In an increasingly diverse workplace, how we define and empower collaboration is evolving. In the past, collaborating with your team meant getting together in a shared office space. Now, the majority of collaborative experiences happen through apps like Microsoft Teams.

Microsoft Teams is among the most popular tools in the world today for collaboration and communication. Within Teams, staff can access everything from messaging tools to video and audio conferencing. Apps like these are rapidly becoming the central hub for teamwork in a hybrid world, with 81% of employees rating peer collaboration apps positively. 

On its own, Microsoft Teams is excellent for bringing staff members together via multiple communication methods, shared screens, and file synchronisation. However, for those who need a little extra boost to their collaborative experience, there are some additional third-party apps you can consider too. Here are just some of the best Microsoft Teams apps for team collaboration.

  1. Decisions

A popular Microsoft-awarded app for the Teams landscape, Decisions is a tool intended to make collaborative meetings more successful. The software ensures you can prepare for meetings more effectively and make the most out of every conversation. 

Not only do you get templates for building team agendas, but you can also create meeting minutes at a click and track the time spent in a conversation. Decisions also makes it simple to convert tasks and assignments you come up with during a conference into assignments for your staff. You can align decisions with both “To Do” and “Planner”. Features include:

  • Create agendas using customisable templates
  • Track time and decisions in meetings
  • Meting engagement scores and feedback
  • Secure voting and polls
  • One-click meeting minutes in Word and OneNote

  1. MURAL

Different teams collaborate in different ways. MURAL is an excellent software solution for the people in your team who rely heavily on visuals to get things done. This solution integrates easily with a range of Microsoft tools, including Teams, Office, and Outlook, so your employees can access whiteboarding functionality anywhere.

You can create tabs in Teams to instantly load up whiteboarding functions when they need to sketch out ideas with their colleagues. There’s also a notifications bot to make sure staff are aware when their colleagues update any of their sketches. Features include:

  • Integration with Teams, Outlook, or Office
  • Custom tab access
  • Messaging extension or app integration
  • Notifications bot included

  1. Soapbox

With endless meetings and conversations now taking place in the hybrid world of work, it’s often hard to keep track of everything your teams need to do. Soapbox is one of the best tools for keeping everyone on track, with collaborative meeting agendas and next step nudges. 

With Soapbox, Microsoft Teams users can easily create agendas for upcoming meetings with other staff members, so everyone has a clear idea of what to expect in an upcoming conversation. You can collect discussion topics by nudging staff members, asking for their input, and even assigning next-step tasks after meetings. Features include:

  • Collaborative and shareable meeting agendas
  • Nudges to encourage people to get involved with discussion topics
  • Next step assignments and notifications
  • Meeting tracking to help everyone stay up-to-date with conversations

  1. Workboard

If your biggest challenge with collaboration right now is keeping everyone on the same page, WorkBoard could be the Microsoft Teams collaboration app for you. The platform helps companies set, measure, and execute objectives and critical results faster in any workplace. 

With Workboard built into Microsoft Teams, you can showcase everything from your results analytics to your OKR progress in your Microsoft Teams channels. The technology comes with a chat functionality that allows employees to find out what they need to do next to stay on the right track. There are even intelligent agendas built into the app. Features include:

  • Innovative agendas with OKRs, KPIs, and meeting topics.
  • Automatic meeting minute collection
  • Chatbot automated responses
  • Heatmaps and progress tracking within Teams

  1. Vibe 

Innovate, collaborate, and ideate in real-time from anywhere with Vibe. The solution allows users to work together on shared OneDrive files within the Microsoft Teams ecosystem, pulling together information from multiple environments to tackle a range of complex projects. 

The Vibe app for Microsoft Teams is particularly unique because it allows users to sketch and draw in real-time on a partitioned canvas next to the documents they’re sharing with their colleagues. You can easily access everything from Google Drive to Dropbox within the app. Once everyone has access to the same editing tools and data, meetings become much more collaborative. Features include:

  • Easy-to-use partitioned canvas
  • Real-time editing on any device
  • Import all kinds of documents and images into Teams
  • Easily export your board to PDF format
  • Access Google Drive, OneDrive, and Dropbox files in the same place

  1. MailClark

One of the most challenging parts of ensuring everyone can collaborate in today’s digital world is keeping people aligned on the same platforms. The MailClark app is a popular tool within Microsoft Teams that helps to synchronise conversations from multiple locations. 

You can bring the power of shared inboxes into Microsoft Teams and engage your teams in workflows related to message management for customer support, sales and marketing, or even project management. With all your communication tools centralised in one environment, teams don’t have to jump between different apps to keep track of conversations. Features include:

  • Centralised communication tools for all channels
  • Easy tracking of conversations for sales, marketing, and customer support
  • Convenient collaboration within your shared inbox
  • Project management functionality with task assignments

  1. Polly

One of the most talked-about collaboration apps connected to Microsoft Teams, Polly makes it easy to get your staff members engaged in collaborative sessions. You can set up live Q&A sessions and gain insights from your staff members with unique interactive quizzes. There’s also the option to collect instant feedback from staff members, with automated reminders to nudge everyone into action.

The Trivia tools built into Polly are an enjoyable way to break the ice in meetings and get people engaged when you’re working in remote or hybrid settings. Features include:

  • Engagement pulse tracking and reporting
  • Trivia rounds
  • Instant feedback and polls
  • Live Q&A sessions

 



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