The center of every communications team is an effective communication system. It is a regular need to exchange messages and files for our church staff, and it should be easy and convenient for all. Instead of only using texts and emails, the team could benefit from a more integrated communication network. We made a list of the best messaging apps for the whole church staff. Our goal: to help you find the right tool. Here are some apps for communication solutions suggested by our fellow church communicators.
Microsoft Teams
One of the most favorite tools by church communicators out there is Microsoft Teams, hands down. Teams is a comprehensive messaging app with a chat feature, discussion forums, scheduling tools, planning functions, audio-video conferencing, presentation capacity, phone system, and more, all seamlessly combined in one user-friendly application. In addition to this, Teams is an excellent choice for churches because they provide free licensing opportunities for non-profit organizations.
“Most of our staff are using Teams messaging and love it. For those of us who have the app on our phones, it works just as well as a group text.” – Rebecca Dawn.
“…upgraded to Microsoft Teams. It’s free if you have Office 365 and includes your calendar, all your files, etc., in the one app. So efficient!” – Hannah Spanhake
Slack
Slack is software for team-messaging that enables users to remain connected in many ways. You may send direct messages to individual team members or a particular group with more general notes. By following running team message threads, church staff can remain connected and involved in every content sent there.
The ability to tag someone directly in a group conversation is one of the best features of Slack. This feature allows you to send a message to a group while still having a somewhat personal conversation with the person you’re tagging. You can also send photos and files when using Slack, so the system makes it easy to eliminate unwanted and unnecessary emails.
“Our team loves Slack! You can message back and forth to individual team members, create group messages, and we even have “channels” designated to things like hospital/care needs or all staff alerts.” – Kristen Teglovic.
GroupMe
GroupMe allows users to chat with others, whether you are talking to a group or chatting with only one person. You can create as many groups as you want, all for free. Connect with anyone from your phone book, and they can talk within the group chat immediately for some downtime, or when you’ve got a meeting, quickly mute groups to avoid disturbance. It is loved by many because of its accessibility from any device, even over SMS. GroupMe is part of Skype, which would make it one of the most trusted apps available on the market.
Signal
Signal is an app for communication that focuses on security. Send chats, audio, video, file, and image messages anywhere in the world. There is always end-to-end encryption of Signal messages and calls, which guarantees security in your messages and conversations. For each chat, select various disappearing message intervals. Everyone within the thread shares the chosen setting. Signal is known for its excellent protection and richness of functionality. It will keep all your communications private on the internet, where it seems like privacy is hard to attain.
Basecamp
Basecamp is an online communication app that allows teams to organize their work together and connect. You can use it to monitor all the projects, schedules, documents, conversations, and announcements that occur. First, Basecamp allows you to start tasks, do whatever you want within the app, delegate tasks, track progress, and pose questions. It’s also easy to send files, organize schedules on the calendar, and get daily email reporting of your group activities.
Discord
Discord is a platform for chat and calls that allow super-low latency in messages and calls. This is great for teams, especially bigger ones, because of how organized it could be. You can create a server in the program, create different channels for different purposes, instant calls for communication, and are also available on most mobile devices. Discord also supports live streaming, multiple voice calls, and bot functionality for commands.
“Someone I know well runs an online enterprise with several hundred people. Perhaps more, now. They use Discord, which seems similar to Slack. He has no complaints.” – Joe Lombardi.
Conclusion:
These apps will be a great help for you to organize and streamline messaging for the whole church staff. Utilize these available resources for you to have an easier way of communicating. We hope you’ve found the right messaging app for your church on this list.
