Microsoft Teams is a platform that brings together all of your workplace tools, apps, and services to deliver better results for you and your employees. The tool itself has many features for remote work that can advance your team’s productivity. Still, many users are unaware that this collaboration tool also supports integrations (over 600!) that can boost their communication and efficiency even more.
In this blog post, we’re going to break down the 10 best apps for Teams to help you upgrade your user experience and keep your team on track.
We’ve sorted them by category in case you have a pressing need.
Communication | Collaboration | Productivity
Microsoft Teams plugins and integrations to help communication
1. microsoft teams calling
Microsoft Teams Calling allows users to make and receive calls. While Teams is primarily viewed as an internal communications and messaging tool, Microsoft developed a way to convert Teams into a business phone system. By adding voice and PBX capabilities to Teams, users can make and receive outbound and inbound calls while also combining meetings, chat and more, for a true unified communications solution.
Rather than introducing and running multiple different systems, installing one system to manage all these aspects gives you a smoother and integrated interface while also saving money, time and maintenance.
2. Zoom
Zoom is one of the fastest-growing video conferencing brands on the market, offering state-of-the-art digital interactions through a simple click-to-call interface.
With Zoom’s Microsoft Teams integration, you can start video meetings instantly using Teams bot commands.
Simply set up a meeting and your Zoom bot will send a unique link for your conference that you can share with the rest of your team.
With Zoom Video conferencing, you can:
- Launch video in seconds on the apps your staff love
- Interact with people outside of Microsoft Teams
- Host video conferences with a secure link
- Get complete meeting summary reports
- Access video meeting recordings
- Add Zoom integrations to other leading tools
Pairing Zoom with Microsoft Teams for a Coexistence Environment
3. Cisco Webex Meetings
Did you know that 91% of businesses use at least 2 messaging apps?
Just because you love the functionality of Microsoft Teams doesn’t mean you don’t want access to other tools too.
Cisco’s Webex Meetings bot combines some of your Webex Meeting functionality with Microsoft Teams, including options to:
- Send links from Webex into Microsoft Teams
- Schedule meetings on Microsoft Office 365 calendars
- Let Microsoft users join a conference from a single click on a unique URL
4. RingCentral
RingCentral is one of the leading providers of collaboration and communication tools in the world.
Recently they grew even further through a new collaboration with comms giant, Avaya.
Now, RingCentral has a dedicated app for Microsoft Teams too, which provides access to your own personal RingCentral bot.
The RingCentral bot brings enterprise-communication capabilities into Microsoft Teams.
This means you can access all the advanced features of RingCentral meetings without leaving your Teams app.
There’s no need to switch between apps when collaborating in Teams, which means that projects keep moving forward in a faster, more productive way.
Features include:
- Call to access conference calls and click-to-join meetings
- Meet to locate session and dial-in numbers
- Help to unlock a range of RingCentral commands
Integrations for better collaboration
5. Adobe
Adobe Creative Cloud for Microsoft Teams enables designers to easily collaborate with asset sharing and notifications in Teams. Adobe Acrobat for Microsoft Teams unlocks the power of PDF, enabling users to create, edit, annotate, and share documents. And Adobe Sign for Microsoft Teams enables organizations to streamline workflows requiring e-signature or secure approvals.
6. mural
MURAL is an app that provides a digital workspace for visual collaboration. Using this app, teams can think and collaborate visually by quickly creating diagrams. This app integrates into your Microsoft Teams workspace by adding a custom tab, notification bot, and messaging extension. You can add a new MURAL or one template and multiple frameworks to your project channel and have your team participate in real-time.
If someone invites you to MURAL or mentions you, the bot will let you know by sending you a private chat message. If you’re having a conversation that requires a visual collaboration session, you can find and share a template right in the current conversation context by using the MURAL messaging extension. This app helps teams to work visually and efficiently by having all the tools for visual collaboration in one place.
Integrations for better productivity
7. microsoft lists
Not to be confused with To Do (Microsoft’s consumer lists app), Microsoft Lists is designed to be the next evolution of SharePoint Lists. SharePoint users have been using lists for years to track issues and organize information, and now Microsoft Lists works across Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, and Outlook.
Microsoft Lists includes templates for quick lists, configurable color formatting, and even the ability to create alerts and processes. Lists can track issues, assets, routines, contacts, inventory, and more for companies.
8. asana
Use Asana’s integration with Microsoft Teams to add Asana projects to group chats and turn conversations into actionable work, all in one place. Chat with teammates about a project while looking at the full task list, including task assignees, due dates, and complete tasks when they’re done. With Asana for Microsoft Teams, you can stay connected and organized, no matter where you’re working.
9. Trello
Trello is everyone’s favorite project management tool that organizes projects into boards, just like a timeline. Trello lets you know what’s being worked on, what stage the project is on, and who’s working on it. Within Teams, Trello functions just like a whiteboard, filled with a list of sticky notes (known as cards). You can add information, links, attachments, photos, and more types of files to give your team clear instructions on how to go about completing the task in an efficient manner.
10. Microsoft Flow
Microsoft Teams Flow automates all your mundane tasks by integrating your apps and services within it. So for example, every time a new employee joins the company email group, Flow can send a pre-written, automatic, welcome message from your side to your employees. You can also create multiple flows, and manage and review them through an app on your mobile phone.
