10 Must Have Apps for Microsoft Teams

Coming in strong as a serious contender to Slack and Skype, Microsoft Teams is really making its mark. On the one hand, this collaboration tool is fully integrated with the Office Suite. Nevertheless, new Apps for Microsoft Teams are being developed every day.

We have surveyed the net for a few must-have apps for Microsoft Teams. Whether you have been using it for a while, or even if you are new to working with Microsoft Teams, you might get some new ideas from this list.

Planner

Microsoft Planner is the easiest and most useful app you’ll add to Microsoft Teams. It is especially useful for project management. For teams who are used to collaborating on Trello, this tool will feel rather familiar. Although Trello also has its own Teams integration, Planner is also a Mircosoft profduct, so it may offer a more seamless user-experience.

Planner lets Teams owners create a plan and follow up with specific tasks. Plans and tasks can be organized into tabs. Then, multiple tabs can be added to a team channel. Team members can track their tasks right in Microsoft Teams or directly in Planner. Moreover, they can get notified when tasks are assigned to them.

YouTube

If you’re building an arsenal of useful Apps for Microsoft Teams, YouTube might be an odd choice. Particularly if the objective for using Teams is to make your team more productive. Since, as we all know, YouTube can be the cause of a lot of procrastination.

However, YouTube can offer some effective solutions to teams, particularly when it comes to employee training. Hence, adding the YouTube app to Microsoft Teams could help you reference training videos or other type of reference material.

After all, the purpose of conducting your teamwork on the Microsoft Teams platform is to keep everyone focused and to keep all relevant information in one place.

Jira

Jira is another popular task manager. It’s mainly customer service focused. In a nutshell, this software helps teams deliver value to customers more effectively. When added on to Teams, it can help teams to stay agile, to plan and track tasks more effectively.

As far as Apps for Microsoft Teams go, Jira is the most well-suited to manage a software development project. With this integration, Teams can more easily visualize workloads, app performance and bug resolution.

Teams can discover and share insights right inside of their collaboration tool. This helpful addition is known as the Microsoft Teams Jira Connector. Indeed, it will help your organization stay connected and avoid the pitfalls of disrupted workflows.

Polly

Every once in a while, a Team needs to make decisions, or come to an agreement. It can be as trivial as deciding where to order lunch, or as important as deciding when to hold a team meeting. Therefore, having some Apps for Microsoft Teams that can help you run polls in tandem with your conversations is useful.

Polly is a frequent favourite for Microsoft Teams users. Like most survey apps, it lets you create surveys right inside of your collaboration tool. With multiple pre-set templates, it’s easy to use and polls can be created quickly. In addition, results can be presented in real-time. Then, comments can also be enabled, so that everyone can make their vote and have their say.

Trello

Just like the above-mentioned Planner, Trello falls into the category of apps for Microsoft Teams that help to organize your projects. If an organization is already accustomed to Trello, then it might be easier to simply get this app as an add-on to Microsoft Teams. This way they do not need to transfer multiple tasks or projects to a new tool.

However, it’s another great way to view and prioritize tasks right inside of a team’s main communication and collaboration tool. Trello has the added benefit of being flexible and fun to use.

Karma

Feedback is important. If your organization believes in encouraging positive behaviours, then you need to give Karma a try. Karma is a fun HR app that will appeal to team members of all ranks. In a nutshell, it allows people to give “kudos” to fellow colleagues for a job well done. This helps promote a culture of feedback and positivity.

Karma can be used to applaud a successful presentation, or an interesting analysis. Kudos can be given to a good reply in a thread, or for a post that is particularly “on point”. Users of this app rave about it. In fact, new users of Microsoft Teams claim that this app has helped them to implement Teams in their workplace.

Wiki

The Wiki app comes as a default app for Microsoft Teams, that is included when you create a channel. Some users might not understand what it is for and may delete it, but this app has its fair share of benefits.

For one, it can be used as a dedicated space to keep notes for everyone on a Team. It’s kind of like having a shared note document for the entire group to collaborate on. It is particularly useful for specific, one-off projects.

Therefore, it can be used to as How-to guide, to write down guidelines and best practices for a team that is collaborating for the first time. It is easily accessible, and perfectly integrated with Microsoft Teams. Hence, instead of deleting this default app, find a novel and creative use for it!

Twitter

Twitter is one of the largest and most-used social media platforms. Many businesses use to in a variety of ways, to promote their products or to communicate with their customers.

In many cases, Twitter is an excellent way to gather customer feedback. With the Twitter integration for Teams, the customer feedback can be funnelled straight into the chat tool. In fact, alerts can be set so that your Team never misses an update that is relevant to them. For instance, when customers use your company’s hashtag or tweets at your handle, this information can flow directly into Teams.

Once again, this solution offers a useful way to maintain a stead workflow. By leveraging these useful apps for Microsoft Teams, your workers can focus and be more productive.

Disco

It’s tough to maintain good company culture. Especially when teams or certain employees are remote! Disco is an application that is here to help iron out this issue. Essentially, it’s an app that is made to celebrate your organization’s culture and values.

Not unlike Karma, it helps to give shout-outs and to congratulate colleagues publicly, right within Microsoft Teams. For example, when a project is delivered ahead of schedule, a manager can give a team or a specific team manager some Disco “points”. These points will be visible in Teams. Hence, appreciation can be somewhat quantified, and tracked.

Vacation Tracker

This one is brand newly available!

If you’d like to add a leave-tracking calendar to your Microsoft Teams workspace, you need to know about Vacation Tracker. Currently available as a Slack-integration, it is a great tool popular with household brand names such as McDonalds’, Nike, IBM and more. Teams from these reputed brands trust the simplicity and effectiveness of this employee vacation tracking software.

Test out this newly available integration today:

Kristina Ousmanova

Kristina recently left behind fast-paced life of Human Resource Business Consulting to freelance as a Content Writer. A regular Vacation Tracker contributor, she can be found working remotely from her home in Montreal, usually while eating a variety of snacks.