New Teams apps are being created all the time – here’s a handful that you may find useful
As Microsoft Teams usage skyrockets, it should come as no surprise Microsoft itself, as well as third-party companies, are rapidly churning out new apps. Actually, let’s back up a bit. Did you know there were apps for Teams? With Teams open, look at the left navigation column. You’ll see three dots at the bottom. Click the dots to pull up a window pre-populated with some apps. At the bottom right is an option to view more apps. Click that and behold! A wide world of Teams apps appears.
Chances are you’ve got a lot of juggling going on right now. Researching which apps your organization might benefit from is probably low on your priority list. So, we thought we’d save you some time and do it for you.
Disco
Disco is a groovy app that makes it easy to recognize employees and colleagues, celebrate wins or share your organizations values. Smart leaders recognize people need affirmation and need to feel genuine connection. Disco is a handy way to call attention to positives – especially during a time of disconnectedness and isolation.
Dynamic Signal
Dynamic Signal calls itself an “employee communication and engagement platform”. Its primary function is helping users create customizable, personalized news feeds on which they can publish company news and important info or share tools and documents. What we really like is that the app allows you to communicate across any channel your organization uses – from Teams to email to SharePoint to Yammer.
Freehand
One of the tangibles we’re missing while working remotely are whiteboards. At the office we use whiteboards for everything. Freehand is a whiteboard app. And the cool thing about it is it’s infinite! The whiteboard can go on for as long as your project planning needs dictate. It’s great for collaborative design. In particular, Freehand is a superb option if you’re developing wireframes collaboratively.
Mindmeister
Mindmeister is a nifty project planning app that will appeal to visual learners and planners. Like most things in Teams, it’s a collaborative workspace for teams to create “mind maps” which are visualizations of all the steps needed for project planning success. It’s also a handy tool for individuals who are planning solo ventures like presentations or who are engaged in complex problem-solving. We think Mindmeister is well-suited for project planning that requires some extra helpings of creativity.
Qubie
We all know feedback is important. In order to improve, we need to know what we’re doing well and what we’re doing that needs work. Qubie for Microsoft Teams bills itself as the “team improvement app”. The premise is compelling – easily collect feedback from your team in real time or on a scheduled basis. Qubie analyzes the feedback and provides insights into what steps your team can take to improve.
ScrumGenius
For Scrum devotees, ScrumGenius may prove to be a must-have Teams app. The apps primary feature is automating standup meetings and automatic check-ins to enhance the tracking of progress, performance and goals. We like that it integrates with Azure DevOps to display team activity and status updates. You can use it to configure reports and the app will create email summaries that are delivered to team inboxes or even sent directly to your Teams channel.
Text
Text is a simply-yet-accurately named app. It’s designed to do one thing. Text allows constituents, customers or colleagues to send your organization text messages that are automatically delivered via Microsoft Teams. And yes, you can reply to those messages in Teams that are then delivered to the sender, in turn, via text. Text is super simple, but the possibilities are endless.
