in terms of screen sharing hence it lags behind here. 7. Google Meet vs Zoom vs Webex: Call Scheduling  Google Meet Google Meet users can start meeting through mobile phones or computers. The G-Suite users can directly sign into their G Suite account, and the non-G-Suite users can log in through their Google account.   On Google Meetings, meetings are scheduled through the Google Calendar app, and a meeting code is generated, which is required for participants to join the meeting. Participants can also join through the shared link.  Webex Cisco Meeting Like Google Meet, Cisco Meeting also enables meeting scheduling. Users can set up both instant meetings and also schedule calls for recurrent meetings. On Cisco, one can start, join, schedule meetings, and assign a host in a few clicks. Once the meeting is scheduled, hosts can send invites and reminders to participants and also set up recurring meetings through the Outlook scheduler.  Zoom Video At Zoom, users get multiple methods to schedule meetings. Zoom host has control over scheduled meeting options except when an admin has locked access. Zoom hosts can schedule meetings from the Zoom web portal, desktop client, mobile app, Outlook add-in, Chrome Calendar extension, and more. Who’s Got an Edge on Call Scheduling? Zoom Video: Since Zoom offers multiple ways to schedule calls, it has an edge over others. Scheduled Zoom meetings can be started at any time before the scheduled time. The meeting links do not expire unless it has not been used for 365 days for a recurring meeting or it has been deleted from the Zoom account. 8. Google Meet vs Zoom vs Webex: Data usage Data Usage is one of the important concerns for many users. The virtual conferences apparently require high-speed internet connectivity and hence consume a large size of data. Let’s take a look at the average data consumed by each of these video conferencing solutions:    Google Meet   Average bandwidth per participant     Meeting type Outbound Inbound HD Video 3.2 Mbps 1.8 Mbps Audio only 12 Kbps 18 Kbps (Source: Google Meet Help) Ideal bandwidth per participant     Meeting type Outbound Inbound 2-person HD video meetings 3.2 Mbps 2.6 Mbps Group video meetings 3.2 Mbps 3.2 Mbps (Source: Google Meet Help)    Zoom Meeting Data Usage in One-on-One Calls: Quality Download  Upload Total High 270MB per hour 270MB per hour 540MB per hour 720p 540MB per hour 540MB per hour 1.08GB per hour 1080p 810MB per hour 810MB per hour 1.62GB per hour   Data Usage in Group Calls: Quality Download  Upload Total High 450MB per hour 360MB per hour 810MB per hour 720p 675MB per hour 675MB per hour 1.35GB per hour 1080p 1.2GB per hour 1.2GB per hour 2.4GB per hour    Webex Meeting The size of a Network-Based Recording (in both ARF and MP4) will vary depending on the features used within the meeting. See the estimated meeting sizes by activity below:   Application/desktop sharing: 110 MB per hour VoIP audio: 30 MB per hour   Video Centric Recording:   360p (High Quality) video: 40 MB per hour 720p (High Definition) video: 220 MB per hour   The Verdict Given how each of these tools has acquired such a significant share in the video conferencing market, it was obvious that the final decision would be based on a small margin. If you’ve read this article thoroughly, you’d know almost all the sub-categories had near-ties. All three have some unique selling points but there can only be one winner. Each of these three video conferencing tools comes with its own list of pros and cons that we have mentioned in the article. With the analysis made above, you can ensure choosing the right video conferencing solution for your business’s requirements.   If you still want to break down the learning further, here’s a table that represents highlights of Google Meet vs Webex vs Zoom, alongside some of the functionalities worth considering when making purchase decisions.   Video Conferencing App Free Version Availability Screen-Sharing Feature  Number of Meeting Participants (Default) Meeting Recording  Google Meet  Yes  Yes  100 Yes   Cisco Webex  Yes  Yes  100 Yes   Zoom  Yes  Yes  100  Yes      Video Conferencing App Per Month Plan  E2E Encryption  Supporting platforms   Google Meet  $13.50 No Android, iOS, Windows, macOS  Cisco Webex  $6.00 Yes Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, Linux  Zoom  $14.99  Yes but users are still complaining of Zoombombing issues   Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, Linux   For companies that are using G-suite, Google Meet clearly the best choice. In Google Meet, features are not limited to video calling or conferencing only, and the best part, you don’t have to pay for any additional charges. Now, if you take a look at the other side of the field, you’ll find Zoom and Webex, where many companies want to avoid Zoom for privacy reasons, but no one can deny its capability as the best video conferencing software. It has got the most extensive feature. So, if Zoom can address the privacy concerns, it will be the best choice for organizations that can afford its comparatively expensive plans. In the middle of the spectrum, there is Webex, which is a good choice if your business is using Cisco solutions. It offers the same functionalities as Meet and Zoom and works aptly. Looking for Alternatives? Try Troop Messenger Well, that was all about Google Meet, Zoom, and Webex. But what if these tools still don’t meet your business requirements? Or perhaps you’d like to consider a few more options before making the final choice.   Considering that, we’d suggest taking a look at Troop Messenger. Though known mainly as an office chat app, Troop Messenger excels as a video conferencing and virtual meeting app as well.   Apart from the many remarkable features such as one-on-one messaging, group texting, secure file sharing, Google Drive, and Dropbox integration, Troop Messenger offers video conferencing and desktop sharing features as well. Cattle Call in Troop Messenger   With its ‘Cattle Call’ feature, Troop lets you have face-to-face work conversations by hosting or joining video conferences. Through cattle call features, hosts can give video access to up to 6 Members and add unlimited members for audio access. During the video conferencing, participants can initiate group chat. There are also options to make participants hosts, add/remove the video of a participant, remove selected users, or request to unmute the participant's audio/video. Screen Sharing in Troop Messenger Like Google Meet, Troop Messenger also lets meeting participants share screens with each other. As one of the most dynamic collaborative chat supporting features, screen sharing allows users to share their screen at the time of chat conversation so the recipient sees the entire real-time desktop screen. Both sender and receiver have the option to stop the screen-sharing session at their respective ends. Bottom Line Putting it all together, we can say Google Meet and Zoom make for ideal video conferencing tools. But if your business needs more than video conferencing or screen sharing, you can try Troop Messenger - an all-around office chat app with all features you need for video conferencing, team communication, enhanced productivity, and real-time collaboration.

