App of the week: Flock

Welcome back to our weekly spotlight on helpful apps. We focus on a variety of products that are useful for work, personal use, or both, providing our own thoughts on the apps and what you can do with them. This week we stay connected to the team with Flock.

An intro to Flock
There’s a wide world of team communication apps waiting to be discovered, but Flock is one of the more useful ones. You can create groups and invite your colleagues into the conversation. A group allows you to send messages to one another, share documents at the touch of a button, conduct polls, and even host virtual conference – both video and voice calls. You can also set up to-do lists and assign tasks to various members of the team so everyone knows who’s doing what and when.

But Flock takes things a step further and lets you invite clients and suppliers into the conversation, which means you can share documents with key people outside your company and receive instant approval. You can download the app on iOS and Android mobiles and tablets, or there’s a desktop version for Windows PCs and Macs. With extra availability through the website, team members can access and search conversations and documents from virtually anywhere.

Our review
Flock keeps everything nice and tidy and it’s not too complicated to use. Once everyone on the team has joined the conversation, they can access their assigned tasks and view documents, even while they’re on the go. It’s particularly handy for teams that work in different offices.

The free version of Flock is pretty brilliant. You can send up to 100 documents (at up to 100Mb each) per month and search up to 30 days’ worth of conversations. If that doesn’t cover your team’s needs, there’s also a Pro version for just $3 (about £2.30) per month per user, which gives you 1000 documents and limitless search history, or a bespoke Enterprise package that can be tailored to your company’s exact requirements and budget.

Another really great feature of Flock is its third party app support. You can integrate commonly used programmes such as Twitter, Trello and Google Drive – perfect for teams who have already started projects in other apps but need a bit more functionality.

The verdict
Some of you may have used Slack before. We’re not necessarily saying Flock is better than that, but we can’t argue with the fact that it is very easy to navigate. The conference call function works fairly smoothly and even offers the ability to share your screen from any device – so no more long explanations of what you’re talking about before you can even get started on the call.

All in all, we like the look and feel of Flock and would recommend it to any PA in need of a team communication app.

Do you have a favourite new app you’d like to review for us? Send it to Deputy Editor Molly Dyson at molly.dyson@palife.co.uk.