Please help me replace aim.
November 24, 2014 3:40 PM Subscribe
Basically, our company would like to replace aim for our office instant messaging solution. After much googling and some testing, the top two currently on my list are hipchat and slack.
I did see this similar question last year:
Best-suggestions-for-Team-Communication-and-Collaboration-Tools
Others that I've looked at and could certainly be reconsidered:
hall
unison
lync
hangouts
We are a non-profit and so anything involving much of a cost was pretty quickly disqualified. Hipchat, Slack and a few others offer a free option for non-profits which is a huge plus.
Does anyone have recent first hand experience with both Hipchat and Slack? What made you take the plunge with one after trying the other? (slack seems to be growing a little faster and might eventually be the better option, but I'm concerned that the lack of a real client for windows will make overall adoption difficult)
I would say that our needs are not that great, but I'd like to be able to administer whatever we choose.
The free version of slack is already in use by one department in the office. This wouldn't necessarily need to change if we move to something else, especially if it integrates with slack.
We use other atlassian products if that helps put a point in hipchat's favor.
I did see this similar question last year:
Best-suggestions-for-Team-Communication-and-Collaboration-Tools
Others that I've looked at and could certainly be reconsidered:
hall
unison
lync
hangouts
We are a non-profit and so anything involving much of a cost was pretty quickly disqualified. Hipchat, Slack and a few others offer a free option for non-profits which is a huge plus.
Does anyone have recent first hand experience with both Hipchat and Slack? What made you take the plunge with one after trying the other? (slack seems to be growing a little faster and might eventually be the better option, but I'm concerned that the lack of a real client for windows will make overall adoption difficult)
I would say that our needs are not that great, but I'd like to be able to administer whatever we choose.
The free version of slack is already in use by one department in the office. This wouldn't necessarily need to change if we move to something else, especially if it integrates with slack.
We use other atlassian products if that helps put a point in hipchat's favor.
Best answer: I use and like Hipchat. I genuinely think that if you don't want a "platform" with channels that basically makes it less of a featureful chat product and more of a weird-ass project management app, Slack is overkill.
(Like: do you need or actually want your chat app to search Google Docs??)
posted by DarlingBri at 3:55 PM on November 24, 2014
(Like: do you need or actually want your chat app to search Google Docs??)
posted by DarlingBri at 3:55 PM on November 24, 2014
We used Hipchat at my last job. I liked it a lot. I had no choice in using it and no say in the decision process, but as a user, I thought it was intuitive and easy to use.
posted by bedhead at 3:56 PM on November 24, 2014
posted by bedhead at 3:56 PM on November 24, 2014
Slack is pretty good, but its lack of threaded conversations takes a bit of adjustment - all replies end up in the same conversation thread, even if you're on to 9or want to move to0 a different topic. If you have four or five people talking, for instance, and one person says something that isn't related to what came immediately before it, there may be a sort of "WTF are you talking about" moment until you sort out what that person's actually replying to.
It's easy to set up and use (on the user side, no idea about admin/config), the mobile client is good (I'm on Android), and overall it's pretty cool and useful.
posted by pdb at 4:02 PM on November 24, 2014
It's easy to set up and use (on the user side, no idea about admin/config), the mobile client is good (I'm on Android), and overall it's pretty cool and useful.
posted by pdb at 4:02 PM on November 24, 2014
Another +1 for slack. It's simple to use and set up. One caveat though, is if you want to search through complete message history, you'll have to pony up for the paid version. Otherwise, the free version is perfectly fine.
posted by nakedsushi at 4:06 PM on November 24, 2014
posted by nakedsushi at 4:06 PM on November 24, 2014
I use both and slightly prefer Hipchat, mostly because the Mac client feels less like "web page inside of a chromeless window" (even though it is).
posted by primethyme at 4:38 PM on November 24, 2014
posted by primethyme at 4:38 PM on November 24, 2014
Slack's web option has been pretty okay when I've used it on Windows. I prefer it to the Android app, anyway, and it all seems to work--fine? Nothing scintillating, but fine.
posted by Sequence at 5:02 PM on November 24, 2014
posted by Sequence at 5:02 PM on November 24, 2014
Best answer: We use Flowdock which is similar to Hipchat and Slack. It supports threaded conversations, file uploads, copying and pasting screen shots, at-replies, emoji and animated gifs. The latter two features are popular in our company. I use the web version and the iPhone app, both of which work well.
posted by PartOfThisCompleteBreakfast at 5:19 PM on November 24, 2014
posted by PartOfThisCompleteBreakfast at 5:19 PM on November 24, 2014
We use Hipchat at work - can't imagine it would fail as an AIM replacement.
posted by COD at 5:30 PM on November 24, 2014
posted by COD at 5:30 PM on November 24, 2014
Best answer: Another +1 for Hipchat. We just rolled it out at work and everyone loves it. I like the fact that you can correct typos within two minutes (s/typo/correction) and that you can drag images into the text window and the other person can see them almost immediately. All in all it's a great program to use.
posted by ralan at 5:39 PM on November 24, 2014
posted by ralan at 5:39 PM on November 24, 2014
Response by poster: Thanks for the great experiences so far. It sounds like we wouldn't be disappointed with either choice. I'll check out flowdock as well.
Any tips on moving people off of aim? Did you discourage the use of aim after you switched or did people just naturally stop using it in favor of the new option?
posted by JackT at 6:36 PM on November 24, 2014
Any tips on moving people off of aim? Did you discourage the use of aim after you switched or did people just naturally stop using it in favor of the new option?
posted by JackT at 6:36 PM on November 24, 2014
Any tips on moving people off of aim? Did you discourage the use of aim after you switched or did people just naturally stop using it in favor of the new option?
