The Google collaboration tools in G Suite can help you and your team work together effectively and efficiently to create and share high-quality content, collaborate in real time, and connect to people and information. Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, Drawings, and Sites are easy to use and deeply customizable so you can add features such as comments, attachments, and the ability to work offline at your discretion.
Our Google collaboration tools give you the best way to work with people around the world. Whether you’re sharing ideas and feedback in real time, or storing and organizing your documents and workflow, we’ve got the basics covered when it comes to working together online.
Campfire
Campfire, from the makers of Basecamp and Backpack, is a web-based cross between instant messenger and chat room that has been designed for business groups and collaborative teams. The free account only allows four simultaneous chatters, which is enough for our editorial meetings. Campfire has one of the best transcript storage features I’ve seen.
If you’re looking to have a free discussion with more than four team members, I’ve found Skype to be decent at the job — except for its poor transcript implementation (if you Skype guys are reading, a transcript feature makeover would be great!).
Writeboard
If you want something a little less heavy than Google Docs, Writeboard is lightweight and simple yet provides excellent control over the revision history of your document and allows you collaborate with others on a simple document in a fluid and intuitive way. It’s impossible to ever lose a great idea using Writeboard, which is one of the few free offerings from 37signals (the makers of Campfire, Basecamp and other products).
Mixin
While TimeBridge is very handy for scheduling meetings across timezones, it relies on everybody selecting a few times they can make a meeting and then the software picks the best matches. Mixin takes some of the guesswork out of the process and instead of forcing you to try and “feel out” where your collaborator’s gaps and availabilities may be, allows you to see it all visually. It doesn’t replace TimeBridge, but it’s very useful especially when nobody in the group can seem to find a time that works for everyone.
MediaWiki
The wiki software that powers Wikipedia is well-known amongst geeks as one of the ultimate collaborative systems, allowing you to do everything form collaborate on documents to leave messages for each other that are attached to those particular documents. If you’re the type who gets an email about a project but forgets all about it by the time you go to work on the project next, that particular frustration disappears with the help of the Talk page.
I’ve also found MediaWiki excellent in setting up training documentation for teams. Use a wiki to tell your team of bloggers how to format their entries correctly and which CSS classes to use in images, and provide a style guide while you’re at it.
MediaWiki requires a bit of geekery and knowledge to get set up, but it’s worth the effort if you’re willing to put the time and effort into learning it.
WordPress
If you’re looking for a collaboration-friendly blog, WordPress recently got some great upgrades that make it an excellent choice. I wouldn’t suggest anything else for a multi-author blog. As I mentioned earlier, half of a good collaborative system is a warning that someone else is editing the article in question, and WordPress supplies that. But even better, it now has a revision history system that allows you to peck through and find that obscure quote you accidentally deleted while you were fixing image sizes. Or if a disgruntled blogger on your team vandalizes everything before leaving, it’s pretty easy to fix everything up.
Gmail
Gmail is a user-friendly email provider that offers 15 GB of storage space per account. What you might not know is it also allows for collaboration through a delegation option. Delegates can read and send email on your behalf while accessing the account.
To set this up, follow these simple steps:
- Click the Settings button (gear icon) and choose
- Select the Accounts and Import tab at the top.
- Scroll down to Grant access to your account.
- Make your selections for the Mark as read and Sender information
- Click Add another account, enter the Gmail address for the person you are delegating to, and click Next Step.
- Confirm the email address and click Send email to grant access.
You’ll be directed back to your Gmail settings where you’ll see the person’s email address in that section. It will display as Pending until they accept the invitation and will then change to reflect that.
Your delegate has seven days to accept your invitation. Once they do, they will see your account listed beneath theirs with the word Delegated. They simply click that to manage your inbox.
Download: Gmail for Android | iOS (Free)
Google Sheets
Google Sheets is a spreadsheet app you can use with others simultaneously. Advantages like conditional formatting and built-in spreadsheet formulas save time for you and collaborators. You can even see other people make edits in real time.
To share your spreadsheet, follow these steps:
- Click the Share button on the upper right.
- Add the email addresses of the people you want to access the spreadsheet.
- Click the pencil icon and specify whether people can view the sheet, edit it, or comment on it.
- Alternatively, you can use the Get a shareable link option and send the link manually. Choose the viewing and editing permissions when doing so and you can group message or email the link to your team.
- Click Done when you finish.
Want to send a notification to a collaborator in the sheet? Just right-click the cell in your sheet and pick Comment. Then type a plus sign followed by the collaborator to send a notification to their email address.
Download: Google Sheets for Android | iOS (Free)
Google Slides
Getting ready for a group presentation? Avoid endless phone calls and emails about how to proceed, and collaborate with Google Slides instead. Select an appealing template to save design time and make your words pop with hundreds of font possibilities.
Like Google Docs and Sheets, this collaboration facilitator allows in-the-moment editing by any authorized individual. Simply follow the now-familiar process for granting privileges with the Share button on the upper right of the window.
Download: Google Slides for Android | iOS (Free)
Google Hangouts (Chat)
Google Hangouts, to be renamed Google Chat, is a messaging app. Use it to talk to one person at a time through text or up to 150 individuals.
You can also launch a video chat with as many as 10 people. Start a new conversation by clicking the plus sign. Then, add people by name, email address, or phone number. Finally, choose whether you want a message-based conversation, phone call, or video call.
Let more people join by clicking the person icon and clicking the Invite People icon on the top. Then, follow the same process you initially did when creating the chat.
Download: Google Hangouts for Android | iOS (Free)
Slack
A collaboration tool which needs no introduction
TODAY’S BEST DEALSVISIT SITE
REASONS TO BUY
+Excellent interface+Impressive free version
REASONS TO AVOID
-Some might want more depth in security
Slack is without doubt a mighty collaboration tool, with millions of users around the globe. It’s an incredibly smart platform, and you can get it on mobile and desktop devices. It allows for the sending of direct messages (DMs) and files to a single person or a group of employees, and there’s the ability to organise conversations into different channels (perhaps for specific projects, one for technical support, general chat, and so forth).
The app also supports video calling. You can use the feature to talk to your colleagues about projects and work in-depth, without having to type everything into a DM. While this isn’t a replacement for cloud storage services, you are able to drag, drop and share files with your colleagues directly within Slack. It’s also compatible with services such as Google Drive, Dropbox and Box.
To round things off, Slack even has a free version, although unsurprisingly it has limitations (in terms of the number of messages stored, overall storage space and so forth).
Ryver
An easy-to-use collaboration platform
TODAY’S BEST DEALSVISIT SITE
REASONS TO BUY
+Easy-to-use interface+Comprehensive platform
REASONS TO AVOID
-Rivals have more features
Ryver is similar to Slack, aiming to give your organisation a highly effective means of communication, and an easy way to talk over tasks, ensuring that deadlines are met.
What makes Ryver a compelling option is the fact that you can create as many teams as you want within the app, and easily categorise them to boot. As is the case with Slack, you can use the platform to set up chats with groups and individuals.
There are some interesting filters, too. You can control who sees the things you say and post in the app, and obviously enough, join the teams that are most relevant to you. All company posts are located within a Facebook-style newsfeed, and you can mark posts to come back to them later on.
There’s also a host of native clients across mobile and desktop, including Mac and Linux. There’s also a premium version for enterprise which offers workflow automation, Single Sign-On (SSO), and advanced team management.
Conclusion
The right content at the right time puts you firmly in the driver’s seat. Make your meetings more productive with Google collaboration tools that facilitate real-time peer review, shared editing and more. More productive meetings make a difference to a company’s performance. And to your bottom line.