Ask HN: Do you love using a chat app but also hate depending on it for work?
I love using chat apps for work, because it offers instant communication, cost savings, and convenience. You can share multimedia, engage in group chats. They're versatile & user-friendly.

(Quick note: what I am discussing here is a Chat app for Work, such as: Slack, Meta Workplace, Microsoft Teams, Google Chat - all paid version for business package. Surprisingly, there are not many options in the market.)

However, following up on work through a chat app can be challenging. I found some of the difficulties associated with using chat apps for work-related tasks:

Message Overload: Chat apps can quickly become flooded with messages, making it challenging to sift through and find important work-related information. It's easy to get distracted by non-work-related messages.

Lack of Structure: Chat apps are often less structured compared to email or project management tools. Important documents and discussions may be scattered across different chat threads, making it hard to find what you need.

Document Management: Sharing and managing documents within a chat app can be cumbersome, especially for larger files or when version control is essential.

Progress Tracking: While some chat apps offer integrations and features for project management, they may not be as comprehensive as dedicated project management tools, making it harder to track progress and deadlines.

Archive and Search: Chat apps often have limited archiving and search capabilities, which can be a hindrance when you need to retrieve specific information or references from past conversations.

To mitigate these challenges, I do consider integrating chat apps with other productivity tools when necessary, such as: Trello, Asana or ClickUp. However, I still feel very cumbersome to switch back and forth between a chat app and a productivity app.

I have worked in large corporates, startups, and small businesses, from companies with a big budget to teams with a small budget, a Chat app is the most utilized tool, especially for Executives level or Managers level. I notice that most of people don't prefer to use a productivity app to compliment what a chat app lack of features. They still stick with a Chat app even it is not very efficient for their productivity, but they love the simplicity and friendly of a Chat App.

Only exception is for teams work in IT/Software/Media/Design (project base), those teams definitely need a productivity (work/task management) app to manage the nifty gritty of their works, and they can not do it only within a chat app. However, in the company wide, when those teams work with other departments such as: Sale, CS, Warehouse, Accounting, etc, they also prefer to use only on a Chat app.

Among popular chat apps, I think Microsoft Teams it is the most suitable app to fix my problems of using a chat app for work. However, MS Teams is quite slow, clumsy, and not user-friendly, I feel like Microsoft tries to add on too many features on this app, and make it quite complicated.

Slack is my most favorite app, it is fast and friendly, their new features Canvas is good for document sharing, and task monitor, but it is still very basic, not as good as Microsoft Teams.

This is my conundrum, I love using a chat app but also hate depending on it for work. I could not find any solution in the market that fit my needs. I would love to have a simple chat app that I can both communicate well with my team and also can organize efficiently my work information. I do have ideas how to build a app like that, but I would love to hear insight from you guys, whether you guys have the same problems that I mention above. Or anyone who have good solutions for me, please share it. Thanks.

P/S: Anyone want to discuss or know more about my idea to build a new chat app for work, please DM me. Cheers.