Slack is one of the most popular online collaboration tools for companies and teams. The service includes instant messaging. You can create both private and public channels (something like chat rooms) for teams and projects.

It will probably take you some time to get used to the tool’s interface, since it offers really many options and settings. But for your work, you’ll mostly use the left sidebar, where the channel and chat list is located. The third column of the menu appears if you want to see the correspondence below the message (thread) or information about the user/channel.

You can also format the text of the message, such as inserting a link to a separate phrase, adding a quote, or choosing a code format. In addition, you can edit a message you’ve already sent.

You can also share files such as images, documents, and videos from your computer or Google Drive. Communicate with colleagues via audio or video call. Demonstrate and share a screen.

Some advantages of Slack:

• Has desktop, web and mobile versions
• App integration – Gmail, Google Calendar, Office 365, Trello and 2000+ others
• Searchable messages, ability to pin or add messages to favorites Ability to customize notifications to fit your needs
• Automate workflows and communication with Workflow builder
• Data protection with two-factor authentication and single sign-on (SSO) technology based on SAML.

The free version of this workflow builder is good enough to get you started. But if you need security features, more memory, group calls, support and other additional functionality, you have to buy a paid plan. Standard and Plus Standard plans cost $6.79 and $12.76 per person/month, respectively.