If you’re still using emails to exchange work messages,   who better than you can understand the problem of endless email chains, annoying CC’s, and accidental Reply All’s?   While emails have a certain charm,   they’re not the best tool for internal communication.   If you use email for work chat, reviewing all the conversations about a single project requires sifting through multiple email chains.   However, in a dedicated team chat app, you’ll save time by seeing all the conversations and documents about a project in one place — a thread or a channel. What is Team chat Software As the name implies, Team Chat Software enables virtual or remote communication and collaboration between team members. It’s not always possible for employees or employers to be physically present and have face-to-face interaction all the time. These tools let you communicate, share ideas, messages, make video calls, and transfer files from remote places Here’s what Benjamin Sternsmith, Area Vice President of Sales, Lyft Business says about using Email for office messaging: “You can’t have a good conversation over email – it’s not quick enough. Coming together in a team chat app, channels or threads allows us to easily discuss day-to-day management topics. That’s invaluable.”   Team Chat Software's: Benefits & features   1. What Are The Benefits Of Team Chat Software? 2. What Makes a Great Team Chat App?   The choice is simple. You could get buried in endless email threads.   Or you could get work done in team chat apps (in real-time). While team chat software allows teams to enable seamless communication, the right tool and its smart use can really help them zoom past the competition.   Part of this is about higher efficiency and better productivity. With a centralized workspace, conversation and collaboration happen faster —Got a query while you’re at work? Type a short text, get an equally short response, and get back to work.   Team chat apps also assure that all team members can participate in, or at least, review relevant conversations, while also ignoring files or text that aren’t relevant to them.   Hence, more and more businesses today are looking for digital solutions for team communication and collaboration. Take a look at these numbers:  According to a Statista 2016 worldwide Survey, 53 percent of businesses, globally, had onboarded their employees on a common team collaboration tool. Since then, this number only increased A Gartner study predicted that the team chats app market will reach $4.9 billion by 2021 and by 2022, 70% of teams will rely on work chat apps to get their work done every day — and thanks to COVID-19, businesses have already moved to the technology frontier. According to Cisco’s cognitive collaboration study, “9 out of 10 workplaces are willing to adopt a cognitive collaboration solution “as soon as possible!”   Team Chat Software's: 2020 Tools   1. Troop Messenger 2. slack 3. Microsoft Teams 4. Mattermost 5. Samepage 6. Rocket Chat 7. Google-Chat 8. Ryver 9. Discord 10. Podium 11. Teamwork Chat 12. HeySpace   All in all, team messaging apps are no longer limited to organizing team conversations and searching topics but have become a way of life too. And I know you’ve learned that too, or why else would you still be here? Dozens of internal messaging applications are available, and they can cut down the overwhelm of email and also eliminate a lot of the headache. But with so many apps out there, it can be hard to know which one you should use. In this article, we’ll help you cut through the clutter and walk you through our picks for the best team chat software currently on the market. We reviewed and tested over twenty-eight team chat apps, and these eleven are the ones we'd recommend.   Team Chat Software's: How To Pick   1. How To Pick The Best Business Chat App For Your Team? 2. How Do You Use Team Chat Applications 3. Can Admin see The Team or WorkChat 4. Putting it All Together   But before we jump to the tools section, let’s answer some of the FAQs about office chat programs, their usage, features, and more. Q1. What Are The Benefits Of Team Chat Software? Well, we already know remote collaboration tools are crucial for businesses to operate remotely. But there’s more to business chat tools than meets the eyes. Below are some of the proven benefits of using chat room software for your business:   Improved Communication Between Team Members:  No points for explaining, the team chat software is designed to improve communication. With features such as instant messaging, calling, voice recording, file sharing, and screen sharing, communication between team members is never compromised. Internal messaging that combines different modes of communication and information exchange into one thread or channel, can that can easily be integrated with other office tools, is important for reducing the distraction of app-switch or task-switching. With these tools at hand, access to shared updates, information, and project links becomes faster as well. An ideal work chat app will be available across multiple OS and devices so that whether your teammates love Android or apple, they won’t be left out. Better Employee Management: Needless to say, best group chat apps are the ones that allow teams to monitor and track employee’s progress with visuals, graphs, and analytics. In this way, these tools increase employee engagement, and hence, boost an individual’s productivity too. Features such as effective internal communication, actionable feedback, and user generated solutions through idea boards and forums, and real-time access to information builds a more engaged, informed, and connected workforce — all the things a team needs to bridge the disconnect between remote employees and managers.   Streamlined Workflow: The whole point of using these tools is easing the work and organizing it. With workplace chat apps, team members can schedule meetings, discuss current tasks, ask for feedback, and plan ahead. In short, streamline it all. The ability to share files, add tasks, and integrate other apps also streamlines workflow by making everything accessible within one application. It also helps teams to share and redistribute workloads more effectively. Take, file sharing feature, for example that allows you to use file hosting, sharing, and storage services of your choice without leaving the app. The best team chat apps include dynamic filter and search functions and let teams refer to files, texts, and multimedia easily. Effective Project Management: Proper communication is directly proportional to effective project management. When teams communicate effectively, they not only reduce the chances of errors or confusion but also pave the way for timely project delivery. Quality team communication software has the best features to increase efficiency of project management. At any given time, you and your team can communicate with coworkers and create to-do lists for projects and request information on the status. With a good team communication software, your teams can make collaboration easier and streamline business processes. It cuts the need for constant meetings since users can ask questions and access the right information anytime, with a few clicks. Increase Accountability: When an admin has in-place a set of instructions and regulations for employees to review tasks, update managers on their progress, get reminders of the ETD, it all increases accountability and increases team member’s sense of responsibility. Q2. What Makes a Great Team Chat App? While instant messaging and calling are the selling points of most office chat apps, these features alone don’t make such tools great. The best team chat apps are the ones that have these following functionalities:   1. One-Stop Unified Communication Via Organised Channels: Keeping track of correspondence, third-party vendors, and company data is overwhelming when team communication is spread out across different platforms or modes — emails, phone calls, and text messages. An ideal team chat app centralizes all of the internal communication into one unified space for better employee experience. The best team chat apps unifies and organizes conversations in a way that enables easy access to information by the right people at the right time. Some messages or documents need to be seen by everyone in the team, and others need to happen at an individual or group level. A team chat app takes care of this — through features that allow admins to add or remove team members only in the threads, groups, or channels relevant to them. 2. Option to Collaborate with Vendors, Suppliers, & Freelancers: Besides the internal messaging features, a great team chat app allows you to securely