No matter the size of your team, one of the greatest challenges in the workplace is optimizing a workforce for productivity. Whether your team is all under one roof, spread across the globe, or working from home, getting them on the same page and working efficiently is of the utmost importance. Thankfully, technology can help with the task. You can accomplish quite a bit using a combination of mobile and web apps, even if your team members are in different locations. After all, you don’t want multiple pieces of info scattered across a host of apps, or your team emailing back and forth until the end of time. These apps are just a few of the better collaboration tools out there.
Further reading
- Best iPhone apps
- Best Android apps
- Best to-do list apps
Todoist
Todoist is a fantastic platform to organize, sort, and prioritize your tasks. The intuitive interface makes it easy to use Todoist for both personal and work tasks. You can share your tasks and info with others as well. The app will also help you track your progress throughout the day. And it allows you to sync with your calendar as well to further track your daily activities.
Android iOS
Slack
Whatever the size of your business, you’ve probably heard of Slack. The platform is one of the best ways to get your team together in one place and get them to collaborate. You can organize Slack by topics or projects, and easily limit access to a project to the relevant team member. You can share and edit documents, and you can call or message any person within your group or team. The service also integrates with Google Drive, Twitter, Dropbox, and a slew of other popular platforms. The app even supports the Apple Watch.
Android iOS
iOS Notes
In iOS, the Notes app provides native support for collaboration. If you and your team are working with iOS devices and you need a simple way to collaborate, then there’s no need to download anything. You will see an Add People icon in the upper-right corner when you create a new Note. Just like other collaboration apps, it will allow you to send a link via iMessage, or any other app that you have installed on your iPhone or iPad. Once your team receives the link, they can open the note and start editing. The note will appear in everyone’s Notes app, and if you choose to stop sharing the note or remove someone from the note, then it will disappear from their device. It’s a simple solution, but it may be what you and your team need.
Asana
Asana is a great organizational tool that lets you visualize you and your team’s tasks. Asana allows you to create projects, track them, and communicate about them all within the app. It offers numerous integrations that allow you to connect your collaborations with the rest of your teams tools. The chat and tag functions in Asana make it easy to delegate tasks across your workforce and track the progress of your most important projects in real time.
Android iOS
Google Docs
So many of us rely on Google services so much that having the Google Docs apps on your device seems like a no-brainer. Once you create a document, you can add people to it so that they can collaborate. Once they accept the invitation, you can create a multitude of documents — similar to what you can do with Microsoft Office — and have your team collaborate on those documents in real time. Combined with Google Drive, this is an excellent choice for collaboration, especially given how feature-rich the mobile and web apps are.
Android iOS
Microsoft Office
If you work with Microsoft Office, then having the ability to collaborate on your mobile device is a great addition to your productivity and workflow. Once you start a document, it must be saved in the cloud, so that everyone access it and collaborate. You can save documents to Microsoft’s OneDrive, or another cloud service, like Box. Once your document is saved in the cloud, you can start adding people to it. If you use a Windows-based machine, and you’re constantly creating documents in Microsoft Office, then this is an excellent choice for taking your productivity to the next level.
Android iOS
Evernote
Evernote is a very feature-rich app that not only gives you a plethora of tools to create notes, but also to share them with others. Once you share your notes with your team, you can edit them in a variety of ways. You can discuss, annotate, and have different members of your team work on different aspects of any given document. Evernote also has a strong browser extension called Web Clipper, which is compatible with Chrome, Safari, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, and Microsoft Edge. It allows team members to grab assets from around the web, and combine them in documents. The app also supports the Apple Watch and features a companion app for iMessage.
Android iOS
OneNote
OneNote is one of the best collaboration apps for Android and iPhone because of its very easy to manage interface. You can share notes with others to work collaboratively, and it supports not only numbered lists and simple note taking, but also sketching and inserting pictures. It also works through any browser. If you have an iPad Pro, this app works perfectly with the Apple Pencil. You can scribble shapes and OneNote will convert them into real, perfectly drawn shapes. This app also supports the Apple Watch.
Android iOS
Trello
Trello is a way to manage a large number of projects within an easy-to-use layout. The app works by organizing everything into boards. Once you create your boards, you can add people to the board, so that they can work together and collaborate. Within these boards are lists of topics that you can create, and within these lists the team can create cards. You can assign tasks, move cards to different lists, comment, attach files, and even upload photos and videos. Trello is a must-have app for those looking to stay in touch while juggling many tasks. It’s also a great way to organize what everyone is doing at all times, so that everything is current. The app also supports the Apple Watch, and there’s a companion app for iMessage.
Android iOS