When church services occur, attendees want a smooth and peaceful way to communicate and interact with God. But there will be times where issues or technical difficulties will be unavoidable in the middle of a service. Now it’s up to people behind the scenes to fix that problem. The problem is, how do you communicate with your team during service effectively?
With the world adopting and becoming fully digital, here are some budget-friendly apps that you could use on your devices. Each will help you communicate with your team effectively during a service.
Troop Messenger
Troop Messenger is a top-rated and simple communication tool for small to large-sized teams. It has numerous features, including one on one to group calls, private chats, group chats, search history, audio messaging, unlimited groups, and so much more. What’s good about Troop Messenger is you can install it on your Android, iOS, Mac, or PC. Troop Messenger is a way for you to communicate with your team in and out of service. It consists of organizational capabilities for sending files and posting announcements to members.
Troop Messenger offers a 7-day free trial before charging. Their packages are “premium” priced at $2.50 per user/month and an upgraded package called the “enterprise” package for $5 per user/month. They also provide self-hosting for those massive and big corporations consisting of 500 or more users.
Chanty
If you need an app that you can turn your messages into tasks and assign them to the team members, Chanty is for you! Chanty lets you assign tasks easily in your chats. Members right away will be notified that they have a pending task to do. Also, Chanty provides all the basic features of messaging or communication apps like audio and video calls, audio messages, screen sharing, pinned messages, @ mentions, discussion threads, and a dark theme to help your eyes in those low light locations. Chanty is a great messaging app to organize before, during, and after the service with a handful of features, especially the ability to assign tasks in just a matter of clicks or taps.
Chanty’s basic plan is for free with up to 10 members and one guest user, and a 20GB cloud file storage for the team. While their paid plan is $4 per user with roles and permissions for the teams, three guest members for free, unlimited group video and audio calls, and a whopping 20GB per member cloud storage. Chanty is available for Mac, iOS, Windows, and Android.
Discord
Discord is one of the most used group-chatting platforms with a handful of communities. It utilizes a channel system with each group to name them according to a project, topic, or team. Everyone in a channel would see the same messages, so everyone stays on the same page. With low latency calls and a handful of features like screen share, live streaming, multiple audio and video calls, instant calls in groups, and an invite-only feature where only those you sent an invite can view and see your group. Also included is a handful of programs for various uses, like a program that can play music with just a simple command in chat or a program that notifies everyone once a specific action has taken place. Discord is an excellent way of staying in contact with each other while in different places and can offer workflow organization once setup properly.
Discord is free on iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, and Linux and is also available via browser. They offer an upgraded package called Discord Nitro. You get better emoji and profile customizability, a badge to show your support for Discord, Hi-res video, screen share, live streaming, and larger upload sizes. Nitro costs $9.99 per user/mo and $99.99 per user/year. They also offer Nitro’s basic version for $4.99 per user/mo and $49.99 per user/ year.
Slack
Slack is one of the most used messaging apps worldwide. Like Discord, Slack uses a channel-based approach in messaging. What’s good with Slack is its integration with different kinds of messaging and online sites. With a built-in voice and video call, Slack also offers conferencing with Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Hangouts, and more. Slack uses a workflow builder system, which allows you to integrate different kinds of apps and automated workflow. Allowing you to send files directly in Google Drive, send information in Google Sheets, with over 2,200 available apps in their directory, your team would be speeding its way forward. They offer excellent help in organizing before services, events, and also share files and announcements.
Slack offers a free version with ten apps and integrations, 1-to-1 video calls, and two-factor authentication. They also offer a standard version for small to medium-sized business teams for $6.67 per person/month billed yearly and $8 per person/month when billed monthly. Next, they offer a Plus version for larger teams and businesses for $12.50 and $15, and for those very large and highly regulated industries, they offer an Enterprise Grid package to be priced upon contact with their sales team. Slack is available on iOS, Android, Mac, and Windows.
Voxer
Voxer is like a walkie-talkie with added features. It is a robust push-to-talk (PTT) app. It is also secure and in real-time, making it easier than ever to communicate with your team. Voxer has several features like live and recorded voice messaging, location sharing, large group chats of up 500 people, end-to-end encryption, message forwarding, and usability via a browser. Voxer would be a great way to communicate through people from the booth to ushers or people on the grounds, especially with the walkie-talkie mode.
There are three plans for users to choose from. The “personal” plan consists of basic features and is free. However, to access the Walkie Talkie mode and additional features, users have to upgrade to their “Pro,” version for $3.99 per user/month. Voxer also offers a plan for large teams or businesses of more than 20+ people costing $6 per user/month with an added control for managing teams, users, and multiple admin capabilities. Voxer offers a free trial of 30 days for their paid plans. Available on iOS, Android, and via a browser.
Conclusion
Having constant communication with each other, especially during events and services, is a must. Staying in touch becomes more manageable in this digitally evolving world. A ton of apps are being developed and offer instant messaging, group calls, and communication. While there are other free alternatives available like Messenger, Viber, Line, web chat, and WhatsApp, to name a few. They lack the customizability and organizational features needed of a team. With the tools listed above, you’ll have communication troubles lifted off your shoulders and ways to communicate with your team during services.