connect with vendors, suppliers, clients, and freelancers without posing your company a threat of security breach and information misuse. Through this feature, you can limit the vendor/client’s access to specific contacts, features, and information. Take, for Example, Troop Messenger, it has an ‘Orange Member’ feature using which admins can invite anyone outside of their internal team. These orange members can be prospective clients, vendors, suppliers, or freelancers. Admins also have the privilege to set conditions for an orange member and decide the features, contacts, and information accessible to them.   3. Advanced Search with Filtering Features When it comes to managing communication and collaboration on team chat apps, I don’t think there’s anything that could be more frustrating than finding a particular text, document, or link that was shared months ago. When you have a team of, let’s say, 200 members, can you scan through all the conversations to find a document that was shared one month ago? Without appropriate filters, you’ll only end up overwhelmed with the amount of information that’s exchanged in the workplace chat app. With universal search or advanced filtering features, your team can quickly find past conversations for relevant information. Take, for example, Slack and Troop Messenger — both these interoffice messaging apps have advanced filters that make searching super easy. Where Slack allows you to use search modifiers for making searching easy, Troop Messenger has different types of filters to serve the same purpose — Filter by Image, Video, File, Link, Contact, Location, Read Receipt, Respond Later, and Flag.   4. Easy to Control and Navigate This is perhaps the basic one. But would you ever consider onboarding your team or employees on a work instant messenger that has a clunky interface or too steep a learning curve? I bet not. An office messenger that lacks good navigation is counterproductive and will probably result in frustration. Your members need to be able to navigate through the dashboard, conversations, integrations, and files easily. For this, the user interface must be neat, clean, and without unnecessary clutter. 5. Rich API directory or Integrations  Now this one is as important as others mentioned above, or perhaps more, if your team requires access to multiple apps to accomplish the projects. For example, you may need access to Google Drive or Dropbox where all your files are stored. Now, normally, if you’d be using a basic chat app, you’ll have to switch to Google Drive or Dropbox to access those files. But with an office messaging app, you can access, edit, or share the files from many more apps without switching between apps. 6. High Security & Privacy Chat With the constant data theft, system hacks, and security breaches that data-sensitive companies get subjected to, it’s important for employers to implement a highly-secure, E2E Encrypted team chat application. Most of the popular remote collaboration tools now offer a highly secure medium for teams to communicate and collaborate while meeting the ever-changing security and compliance needs. For example, Mattermost uses TLS encryption for both in-transit and at-rest data transmission. Another security feature that’s grabbing headlines is Troop Messenger’s Privacy Chat feature where two individuals can chat in an incognito window that expires after a stipulated time, and the data isn’t stored anywhere. These 11 team chat software, in our opinion, are the only tools in the market that offer the best balance of all these great features. 11 Team Chat Software for a Chat-Powered Workplace  Troop Messenger  - Feature Rich Team Chat App Supported Platform: Windows, Web, Android, Linux, Mac OS, and iOS. Highlights: Some of the features that make Troop Messenger a robust team chat app is custom administrative control, option to add guests (orange members), privacy chat in a confidential window, and Self-hosting options. Summary: With Troop Messenger, teams collaborate on a single interface through features such as — one-on-one conversations, group conversations, audio messaging, voice-video calls, screen sharing, forkout, and integrations. It is one of the strongest team chat apps in terms of features. You get access to all the chat app functionalities and also an option to compartmentalize collaboration through ‘forkout’ and ‘orange member’ features. Through Forkout, you can send messages to select groups or people, at once, by filtering out people who the text is not relevant for. And via, Orange member feature, you can add third party members/vendors/freelancers by allowing them restricted access to the app. Troop Messenger allows you to integrate with Google Drive, JIRA, GitHub, LDAP, Dropbox and if you want more, you can build automations with the APIs. Robust security, fingerprint access, End-to-End encryption add up to its list of features. The tool has a ‘privacy chat’ (Burnout) feature that allows users to chat confidentially in an incognito window where chat history gets deleted after the stipulated time. Also, Troop Messenger has a generous pricing plan for both the self-hosting and SaaS delivery models — starting as low as $1 per user/month. So Troop Messenger could be a great deal for budget-conscious organizations.    Slack - Powered Workplace Chat App Supported Platform: iOS, macOS, Linux, Android, Windows, and Web Highlights: Slack, popularly known as team messaging free app, covers your instant messaging basics while supporting seamless integrations, file sharing, and video calling. Summary: Launched in 2013, Slack is ahead in the team chat apps space. It has been praised for having over 2000 integration, a very powerful search capability, and intuitive UX. On Slack, each team has a general channel where they interact for group/mass communication. But, usually, the day-to-day conversations happen in specific channels created according to the project or task. Team members can dedicate any of the channels they want to be in and receive notifications from. Furthermore, Slack makes searching very convenient with the multiple search modifiers that team members can use to filter through the conversations and find what they need. Useful features like drag-and drop file sharing, clever design, one-click audio or video call, and emoji reactions make Slack a favourite team chat app. However, some users call their interaction with this chat app a love-hate relationship. It’s mainly because notifications aren’t as easy to handle. Bulks of channels mean bulk of notification, and that can both overwhelm and confuse the users. Furthermore, Slack’s biggest downside is its pricing — most competitors and users highlight that it doesn’t come as a part of a broader software bundle and yet, Slack charges more than a standalone app should. Take a look at the pricing:  Microsoft Teams - Popular Team Chat App Supported Platform: iOS, macOS, Linux, Android, Windows, and Web Highlights: Some of the best features of MS teams include online meeting and video calling, real-time collaboration with Office 365 apps, background blur, and screen sharing. Summary: MS Teams brings together all your team members in a shared workspace where they can chat, call, and collaborate on documents and apps. In MS teams, every team is divided into different channels. Discussions or conversations in these channels are further forced into threads — breaking chats down yet another level. In short, there’s hierarchy that helps maintain a tidy interface. Key features of Microsoft Teams are audio and video calls. Users can schedule meetings ahead and also hop on to spontaneous conferences or calls — and the best part, all these features are available in the freemium version. There’s also an option to record the meeting, however, this feature is only available for paid users. And needless to day, the key emphasis is tight integration with MS Office 365 Suit, using which all teams can collaborate on documents, appointments, notes, calendars, and