

We also noted how easy or hard it was to search messages using filters such as the message sender, a date range, or a specific channel. We tested whether the apps could find words we had typed in messages and how quickly they did so. Search quality: Important information can get buried all too quickly when you’re using an app day after day.But for work conversations that often involve more than a handful of replies to one message from multiple people or side conversations that the whole group doesn’t need to be distracted by, message threading is critical to avoid chaos, notification overload, and burnout. For casual conversations, such as texting your partner about what to have for dinner, threads aren’t necessary. Message threading: By grouping an original message with all its replies, message threads help organize communication and reduce information overload.And because work communication often involves sensitive company info, we dug into the administrator settings, looking for the ability to set policies such as whether two-factor authentication (2FA) is required, who can invite other members to the team, and how long messages are saved in history. Setup and controls for administrators, including security and privacy: The fewer the steps and hurdles required to set up an app, the better.