No one was given a choice in the matter. Once we decided to switch over, everyone was told that after X date no one would be communicating via AIM. If you needed to reach someone you needed to use Hipchat, period. Any attempts to communicate via AIM were to be ignored. So far that's worked for us.
posted by ralan at 7:27 PM on November 24, 2014 [1 favorite]
No one was given a choice in the matter. Once we decided to switch over, everyone was told that after X date no one would be communicating via AIM. If you needed to reach someone you needed to use Hipchat, period. Any attempts to communicate via AIM were to be ignored. So far that's worked for us.
posted by ralan at 7:27 PM on November 24, 2014 [1 favorite]
If you really wanted to, you could block AIM at the network level. But IMHO Hipchat and Slack are so much better, most people will probably not need to be forced to switch once they've given it a chance for a week or two.
posted by primethyme at 8:11 PM on November 24, 2014
posted by primethyme at 8:11 PM on November 24, 2014
Best answer: I moved three teams over to Slack earlier this year (from a weird mix of email/Jabber/Skype). What I love about Slack is that it can be a very simple chat app ("XMPP with a nice interface" is one way to look at it) if that's all you need, but it can also become the central place to do heaps more, if you want. Integrations can be really powerful, and I really like being able to search all of my comms in a single place, but no one has to use it that way.
posted by third word on a random page at 2:54 AM on November 25, 2014
posted by third word on a random page at 2:54 AM on November 25, 2014
Any tips on moving people off of aim?
Who decides which tools each team uses? That person has to make a call, and they should let everyone know that after a (messy) transition week, everyone is switching over to the new tool which offers benefits A, B, C.
posted by third word on a random page at 2:55 AM on November 25, 2014
Who decides which tools each team uses? That person has to make a call, and they should let everyone know that after a (messy) transition week, everyone is switching over to the new tool which offers benefits A, B, C.
posted by third word on a random page at 2:55 AM on November 25, 2014
Response by poster: I'll check with managers and/or project managers to make sure they don't rely on aim in any odd way that I don't expect, but then there will just be an email from me or my manager that the new thing is in place with some basic tutorial and explanation.
After that, my part will largely be to stop supporting aim and stop setting up new hires with an account. My goal is to have all said and done by the new year.
I know there will be a couple of holdouts of people who had their aim screename before I arrived and probably use it for more than work communication. I'm confident that slack, hipchat, or flowdock will be nice enough to lure those people over on their own, though.
posted by JackT at 6:40 AM on November 25, 2014
After that, my part will largely be to stop supporting aim and stop setting up new hires with an account. My goal is to have all said and done by the new year.
I know there will be a couple of holdouts of people who had their aim screename before I arrived and probably use it for more than work communication. I'm confident that slack, hipchat, or flowdock will be nice enough to lure those people over on their own, though.
posted by JackT at 6:40 AM on November 25, 2014
Hi Jack,
I actually work for Hipchat so obviously I'm biased! But both Slack and Hipchat are great products so you can't go wrong.
People have been spot on about the comparisons. Hip chat is more simple, Slack has a lot of integrations with things like Google Docs, etc. However, Hipchat iscoming out with a fair amount of deep integrations with other Atlasssian products, like JIRA and Confluence.
Not sure if this is a need, but a lot of Hipchat customers like it: we have emoticons. They're pretty fun.
Like I said, can't go wrong. Best of luck mate! Keen to hear which one you went with and why.
posted by pando11 at 6:22 PM on November 26, 2014
I actually work for Hipchat so obviously I'm biased! But both Slack and Hipchat are great products so you can't go wrong.
People have been spot on about the comparisons. Hip chat is more simple, Slack has a lot of integrations with things like Google Docs, etc. However, Hipchat iscoming out with a fair amount of deep integrations with other Atlasssian products, like JIRA and Confluence.
Not sure if this is a need, but a lot of Hipchat customers like it: we have emoticons. They're pretty fun.
Like I said, can't go wrong. Best of luck mate! Keen to hear which one you went with and why.
posted by pando11 at 6:22 PM on November 26, 2014
Best answer: Out of curiosity I went back and installed slack for a small workgroup. It's very pretty and pretty useless. And IMHO nobody should be rewarded with your money for making their product that impenetrable. YMMV.
posted by DarlingBri at 3:39 PM on November 27, 2014
posted by DarlingBri at 3:39 PM on November 27, 2014
Response by poster: Just to close this question out...
We are going with Slack. Hipchat still seems more business oriented and maybe just a bit easier to get people to adopt, but majority ruled. Slack should absolutely do everything we need, but if there's any way to make it about 20% less silly that would be good too.
Thank you to all.
posted by JackT at 2:39 PM on February 26, 2015
We are going with Slack. Hipchat still seems more business oriented and maybe just a bit easier to get people to adopt, but majority ruled. Slack should absolutely do everything we need, but if there's any way to make it about 20% less silly that would be good too.
Thank you to all.
posted by JackT at 2:39 PM on February 26, 2015
This thread is closed to new comments.
- easy to share files/images
- user interface is nice & friendly
- "chat with everyone" setup isn't too hectic but it's easy to have private chats with people
- works on my phone if I need it to
- you can have it page people via email if you need to by using familiar (i.e. @jessamyn) notation
- easily searchable archives
I don't use the app when I'm on a desktop computer, I just log in via the website and it's fine. I would have suggested Skype but their new redesign in a post-Microsoft world is just terrible and I don't think they're heading in the right direction.
posted by jessamyn at 3:45 PM on November 24, 2014