more. At the same time, Microsoft Teams has a it’s own downfall. It’s tricky to set up. You’d need to hire a dedicated IT staff to implement it for your workplace chat, but considering the size of companies MS Teams is built for, that shouldn’t be much of a barrier. Mattermost -  Self-Hosted Team Chat Supported Platform: iOS, macOS, Linux, Android, Windows Highlights: What sets Mattermost apart from other competitors is multi-factor authentication, Enterprise grade security, custom branding, and threaded messaging. Summary: If you’re too conscious about your team’s conversations and can’t risk others spying on your chats by hosting them on a third-party server, I think you’d love mattermost. It’s an open source app, which means, team can install it on their own company’s servers. It’s one of the most feature-rich self-hosted team chat apps we came across. Mattermost’s basic features include One-to-one and group messaging, unlimited search history, and file sharing. In mattermost, conversations are segmented into different channels and threads break them further. Search feature, with multiple filters, is complete and useful. The interface looks somewhat like Slack — even the keyboard shortcuts, modifiers, and emoji reactions are essentially the same.  Samepage - Threaded Team Chat App Supported Platform: Windows, Android, iOS, and macOS   Highlights: Built for remote teams, Samepage allows co-workers to write, chat, call, collaborate, and manage projects via one centralised space. Summary: Samepage, as one of the most promising team communication apps, facilitates collaboration, chat, project management, running meetings, video conferencing, and real-time document collaboration. Businesses are using Samepage to participate in real time brainstorming sessions and collaborate via spreadsheets, diagrams, videos, images, text, task board. Samepage chat directly integrates with it’s collaborative canvas that keeps conversations and canvas together, prevents teams from losing track of discussions and work in real-time to produce better results. Apart from the team communication features, Samepage offers calendars and tasks to keep projects moving forward through kanban boards, sheets, mind maps, pages, and agendas. Tasks can be assigned to co-workers according to priority level, recurrences reminders, and with due dates.   Rocket Chat: Omnichannel Team Chat App Supported Platform: iOS, Linux, Android, Windows, and macOS Highlights: RocketChat highlights include automatic real-time message translation, admin transparent, and asynchronous team chat. Summary: RocketChat is one of the most popular open-source and free interoffice messaging apps in the market. It allows team members to collaborate via real-time file sharing, chatting, and audio or video conferencing. The app segments chats into public channels, private channels, and direct messages. It has standard instant messaging features like emoji, @mentions, file uploads or sharing, and GIFs. But the main factor that differentiates RocketChat from other team chat software like Slack or MS Teams is it is completely open source — which means if your team has software development skills, they can change the app and customize it however you prefer. Another exciting feature of RocketChat is it includes an impressive multilingual support and also lets you integrate the Google Translation API to facilitate real-time translation of texts. These translations are obviously not 100% correct but they still help a great deal for companies dealing with global clients.    Google Chat - For G-Suite Team Supported Platform: Android, iOS, macOS, and Web Highlights: Some highlights of Google Chat includes screen sharing, HD group conferencing calls, and custom administrative controls. Summary: Earlier named ‘Hangouts Chat,’ this collaboration app by Google is a free group chat app for business owners and entrepreneurs who want basic workplace chat features like texting, audio, and video calling, and file sharing. It’s offered to G Suite customers at no additional cost. In Google chat, conversations are broken into threads, that creates a clutter-free chat space. Teams are allowed to add as many rooms as they wish, and users can join or leave them whenever they wish. Where Google Chat really shines is the option to organize a meeting via Google Meet and scheduling it through Google Calendar. Search is also strong — there are a wide range of filters and results appear in real-time as you type. Google Chat’s only drawback as a team chat app is the interface. It could work more on design. Some simple tasks like reviewing lists of public rooms are buried behind multiple clicks. But it’s a solid choice if your team already has G-Suite.    Ryver - The project-focused Team Chat App Supported Platform: iOS, Windows, Mac, and Android   Highlights: Some of the highlights include screen-sharing, clear audio, and video, automated daily process, and the option to add details in tasks through tags, checklists, and assignments.   Summary: Ryver is an easy-to-use, intuitive team chat app that brings all your workplace communications in one place. It’s USP is the proprietary ART that eliminates slow, error-prone human response with AI-powered automated response. In Ryver, chats are organised into Teams, People Forums, which are indirectly Channels, direct messages, and group messages. Within each Ryver group, there are segments such as Chats, Tasks, and Topics — Chats, as we know is instant messaging, Topics means threads for different types of discussions, and tasks are kanban-style boards where teams can organize, create, and complete different tasks. In Ryver, you’ll find other essential features of a team chat app, but this app, mainly, is an attempt to integrate project management features within the team chat programme.  Discord: For Team Chat for Communities  Supported Platform: iOS, Windows, Mac, and Android Highlights: Discord, now also known as a team discussion app, is mainly developed for gamers. But with it’s outstanding screen sharing and video calling capabilities, it’s being used for different businesses for remote collaboration. Summary: Discord now has a lot of communication or collaboration specific features but it works as a team chat app for one solid reason: excellent audio and video quality. The app has text channels the same as app team chat apps but there’s no option to segment the conversations within channels. Discord USP is the voice channel or audio chats where users can go for on-phone calls and switch back to texting whenever needed. Discord’s audio quality makes it a great pick for teams that need to speak frequently over the phone call. The app also offers an option to opt-out of sound sharing during a video call or screen sharing. You can opt-in or opt-out of sound sharing by toggling the sound icon between Off and On. Furthermore, the screen sharing features with multiple participants make it even more suited for remote businesses. There’s an option to swap from screen share to video. At any time during the conversation, you can swap between the two. When swapping your computer screen, you can opt for which monitor screen to share. You can also opt for sharing only a specific application window.  