
Ask HN: What remote collaboration software is everyone using? - gt565k
I work for an industrial material handling company and we&#x27;re currently trying to rapidly transition our older folks to be able to work from home.<p>Currently evaluating different remote collaboration software platforms. We use microsoft teams for a subset of the platforms, but need to ability to receive phone calls from customers.
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unlinked_dll
I gotta say I really don't like Zoom, at all. I think their software is buggy,
unstable, and completely unfit for a developer team. I'm guessing their
windows version sucks less than MacOS or Linux.

Skype has not really let me down, ever.

At a previous job I had good experiences with Bluejeans as well and it never
gave us trouble. Best A/V quality as well.

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sethammons
We used to use Skype several years ago. Linux was buggy as all get out. I had
a crib that checked if Skype was hanging every minute and killed and restarted
it if it was.

Now I'm on Mac with Zoom. Not a high bar for video conferencing, but Zoom does
well enough.

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kevinherron
We’re still using Slack, only now we use the audio calls and screen sharing.

GoToMeeting/Zoom/TeamViewer has always been part of the sales/support team
arsenals, so they’re still using those as well.

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markshepard
Checkout AirSend([https://www.airsend.io](https://www.airsend.io)). It brings
team chat, built-in file, task management and notes in one space. One big
downside of slack/team is that they are built for team communication within
the organization. But if you want work with clients they are not as good (need
to switch the workspace and select the channel). AirSend is good for both
internal and external communication.

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diddeb
> need to switch the workspace and select the channel

Meh, there's the notion of guests in Slack, in case you have missed it:
[https://slack.com/intl/en-
se/help/articles/202518103-Multi-C...](https://slack.com/intl/en-
se/help/articles/202518103-Multi-Channel-and-Single-Channel-Guests)

Works great while still letting you retain control.

~~~
markshepard
The thing is multi-channel guest users are counted as your internal users for
billing purposes. If you work with lot of clients (accounting firms, realtors)
it is not really affordable. Also, in scenarios where the clients have their
own workspace than they need to switch the workspace and then access the
channel.

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djzidon
Teams primarily. Still getting used to using calls but it's been pretty slick
so far. Wish we were using Slack however, simply because I find it much more
intuitive

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relaunched
I'm really liking teams. The integration and all-in-one solution is appealing,
as is the price relative to slack / zoom. And, it's evolving quickly.

~~~
JPKab
I wish teams had the screen drawing like slack. Teams also gives me issues
when trying to share my wide monitor with team.

~~~
relaunched
It does. Whiteboard - [https://support.office.com/en-us/article/whiteboard-in-
a-tea...](https://support.office.com/en-us/article/whiteboard-in-a-teams-
meeting-d9210aa2-876a-40f0-8ca0-5deb2fc11ca6)

Sharing oversized monitors or when you are vertically oriented is a problem. I
often have to resize the window.

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finaliteration
At work we use Teams as our primary communication tool. It’s been able to
handle the increase in calls, video chatting, etc, pretty well so far, and
we’ve even added some channels so people can share a bit about their personal
lives and interact that way to decrease some of the loneliness factor.

On the personal front, I chat with some friends via Slack, and then we play
games in the evening on PS4 (does Apex Legends count as personal
collaboration?).

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tomjen3
At work we are using Slack, but the video calls only work on a physical
computer, which is just an insane idea in 2020 where even entry level
smartphones have better cameras than my laptop and where you might need to
show a screen or pin board to a remote team member.

In Toastmasters we mostly use Zoom. The disadvantage is that it is not free
(if you need more than one to one and more than 40 minutes) and that you can't
have a standing meeting, somebody needs to host it and when the host leaves,
the meeting is over. Upside is that it works, and that you can have basic
things like push to speak, mute all participants, etc.

If somebody is looking for a start-up idea, a zero setup, click here to
generate an url and send it to others to have a video meeting would be a god-
send. Slack gets it right by continuing the call as long as at least one
person is still connected, even if the person who started the call has left.

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rurban
I'm doing remote work for over thirty years, and email works fine. Much better
than telephone calls. Everything real-time is a massive waste of everyone's
time.

Websites, like github or jira, are also OK.

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shreyshrey
You need both synchronous (chat, audio/video call) and asynchronous
(email,discourse, wiki) tools to get work done. There is a place for both.

~~~
rurban
I got more work done without constant interruptions. There is no place for
constant interruptions. Either you trust your workers or you do it by
yourself.

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facorreia
Zoom lets people call in and it works very well.

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girishso
We moved to Zulip after trying Slack then Teams. Currently use Teams for video
calls mostly.

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Jemm
Interesting no one here mentions VOIP through either native dialler app or IP
phones. Works fantastically and for the older generation gives them a sense of
familiarity.

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techjuice
Anyone using secure high quality self-hosted collaboration software that
supports chat, file transfers and video chat all-in-one?

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conjurer
Although it isn't as full-featured as most of the aforementioned applications,
Keybase is a great privacy-focused tool.

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badrabbit
Skype,teams. Works great although the usual microsoftisms. Used hangouts,
webex and zoom in the past, skype+o365 beats all.

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davidabcd
I manage my team using todoist. So satisfied.

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agustif
HouseParty is kicking it in Spain's App Store Rankings...

Good for +4 people videocalls

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binoy_b
www.zoho.com/remotely

