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Poll: Which Chat Solution Does Your Company Use
Inspired by a recent post about Linen https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33248488#33253157 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33248488#33253157
What is used, why? What's good? What's bad?
- ghostpepper 4y agoZulip has a brilliant threading model (ability to move messages between threads after the fact) but the UI is not something you could recommend to a non-technical user.. yet. I really hope they improve it.
- dsr_ 4y agoAll our employees are using Zulip. The UI is usable.
- tiffanyh 4y ago> the UI is not something you could recommend to a non-technical user.. +1 This is Zulip biggest downfall. I’ve participated over the past 2 years in chat.zulip.org activately advocating for better UI design, even multiple times mocking up what an improved UI would look like and there’s so much stubborness to change it frustrating. I’ve come to the conclusion that nothing more than small tweaks will every change regarding the UI, which is unfortunate.
- Cyphase 4y agoThey're currently in the middle of a large redesign project, as can be seen here: https://github.com/zulip/zulip/issues?q=label%3Aredesign+sort%3Aupdated-desc https://github.com/zulip/zulip/issues?q=label%3Aredesign+sor... https://chat.zulip.org/#narrow/stream/101-design https://chat.zulip.org/#narrow/stream/101-design At the second link, you can click on `more topics` under #design and filter for `ui redesign` to see some of the topics about that.
- tiffanyh 4y agoI’m fully aware. But the changes still don’t address the core problem which is that the UI looks like something from the 1990s. I’m not meaning to hate in it. I actually love Zulip which is why I spent the time and effort mocking up ways to improve it. But the core developers don’t like change.
- IronWolve 4y agoNo IRC?! At my last production plant, we used internal IRC server for the factory floor (export controlled) to cut/paste between test stations, cant use most cloud chat for export controlled data. Also another internal IRC for the NOC and systems admins, mostly since its been up for a decade+. But mostly teams.
- djbusby 4y agoTurns out we can add items to an HN Poll, so I've done that.
- fragmede 4y agoSee, the problem with working for Slack/Microsoft/Google (which is also hilariously a cellphone company)/other provider of messaging services, is if you're on the network ops team, what do you do when your service is down? Deep in the playbooks there's still an IRC fallback.
- scrivna 4y agoRocket.Chat
- montpeliervt 4y agodiscourse.org
- richbell 4y agoWould "Microsoft" be Skype for Business, Microsoft Teams, or both? We migrated off Skype to Teams. Cisco Webex Teams, that is. :(
- nickexyz 4y agoWe used RocketChat for a few years, but switched to Matrix/Dendrite/Element a couple of weeks ago since no one was really happy with RC. Had a few weird bugs with Matrix (Probably Dendrite's fault) but so far everyone seems happy. Element has become surprisingly snappy the last few years.
- Arathorn 4y agovery cool to hear of Dendrite being used in the wild like this; it's still beta so we definitely don't make guarantees about it being bug-free yet. that said, would be interested to hear what weird bugs you hit (in #dendrite:matrix.org perhaps) so we can get more real-life datapoints on how it's behaving. Also, very glad to hear that Element is feeling snappy.
- nickexyz 4y agoYeah, we were aware that it is beta (I host a private server as well.), but decided that Dendrite probably is the best way to future-proof the solution. Most of the quirks I have seen seems to be with federation, but since we don't federate the company server, that is not an issue. There have been some avatars missing in the contact list, notification indicator when there aren't any new notifications and other small stuff. Nothing major really, works great! Especially since you have weekly releases with plenty of fixes. I'll keep an eye open for bugs and drop by #dendrite! Awesome job with the software, looking forward to the coming releases!
- iLoveOncall 4y agoDon't forget Amazon Chime (though I doubt any other company was foolish enough to adopt it)!
- j33zusjuice 4y agoWe use Google because a VP has a hardon for Google. It’s not good. Threading is garbage, there are limited text formatting options, and some of them don’t work right all the time (code blocks don’t work if you’re copy/pasting text that has a format applied, like bold or colored text, for instance). I like the Google video calls for the simple interface, but I dislike that the chat doesn’t save.
- alephxyz 4y agoFyi ctrl+shift+v will paste without formatting and work with code blocks
- janef0421 4y agoWe use teams, which is less than ideal. I'd like to suggest we transition to matrix, but I'm not sure how to broach the subject.
- ecshafer 4y agoIf I ever work at a company that uses Teams again, I will quit that company. How much I hate Teams can in no way be overstated. For a chat program it shouldn't cause so much anger, but its so bad at everything it does.
- pawelduda 4y agoNot sure how it works on Mac but on Linux it's a dreadful experience and I don't think any work tool had ever annoyed me more
- aeroevan 4y agoI just use the web version which works well enough on chrome, but is annoying. But luckily we also have slack and that's where most of data science/software collaboration happens
- vladvasiliu 4y agoOh man, I actually prefer the Linux version to the Windows one. The interface is a bit more usable, in that all the controls are grouped in the same place. On Windows, the bar is split along the top and right sides of the screen, and you can't set the incoming video to take the whole screen. Even "focus on content" still leaves a bunch of stuff hanging around. The only thing I prefer on Windows is that it uses native notifications. Other than that, it's the same laggy, broken piece of crap on all platforms. When I was still using a Mac, teams there seemed similar to Linux.
- luckman212 4y agoCurrent versions of Teams have the option to use native notifications (on macOS) and have had this feature for some time now. FYI.