Podium: Messaging Tool for Local Business Supported Platform: Windows, Android, Linux, and macOS Highlights: Podium is a convenient team chat and collaboration tool that facilities employee interaction and communication with features such as DMs, Group messaging, and file sharing. Summary: To keep the conversations organised, the podium uses threads. What sets it apart from other apps is that it lets you keep all your messages from Google, SMS, Facebook messenger into one central space — which means you can respond and manage each message from a single platform. While sending messages, users have an option to choose from ready-to-send options or choose their own templates. There’s also an option to send automated messages, assign conversations, and set permissions to give right people access to the right conversation or files. The video conferencing feature in Podium is implemented via a third-party service. The app has no freemium version, and there’s no pricing plan as such. You’ve to get in touch with them and share your teams’ requirements to get a pricing quote. Pricing: Custom plans as per business’s communication needs  Teamwork - Teamwork Chat App Supported Platform: Android, Windows, MacOS, iOS   Highlights: With Teamwork Chat, you can bring all your team members to one centralised space where they can collaborate through better group communication, discuss feedback and solve problems. Summary:  Teamwork chat lets you turn messages into tasks and turn communication into workflows across the organization. With one centralised space for team members to share ideas and receive feedback, teams on Teamwork can reach a consensus faster, and also make better decisions. The app has an intuitive layout and features for a team communication app. Speaking of pricing, Teamwork chat offers an affordable package, especially compared to other team chat apps available in the market. Teamwork Chat pays attention to user privacy and data security as well. Furthermore, you can also integrate Teamwork chat with other apps you love. What I love about Teamwork Chat is its DND feature — it allows users to remove all distractions by muting all the push, desktop notifications, and email so you won’t be interrupted Teamwork chat also has features such as dedicated project channels where teams can share ideas, resolve issues, and make informed decisions to keep the project moving forward. You can also star the channels to bookmark conversations for easy access.   HeySpace - All-in-One Chat App Supported Platform: Windows, macOS, Ubuntu, Android, iOS   Highlights: Collaboration tool for communication and project management for teams of all sizes.   Summary:  HeySpace combines two functions - communication and task management, which allows you to save time and better manage your team. The communication feature is very extensive, because it offers direct communication, in groups, in Spaces (i.e. in projects), and in the chat module of each task. Thanks to this, there is order, and only people interested in the topic participate in the conversations.   The application allows you to set private and public Spaces, and to mention the person with the @ sign. In addition, you can vote with emotes, send gifs, add files and quickly convert messages to a task when one of your colleagues comes up with a great idea.   HeySpace, as mentioned above, offers task management based on the Kanban methodology. Each project is a separate Space with chat, board, list, calendar, and timeline views. The form of tasks was adopted by cards in which you can include all important information, such as a description, checklist, files, start, and end dates, and assign people.   HeySpace is a straightforward and quick tool to learn. It allows you to improve communication and strengthen relationships in the team.   Some More FAQs about Team Chat Software How To Pick The Best Business Chat App For Your Team? Well, there’s no button-solution for this one. At the end of the day, choosing the best team chat app depends on your team’s requirements and collaboration needs. Let’s say, Team A needs to integrate multiple apps to accomplish its projects. So, in this scenario, they’d need a tool that allows seamless integration with third party apps — hence, Slack should be their go-to tool. Similarly, if Team B requires to collaborate frequently with vendors or suppliers, but cannot risk making them a part of the internal team, then they’d need an app that allows the feature to add guest members — hence, Troop Messenger should be the choice. Now, if Team C requires basic instant messaging and file sharing features but cannot afford monthly or yearly cost, then they can opt for a free group chat app — Google Chat can be a safe option. All in all, the selection of the best business chat app depends on your needs. So, if you want to choose one that fits the bill, you follow the five-step approach: Make a list of essential features your team needs  Read about the features, pros, and cons of the best team chat app  Compare who’s offering what, and ask the service provider for a trial  Onboard your team on the selected app for a month, and seek feedback about the ease of use from everyone If all members find the app helpful and convenient, purchase the monthly/yearly subscription   How Do You Use Team Chat Applications Well, using a team chat app or onboarding teammates is pretty easy in most of the remote collaboration tools. Thankfully, all the eleven tools mentioned above have dedicated videos, guides, and tutorials that make onboarding easy and ‘learning how to use the app’ even easier. Just add the phrase ‘How to Use’ before your favorite team chat app, and browse Google, you’ll find guides and videos right away. For example, Troop Messenger has a rich directory of all the How-tos, FAQs, and Videos on using the app effectively. Similarly, if you want to learn about using Slack or Mattermost, you can find heaps of useful guides and videos online. Can Admin see The Team or WorkChat It depends from app to app. Where some team chats software allows admins to access all DMs exchanged between team members, others won’t. For example, in Slack, team owners can request access to the whole Slack message history, including the direct messages and private channels. Similarly, in Troop Messengers, admins can track and monitor message exchanges between employees by enabling TM Monitor for a specific time period.   Putting it All Together Some of the team communication apps out there are foundational -- things like instant messaging, audio or video conferencing, file sharing, and CRM. However, other group communication apps are more specialized, with features such as confidential chat windows, project management tools, vendor collaboration, time tracker, and more. I hope this article helped you differentiate between such apps and learn what’s good, better, or the best. The ultimate choice, obviously, depends on your company’s communication & collaboration requirements, your team's strength, and the budget.  

Studies show that 70% of people around the world work remotely at least once per week. To accommodate that, most businesses started using enterprise collaboration software to improve remote communications. There’s no reason government agencies shouldn’t follow the private sector’s model, especially since it would offer taxpayers a more efficient public sector. Not to mention it would also be a great way to handle the new wave of remote working in the public sector brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. There’s no exact data telling us how many public sector employees work remotely now, but it’s already happening in places like Canada, Australia, the US, and beyond. If you’re not 100% sure you need collaboration software in your agency, keep reading. We’ll go over the perks and show you how two tools (Huddle and Troop Messenger) can help.   How Collaboration Tools Benefit Government Agencies Here are the main benefits of using collaboration software while working remotely:   Increased Efficiency: Collaboration software lets your teams communicate in seconds, even though they’re not in the same building (or even the same country). It saves a lot of time by streamlining communications, project management, and task delegation. Basically, it cuts down on what taxpayers hate the most: bureaucracy. For example, you don’t need to go through endless email threads to monitor multiple projects simultaneously. You can just track their progress on a platform with a user-friendly interface. Similarly, you can offer feedback instantly, and everyone working on said projects can see it. No need to go through different people or channels to get a simple idea across.   