Guide: How to use work chat effectively

Learn how to create a collaborative digital work environment with Zoom Team Chat, Zoom’s direct messaging solution for communication across all your Zoom apps.

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In this guide

Workplace chat apps are essential tools for communicating with people across your organization, whether they’re in the cubicle next to you or in another country. Real-time messaging platforms create a collaborative atmosphere where employees can engage one-to-one or in groups and freely exchange information outside of scheduled meetings and calls. 

 

Zoom Team Chat, our work chat solution for the Zoom platform, combines AI-first* capabilities with a familiar, intuitive user experience and advanced collaboration features to streamline day-to-day communications and facilitate teamwork.

 

In this guide, we’ll explore the proper setup for an organized work chat space, features to look for in a chat app, best practices for communicating effectively using chat for business, and how Zoom Team Chat supports direct messaging and communication in the Zoom Workplace app.

Design an organized space for workplace chat

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With more organizations moving toward a hybrid work model where employees work both in the office and off-site, the ability to instantly and easily connect with one or more team members is more important than ever. To foster effective team collaboration, it’s essential to design a dedicated space for workplace chat. Here’s how to create an organized and productive environment in your team chat app.

 

Let’s start with proper organization and setup — the foundation of an effective work chat space. This includes establishing clear naming conventions for channels that make them easily identifiable and searchable. For example, using prefixes like “proj-” for project channels or “team-” for team-specific discussions. Channel organization strategies should follow a logical hierarchy, with parent channels for major departments and sub-channels for specific projects or initiatives. This structured approach helps keep information in the appropriate channels, and everyone can quickly find relevant conversations.

 

Creating specific channels for different groups and teams across the organization helps foster a sense of community. A company-wide announcements channel serves as the primary source for important updates, and depending on the size of your organization, you may consider restricting posting permissions to maintain clarity. Team-specific channels support focused discussions within departments, while project channels facilitate collaboration on specific initiatives. Cross-functional team coordination benefits from dedicated channels that bring together members from different departments. Additionally, social or “watercooler” channels provide a space for casual conversation and team building, helping to maintain company culture in digital spaces.

 

When it comes to direct messaging, it’s important to consider when it’s appropriate to use private conversations rather than public channels. Direct messages are ideal for matters that only concern two people. However, if the information could benefit others or involves team decisions, you may want to have the conversation in the specific team channel.

Better work chat starts with these essential app features

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When it comes to using chat for business, finding a solution that’s easy to use is priority number one. Ease of use helps ensure widespread adoption and maximizes productivity across the organization. Here are additional features and capabilities to consider when looking for an instant messaging solution.

  • A way to keep messages organized

    The ability to organize conversations with threads, pins, and resource bookmarks allows teams to maintain clear communication flows and keep important information readily accessible.

  • Ability to use work chat anywhere

    Get greater flexibility with an app that’s optimized for both desktop and mobile experiences. The ability to easily manage notifications allows for seamless communication regardless of where team members are working.

  • Makes it easy to scale

    A workplace chat app needs accessible user management capabilities to add new team members as the organization grows. Look for external collaboration features that allow internal team members to work with contacts outside the organization while maintaining appropriate access controls.

  • Keeps data secure

    Using chat for business means sensitive information is often shared over messages. Comprehensive security settings and compliance features, including data encryption, access controls, and retention policies, help ensure sensitive communications remain protected and compliant with specific industry regulations.

  • Supports document collaboration

    The ability to easily share various file types with preview options in messages, along with adequate storage limits, streamlines document collaboration.

  • Offers integration capabilities

    Access to all group communication apps in one platform improves efficiency. Integration capabilities with popular tools and custom options, combined with unified communications features, create a seamless workflow by connecting workplace chat with other business applications.

Best practices for using work chat effectively

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While your workplace chat app provides various features and capabilities, to get the most out of it, everyone needs to follow guidelines for consistent usage and best practices to keep channels clearly named and organized. This helps ensure the app works well for the entire organization and that all team members are able to use it effectively.

  • Give channels clear names and descriptions

    When setting up work chat channels, give them clear and descriptive names that help teammates easily locate conversations and find specific information like social groups, project updates, or support channels. Be sure to clearly define and communicate each channel’s purpose and intended participants to maintain focus and keep discussions on track.

  • Use status messages to communicate availability

    In addition to status indicators that automatically show whether a contact is available, in a meeting, in a calendar event, or offline, setting a status message lets team members know your availability and working state throughout the day, for example, if you’re out sick, on vacation, or traveling for work. This helps manage expectations for response times and reduce interruptions when you’re in focus mode.