- solardev 4y agoIt's terrible on Mac. It's terrible on Windows. It won't even load on my phone. It's just terrible everywhere.
- antipaul 4y agoGoogle chat, and while it’s ok for 1-1, group chat is a disaster Even for 1-1, I get too many of those those “Hi Joe” pings without any content. I have a permanent status “nohello.com” but the UI is such trash, no one even knows it’s there
- bistro 4y ago> I get too many of those those “Hi Joe” pings without any content. It's not Google's fault your coworkers suck at chatting.
- brundolf 4y agoSlack has become Not Great over the years, but it's still somehow the best of all the major options How hard is it to not mess up chat
- SQueeeeeL 4y agoIt's trivially easy to not mess up chat. Not messing up chat while middle managers continuing promising quarterly growth, that's another story...
- umeshunni 4y agoIt's actually better than it was 5 years ago. I worked at a company 2017-18 that used slack, changed jobs to a company that didn't use slack 2018-21 and now work at another company that uses Slack. I find that the product is much better today at basic things (performance, search etc) than it was in 2017.
- brundolf 4y agoWeird, my experience has been the opposite. Started using it in 2014, it was great for a few years and then started gradually going downhill in terms of performance, bugs, (desirable) feature additions, etc. I have constant problems with syncing and notification-clearing, and somehow Discord (?) got syntax highlighting for various programming languages in code blocks and Slack still doesn't have that
- genpfault 4y agoMicrosoft Teams, but that's more of a chat problem than a chat solution.
- noodlesUK 4y agoThe small agency I work with has used keybase in the past but it’s been degrading ever since zoom bought it. It was such a good platform on the way up.
- djbusby 4y agoI too miss what KeyBase could have been :(
- kuramitropolis 4y agoSpookiest acqui-hire ever.
- hnews_account_1 4y agoThe problem with Teams is it has a ton of badly implemented functionality destroying what it does well on a straightforward basis - simple chat. For that use case, it is as good as anything else out there and I don’t know why people complain. If you start using things like actual “Teams” it starts getting troublesome. We use it like a Facebook wall. Individual vertical heads will post information or call to action from time to time but it is largely static while we chat with each other all day outside it. This is bad but what pisses off tech illiterate people even more is they have an entire share point built for the fucking software. Most tech illiterate people cannot understand how to use it and keep switching between that and chat and losing their work. If you need to use a file heavily while chatting, you need to open it on the desktop version or the entire experience will suck donkey nuts. If you need to constantly use that particular share point file system for daily tasks, then you’re an idiot if you can’t figure out or ask IT for the easier solution of just syncing it to your file explorer and never touching the Teams app. The app sucks major balls but a lot of it is because it caters to a non tech savvy crowd and they’re constantly trying to walk a fine line between being functional graphically and also allowing power users to just get super access and get on with their day.
- vladvasiliu 4y ago> For [the chat] use case, it is as good as anything else out there and I don’t know why people complain. What kind of computer are you running this on? In my case, I have a Zen 3 laptop and Teams can't keep up with my typing. It's the only app where this happens. And I only type with basically 2.5 fingers per hand, I'm not some kind of typing Olympics title-holder. It also somehow manages to be the only program where I often type my letters out of order. If god forbid I want to scroll back up in the chat to see what was said a few days ago, it's an absolutely horrible experience. The chat jumps all over the place, loading messages is laggy, and occasionally, it downright doesn't work (the bubbles stay blank). I need to go to a different chat, come back, and try to go back up the history again. Don't even get me started on search, which, if it works, won't give you any context. I think the reason people complain is that we're in 2022, running ridiculously powerful computers, and this crap still manages to be an all-round inferior experience than MS's own MSN messenger 20 years ago. Yeah, I know it's "more than a chat app", but as you put it, it does it terribly. So if the chat part sucks, the "more than chat part" sucks, what's left to not complain about?
- guptaneil 4y agoWe use Guilded at Guilded. Corporate use is not our intended use case and I wouldn’t recommend Guilded for enterprise concerns, but as a startup, I can’t imagine not having this tool. All of our chat, docs, calendars, tasks, meetings, etc are in one place and easily cross-referenceable. More importantly, we have groups which are like mini-servers inside your server. Your whole company can be in one server, while each team can have their own space with their own channels and permissions. https://www.guilded.gg https://www.guilded.gg (I am of course biased since I work on this product, but these are my own opinions)
- asdfqwertzxcv 4y agoHard to tell since the site doesn't offer much info and pushes users to download right away, but are the calendar and docs self contained in the app or do they interface with outside services and pull data in?
- guptaneil 4y agoThey are self-contained
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- renewedrebecca 4y agoMattermost is pretty nice, really. I wish it had a better way to export conversations in order to save them, but overall, way nicer than teams.
- snicker7 4y agoSymphony, for compliance reasons.
- TheFattestNinja 4y agoFound the guy working in my sector. MS?
- Ftuuky 4y agoFound the investment banker
- grensley 4y agoDiscord is honestly great for work, especially if you're organizing contractors using their roles system. The problem is that it's also the chat system a lot of my friends and hobbies use, so it really messes with my work/life balance. If I do ever use Discord for work again, I'm going to have to make a separate account.
- alberth 4y agoIt’s interesting to see how few use Zulip given that it’s targeted at the HN crowd and there’s a lot of love here for it.
- dizhn 4y agoWhatsapp should be in the list. It is very unfortunate but even some local and state goverments are using Whatsapp groups.