At the same time, no more time will be wasted on keeping track of important documents and edits. Instead of going through countless emails until you find the file you need, you can just use advanced search functions to locate it quickly.   Furthermore, collaboration software lets you work together with your team on a document at the same time. Instead of waiting an hour or two until you get the document to review it, you can just co-edit it to save time.   Cost Savings: By increasing efficiency, you automatically end up saving money too. Government agencies and internal teams/departments will have a much easier time focusing on the right projects (the ones that benefit the public the most), and making sure they are successful.   Your entire agency will be able to come up with and validate ideas on the spot. Communication and feedback are instant, and all the decisions are based on real-time interactions. Plus, people in leadership positions and subordinates can plan job duties together while they’re miles apart. We’re talking about: Coming up with workflow strategies. Performing QA (Quality Assurance) and QC (Quality Control). Handing off assignments and submitting results. Reviewing best practices. And they can do that while being miles apart. No more money wasted on travel expenses (gas, food, drinks, accommodations, etc.).   Huddle & Troop Messenger – Two Excellent Options With so many services on the market, picking the right collaboration software can be tough – especially if you’re new to this. To make things simple for you, we narrowed it down to two very decent solutions: Huddle and Troop Messenger.   How Huddle Platform helps Government  Huddle is a nice tool that offer secure and efficient document collaboration (among other things). It’s a very decent solution for any government agency looking to improve team collaboration and document management. In a nutshell, here’s how you can use it to boost productivity and security: Huddle lets you share files securely thanks to its strong encryption and access controls. It’s much easier than sharing them through USB sticks and safer than sharing them through consumer-grade file sharing apps. The solution is cloud-based, so it enables multi-agency collaborations. Everyone can use it, and nobody has to default to unsafe file sharing methods.Document management is extremely straightforward. Employees can easily submit and fulfill document requests, track document activity, and collaborate on the documents remotely. Huddle’s secure infrastructure lets you safely collaborate with external partners, such as suppliers from the private sector. Huddle offers automatic version control, meaning everyone in your agency always has access to the latest version of a document. Employees can easily co-edit a document and see who viewed it thanks to Huddle’s time-stamped activity logs. Huddle is an all-in-one solution for document management, file sharing, and storage, meaning there are no hidden maintenance fees or expensive integrations. In fact, Huddle could even be the app to help you save money. How Troop Messenger Software helps Government  Troop Messenger is an instant messaging platform which can be your Government app that’s chock-full of features yet is very simple to use. At a glance, here’s how it can improve internal and external communications for your agency: The service offers strong data protection – encryption and three-level security (user credentials, passcode, and fingerprint). Overall, you can fully secure cross-department communications. Troop Messenger a slack alternative lets you add external contacts to your communication channels. When you do that, you can assign specific permissions and restrictions to make sure they don’t compromise valuable data and your employee’s privacy. The Forkout feature lets you instantly message individual users simultaneously. Much more efficient than creating a new chat group with specific employees just to notify them about a document or to send them an announcement. Troop Messenger offers live chat APIs which you can use to better communicate with the people in your state/province.Thanks to its advanced search filters, you can instantly find the file or message you are looking for. You can look them up by keywords, time filters, links, images, videos, file, and location. You can even Self-host Troop Messenger on your own cloud or physical servers to get an extra layer of security. If you want things further personalized, you can request Troop Messenger developers to design a custom app that meets all your advertising agency needs and saves you money since, since you’ll shave off the cost of all the features you won’t be using.. And best of all – Troop Messenger offers 100% scalability. If your agency grows or departments merge, the platform doesn’t require any redesigns to adapt. If you’d like to see Troop Messenger in action, and read a comprehensive review of the service, follow this link.   Conclusion: The public sector can’t afford to ignore team collaboration software anymore – especially during this pandemic. It needs to catch up to the private sector and start using these tools to improve efficiency (and save money at the same time). One easy way to do that is to start using Huddle and Troop Messenger in your organization. They significantly streamline project management, file sharing, and communication.

Do you need confusion about selecting the appropriate Microsoft Teams pricing plan suitable for business and adhering to its requirements? This blog evaluates its pricing plans, which will help make an informed decision. Table of Contents What is Microsoft Teams? Is Microsoft Teams free? Is Microsoft Teams really free for Business? Quick Comparison of Pricing Plans: India vs the United States MS Teams Growth During COVID-19 Q1: How many members are allowed with its free plan? Q2: Is Microsoft Teams offering unlimited file Storage? Q3: What is Microsoft Team's free meeting time limit? Q4: What is Microsoft Teams Meeting Recording Limitations? Summing Up What is Microsoft Teams? Microsoft Teams is undoubtedly one of the best team chat applications available today. As the self-explanatory brand name suggests, Microsoft developed it, and it is currently one of the top team chat apps available. During the pandemic, there was a surge in the number of users transited from other instant messaging services from educational institutions and sales businesses. Zoom only allowed for 40 minutes, whereas Microsoft Teams' free download model allowed for up to 100 individuals with a 60-minute time limit. Like any team chat app, it is available for multiple platforms like iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS, including Microsoft Teams download for pc. Is Microsoft Teams free? That’s what Microsoft Teams has been saying since they announced their remote collaboration app as a ‘Free’ tool. Microsoft Teams pricing has become quite a buzz. By consistently claiming to offer all the core features of Microsoft Teams' free plan, Troop Messenger aims to answer the common question of hundreds of prospective users: Is Teams free? The aforementioned details provide a response to this query. Is Microsoft Teams really free for Business? Is Microsoft Teams free to use? Evey, a general user, is hugely contemplating this question. If you want to know how Microsoft Teams' free plan can facilitate schools, then you are in the right place. Microsoft certification training maximizes productivity with Microsoft Teams. You don't need Office 365 to use the MS Team app, and you don't need a license to use Microsoft Teams.  