  • Be polite and concise

    Workplace chats are meant for efficient and instant communication, so be clear and concise with your messages to maintain effectiveness. Keep conversations organized by using threads for discussions, using @mentions to alert specific contacts within a channel, and avoiding unnecessary @all channel mentions to keep notifications to a minimum.

  • Keep messages tidy

    Using text formatting like bold, bullets, and headings makes your messages easy to scan and understand. This improves readability and helps important information stand out. When sending a resource, such as a link, file, image, or video, be sure to give it a title and indicate what the resource includes — this makes it easier for people to find it using the search function.

  • Know when to schedule a meeting

    Work chat channels help avoid unnecessary meetings and move projects along faster. They’re great for keeping teammates informed, asking quick questions, brainstorming ideas, and sharing relevant information or resources. However, it’s just as important to know when to take conversations offline by moving more complex discussions to phone calls or virtual meetings. 

  • Set boundaries

    Maintain work-life boundaries by setting clear online hours and using do-not-disturb features when needed. This helps prevent burnout and promotes a healthy work-life balance.

  • Maintain a tidy workspace

    Keep your chat space tidy and efficient with regular cleanup activities. Archiving old channels and creating folders to organize direct messages and channels makes information easier to find and reduces digital clutter.

Get more tips for using Zoom Team Chat, including chat etiquette for beginners, more ways to keep messages organized, pro tips for personal productivity, and ways to save time in your day.

Make work chat easier with Zoom Team Chat

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With Zoom Team Chat, you get a dedicated space for instant messaging within Zoom’s AI-first work platform. Team Chat works alongside all of your Zoom Workplace communication and productivity tools, like Zoom Meetings, Zoom Phone, Zoom Docs, and Zoom Whiteboard. It’s designed to facilitate better collaboration through organized group chats, while also making it simple to move between different communication channels in a single app. Features include:

  • Highly customizable and flexible tab management system

    Team Chat’s sidebar navigation delivers more control over tab-level badging and notifications, so you’re not overwhelmed by notifications or scrolling endlessly to find a channel. Team Chat also offers more advanced filtering and sorting capabilities, with the unique ability to drag, drop, and pin tabs.

  • Seamless transitions from messages to meetings

    Team Chat lets you schedule a Zoom meeting directly from a channel, making it easy to bring together all channel participants for a video discussion.

  • Team Chat and meetings work side by side

    Zoom’s “continuous meeting chats” are dedicated group chats for meeting participants (both scheduled and ad-hoc meetings). They allow you to share resources and meeting agendas with everyone before a meeting, chat in real time during a meeting, and continue conversations after the meeting ends. AI Companion-generated* meeting summaries are sent directly to the continuous meeting chat so everyone can stay aligned. If an invited participant misses the meeting, they can visit the continuous meeting chat to read the summary and get caught up.

  • Instant access to all the right channels

    Shared spaces eliminate the issue of having to manually add every team member to every channel. Simply add all the channels related to your project to a shared space, and team members in the shared space will automatically get access to those channels.

  • Clarity with more organized conversations

    Team Chat fully supports threaded conversations on channels, 1:1, and in-meeting chat, which helps you and others organize conversations so you can follow them more easily.

  • Integrations for enhanced efficiency

    Team Chat allows you to tailor your communications to your organization’s needs through integrations that help bring your most-used business apps into your work chat experience. For example, in addition to Zoom Docs, you can use Microsoft Office or Google Workspace with Team Chat, creating and sharing documents without leaving the Zoom app.

  • Built-in AI capabilities

    Zoom AI Companion* helps you streamline workflows so you can get more done. Share AI-generated meeting summaries and next steps in a chat channel, catch up on group messages with AI Companion summaries, and ask AI Companion to draft messages for you.

Stay connected through Zoom Workplace

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Team Chat’s greatest strength is that it seamlessly works together with all of Zoom’s collaboration tools — from video conferencing to cloud phone calls, you can start or schedule time with team members right from your workplace chat app. Plus, Team Chat allows you to communicate asynchronously with features like voice messages, screen recording, scheduled messages, reminders, and more.

 

Team Chat is included with every Zoom license — no additional costs or contracts required, including the free Zoom Workplace Basic plan. Sign up for free.

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*Zoom AI Companion is available with eligible paid Zoom Workplace plans. May not be available for all regions or industry verticals.