What Are The Best Microsoft Teams Apps For Team Collaboration?

In an increasingly diverse workplace, how we define and empower collaboration is evolving. In the past, collaborating with your team meant getting together in a shared office space. Now, the majority of collaborative experiences happen through apps like Microsoft Teams.

Microsoft Teams is among the most popular tools in the world today for collaboration and communication. Within Teams, staff can access everything from messaging tools to video and audio conferencing. Apps like these are rapidly becoming the central hub for teamwork in a hybrid world, with 81% of employees rating peer collaboration apps positively. 

On its own, Microsoft Teams is excellent for bringing staff members together via multiple communication methods, shared screens, and file synchronisation. However, for those who need a little extra boost to their collaborative experience, there are some additional third-party apps you can consider too. Here are just some of the best Microsoft Teams apps for team collaboration.

1. Decisions

A popular Microsoft-awarded app for the Teams landscape, Decisions is a tool intended to make collaborative meetings more successful. The software ensures you can prepare for meetings more effectively and make the most out of every conversation. 

Not only do you get templates for building team agendas, but you can also create meeting minutes at a click and track the time spent in a conversation. Decisions also makes it simple to convert tasks and assignments you come up with during a conference into assignments for your staff. You can align decisions with both “To Do” and “Planner”. Features include:

• Create agendas using customisable templates
• Track time and decisions in meetings
• Meting engagement scores and feedback
• Secure voting and polls
• One-click meeting minutes in Word and OneNote

2. MURAL

Different teams collaborate in different ways. MURAL is an excellent software solution for the people in your team who rely heavily on visuals to get things done. This solution integrates easily with a range of Microsoft tools, including Teams, Office, and Outlook, so your employees can access whiteboarding functionality anywhere.

You can create tabs in Teams to instantly load up whiteboarding functions when they need to sketch out ideas with their colleagues. There’s also a notifications bot to make sure staff are aware when their colleagues update any of their sketches. Features include:

• Integration with Teams, Outlook, or Office
• Custom tab access
• Messaging extension or app integration
• Notifications bot included

3. Soapbox

With endless meetings and conversations now taking place in the hybrid world of work, it’s often hard to keep track of everything your teams need to do. Soapbox is one of the best tools for keeping everyone on track, with collaborative meeting agendas and next step nudges. 

With Soapbox, Microsoft Teams users can easily create agendas for upcoming meetings with other staff members, so everyone has a clear idea of what to expect in an upcoming conversation. You can collect discussion topics by nudging staff members, asking for their input, and even assigning next-step tasks after meetings. Features include:

• Collaborative and shareable meeting agendas
• Nudges to encourage people to get involved with discussion topics
• Next step assignments and notifications
• Meeting tracking to help everyone stay up-to-date with conversations

4. Workboard

If your biggest challenge with collaboration right now is keeping everyone on the same page, WorkBoard could be the Microsoft Teams collaboration app for you. The platform helps companies set, measure, and execute objectives and critical results faster in any workplace.