I won’t say that Microsoft Teams is misleading its users with the tagline, but it's safe to say the statement is vague. With the foregoing in mind, you may feel that MS Teams is free. To answer your query, you can open a free Teams account. With that said, the Team Free account has some limitations compared to other Microsoft Teams subscription plans. Below are some of the cons pertaining to the Microsoft Teams free version. Which answer would be, is Teams free for personal use? If so, to what extent:   The storage limit in the free plan is 5 GB per user. This space fills so quickly that you’d have to upgrade eventually. Free plans have poor downtime. No guarantee of 99.9% Uptime, unlike the paid plans. With the free plan, you cannot record meetings. There’s a limit to the number of people that can be added. And there’s more.   I’ll go through how much a Microsoft Teams subscription costs later in this blog. But let’s take a look at how COVID-19 has impacted Microsoft Teams’ usage and growth. Quick Comparison of Pricing Plans: India vs the United States Here, is the comparison between Microsoft Teams plans for both India and the United States - I hope it will answer your query ' Do you have to pay for Microsoft Teams?    India Microsoft Teams (free) Microsoft 365 Business Basic(formerly Office 365 Business Essentials) Microsoft 365 Business Standard(formerly Office 365 Business Premium) Office 365 E3 Free Rs. 125.00 user/month Rs. 660.00 user/month Rs. 1, 320.00 user/month    United States Microsoft Teams (free) Microsoft 365 Business Basic(formerly Office 365 Business Essentials) Microsoft 365 Business Standard(formerly Office 365 Business Premium) Office 365 E3 Free $5.00 user/month $12.50 user/month $20.00 user/month   MS Teams Growth During COVID-19   Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the sudden shift toward the work-from-home model, MS Teams passed 75 million daily active users in April 2020 with its Microsoft Teams free account. According to the data economy, Microsoft recorded 12 Million new users since remote workers increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. Here’s what Jared Spataro, Corporate Vice President for Microsoft 365, said about the influx of customers:   “It is very clear that enabling remote work is more important than ever and that it will continue to have lasting value beyond the COVID-19 outbreak. 20 customers have more than 100,000 employees actively using Teams, including Ernst & Young, SAP, Pfizer, and Continental AG, as well as Accenture, which has 440,000 employees actively using Teams.” Considering the high demand and to show support during these unprecedented times, Microsoft decided to update some of their Microsoft teams' plans, especially the free plan. But the question is: "Do Microsoft Teams cost money?" I am sure this question may have appeared silly, but the preceding question is worth referring to. Is Microsoft Teams' free plan worth it? What features can you use in the free version? What are the limitations of the new updated free plan? I’ll answer all that and more in this article. Let’s begin with key features and how they are different for both free and paid customers: Q1: How many members are allowed with its free plan? Maximum Members The maximum member limit is probably the first thing that comes to an admin’s mind before deciding which remote collaboration app to use. Let’s take a look at Teams, which are free and paid. Microsoft Teams Paid If you have a large organization, MS Teams’ paid plan works fine. As per MS Teams pricing plans, there’s no limit to the number of users that can be added. All in all, its maximum users are potentially unlimited with the enterprise plan. Microsoft Teams Free The maximum member limit for free teams was previously 300, but Microsoft recently increased it to 500,000 users per organization. This update addresses the question of whether Teams is free.   “Microsoft revealed that Teams now support an increase to 5,000 members per team. The new maximum will help large organizations like Accenture (the largest user of Teams).” Q2: Is Microsoft Teams offering unlimited file Storage? File Storage At Microsoft Teams, files shared in a channel are stored in the team's SharePoint folder. These files can then be found in the files tab of each channel. Files shared in the group chat or private chat are stored in the OneDrive folder. This can be found in the files tab on a conversation. Microsoft Teams Paid To its paid users, MS Teams provides storage of 1 TB per user.   Microsoft Teams Free When it comes to Microsoft Teams' cost, free users are provided with a storage space of 2 GB per user, along with an additional 10 GB of shared space. However, this allocation may not be sufficient, leading to requests for upgrading to access more storage. Q3: What is Microsoft Team's free meeting time limit? Video Conferencing With Microsoft Teams, you can elevate your meetings to the next level by utilizing web, audio, and video conferencing capabilities across various devices of your preference.   By leveraging Microsoft Teams, you can enhance the effectiveness of your meetings through the seamless sharing of context and content, along with the option to utilize AI for assistance. Furthermore, you can enjoy the same level of compliance and security provided by Microsoft 365. Don't overlook this category, as it will familiarize you with Teams' free meeting limit.   Microsoft Teams Paid Apart from hosting video, audio, and web conferences, paid users get more features like note-taking, screen sharing, instant messaging, and meeting scheduling. As per Microsoft Teams pricing plans, they can hold large meetings, presentations, and company-wide events with up to 10,000 attendees.   The video conferencing function, which is the most common use, has a time limit of 8 hrs. Microsoft Teams Free When it comes to video conferencing, there are a few limitations for Microsoft Teams' free users. For example, the free plan lacks core features such as meeting recording and phone calls. And for the live events, only 250 attendees are allowed if you’re hosting the meeting via a free account. Q4: What is Microsoft Teams Meeting Recording Limitations? Meeting Recording With MS teams, you can record the meetings by capturing them through screen sharing activity and audio and video features. The recorded videos are stored in the cloud and saved into Microsoft Stream. Microsoft Teams Paid Recording the meetings is simple in Microsoft Team. You simply have to host or join a meeting. Once the meeting starts, you can go to:   Meeting controls > More options > Start recording   MS teams allow users to record group calls and meetings. However, the one-on-one calls cannot be recorded yet. Another limitation of the Microsoft team recording feature is that the shared notes and whiteboards cannot be captured in the recordings. Microsoft Teams Free Unlike other core features, the meeting recording feature is only available for Microsoft Teams paid users. Free users cannot record the meetings. Microsoft team's free meeting duration is 0 minutes. SLA Uptime Run by Microsoft, Microsoft Teams claims that it provides customers with a Service Level Agreement. But it’s not the same for all users. Microsoft Teams Paid To its paid users, Microsoft Teams offers a service credit SLA against a 99.9 Uptime per month SLA. It is the same with the majority of Office 365 services that also offer a 99.9% SLA. Microsoft Teams Free The free MS Team users are not assured of the 99.9% SLA. There’s no mention of uptime for free users, but it’s apparent and obvious that paid users get an uptime priority. Take a look at the down detector’s report of MS Teams' most reported problems — serve connection stands at 45%.   User Setting Configuration As a paid Microsoft Teams user, you can leverage the team policy feature to exercise control over user capabilities in channels within your organization. Microsoft Teams excels in offering the capacity to manage and restrict access, empowering you with control over user privileges within Teams. Microsoft Teams Paid Considering MS Teams pricing plans, the user setting configuration feature is available only for Microsoft Teams paid users. For example, an admin can choose whether a user is allowed to discover private teams or contacts in search results. Similarly, they can control content views in the team gallery and restrict a member’s ability to create private channels. Team Policies can be managed through MS Teams admin centre> Teams policies in Microsoft Teams. Microsoft Teams Free Like other important features, the user setting configuration feature is also unavailable in the free plan. You’d need to upgrade to the paid plan to gain the ability to show this level of control. Usage Reporting Teams usage report features are available in the MS Teams admin center, which gives admins an overview of the user and user activity in Teams. The reports include a list of active channels, active users, guests, messages, and more.   It gives admin an option to quickly see how many users across their organization are using the app to collaborate and communicate and collaborate. Microsoft Teams Paid Admins with a paid subscription can run different reports and get insights into how their employees are using Teams. An organization can use these reports and information to get a better understanding of usage patterns, inform the training efforts, improve communication gaps, and help make business decisions. You can get the usage report through:    MS Teams Admin Centre > Analytics & Reports > Usage Reports > Teams Usage   Microsoft Teams Free The usage reporting feature is not available for free users. Summing Up Here’s a summary of all the differences between Microsoft Teams Free and Paid plans:   Features MS Teams Free MS Teams Paid  Maximum members 500,000 per org Potentially unlimited with an enterprise license File storage 5 GB/user and 10 GB of shared storage 1 TB/user Guest access     Video calls Up to 250 participants Up to 10,000 participants  Channel meetings     Screen sharing     Scheduled meetings     Meeting recording X Available with Microsoft Stream Administration     Admin tools for managing users and apps X   Usage reporting for Microsoft 365 services X   99.9% financially-backed SLA uptime X   Configurable user settings and policies X   All things considered, Microsoft Teams' Free plan is a solid option. While the price is not a concern, it does come with restrictions on important features necessary for remote collaboration. Here’s a table taken from Microsoft Teams' official site with all the maximum limits for MS Teams:(Note: Microsoft Teams time limit for the free plan is not disclosed)    Feature Maximum limit Number of teams a user can create Subject to a 250 object limit¹ Number of teams a user can be a member of 1,000 Number of members in a team 10,000 Number of owners per team 100 Number of org-wide teams allowed in a tenant 5 Number of members in an org-wide team 5,000 Number of teams a global admin can create 500,000 Number of teams a Microsoft 365 or Office 365 organization can have 500,000² Number of channels per team 200 (includes deleted channels)³   When it comes to Microsoft Teams' cost, there are various options available to obtain these great features at a lower price. Exploring discounted plans, bundled subscriptions, or opting for specific feature-focused packages can help you achieve cost-effective access to the desired capabilities. Troop Messenger as an Alternative to Microsoft Teams   Troop Messenger offers a comprehensive set of essential remote collaboration features, including instant messaging, unlimited members and groups, video conferencing, screen sharing, orange members, and integrations. It provides tough competition to Microsoft Teams with its neck-to-neck feature lineup. How is Troop Messenger Different From Microsoft Teams?   Privacy Chat: It allows team members to chat privately within a stipulated time period. The conversation gets deleted automatically once the timer expires. Advanced Search: Filter history by image, video, file, link, contact, URL, and location to trim down the search quickly and easily. Secure: Passcode Security Pin and FingerPrint access. Live Location Tracking: This allows you to share your real-time location with the participants of an individual chat for a specific amount of time Orange Member: This feature encourages a provision to add other company employees, vendors, or customers to be a part of the application or organization with their respective business or public domain mail IDs Pricing: Troop gives you all Microsoft Teams' paid features at the most competitive price in the market. Starting at $1 per user per month, it's the cheapest remote collaboration tool you’ll come across. Storage: Unlike MS Teams' free plan, which provides 2GB of storage, TM offers 1 TB of storage to the enterprise account and 150 GB to the premium account.   All in all, I hope you learned that Teams is free for personal use. Nevertheless, Microsoft Teams makes for a great collaboration app but if you cannot afford to buy a paid subscription since Microsoft Team's license cost is high compared to other tools and still want to avail core features, you should consider giving Troop Messenger a try.   FAQs     1. What is Microsoft Teams?   Microsoft Teams is a collaboration tool by Microsoft that supports messaging, video calls, file sharing, and integration with Office 365 apps.     2. How much does Microsoft Teams cost?   Microsoft Teams pricing starts with a free plan and goes up to $22 per user/month for the premium plans.     3. What features are included in the free version of Microsoft Teams?   The free version offers chat, file sharing, video calls, and limited storage space.     4.What is the difference between Microsoft Teams' free and paid plans?   Paid plans include advanced features like increased storage, meeting recordings, and Office 365 integration.     5. Are there discounts available for Microsoft Teams?   Microsoft Teams may offer discounts for educational institutions and nonprofits.     6. Does Microsoft Teams charge extra for video conferencing?   Video conferencing is included in both free and paid plans, but paid plans offer advanced features like recording.     7. Is Microsoft Teams included in Office 365?   Yes, Microsoft Teams is part of Office 365 and comes bundled with Office apps in specific plans.     8.Can small businesses afford Microsoft Teams?   Yes, Microsoft Teams offers affordable plans suitable for small businesses starting at $4 per user/month.     9. Is Microsoft Teams pricing scalable for large enterprises?   Yes, enterprise plans offer scalability with advanced management and security features.     10.What industries benefit most from Microsoft Teams?   Industries like education, healthcare, BFSI, and government often benefit from Microsoft Teams’ features.   11. Does Microsoft Teams support on-premise hosting?   No, Microsoft Teams operates as a cloud-based platform only.   12. Are there better alternatives to Microsoft Teams?   Troop Messenger is a robust alternative, offering both SaaS and on-premise options for enhanced security and customization.   13.Can I integrate Microsoft Teams with other tools?   Yes, Microsoft Teams supports integrations with tools like Trello, Salesforce, and Asana.   14. What storage limits apply in Microsoft Teams plans?   Storage ranges from 5GB in the free plan to 1TB per user in paid plans.   15.Does Microsoft Teams offer a free trial for paid plans?   Yes, Microsoft offers a free trial for some paid plans to explore premium features.   16.Are video meeting limits different in Microsoft Teams plans?   Yes, the free plan allows 60-minute meetings, while paid plans support meetings up to 30 hours.   17.Does Microsoft Teams pricing vary by region?   Yes, pricing may vary based on regional taxes and currency differences.   18. Is Microsoft Teams suitable for remote work?   Yes, it is designed to support seamless communication and collaboration for remote teams.   19.What is the main disadvantage of Microsoft Teams' pricing model?   Its pricing can become expensive for small businesses needing advanced features.   20.Why consider Troop Messenger over Microsoft Teams?   Troop Messenger offers more flexibility, secure on-premise options, and tailored solutions for diverse industries.