Troop Messenger Review: Slack Alternative for Small Businesses

 

In a world where many people still work remotely, communicating with your team can be difficult when face-to-face meetings are required. Additionally, the lack of physical interaction between you and your team can make it difficult to have a good mood at work and ensure everyone is on the right page. Workplace set-ups stretching from office to dining tables makes the use of collaboration tools essential more than before. Let me share with you about Troop Messenger.

What is Troop Messenger?

Troop Messenger is an instant messaging app and effective communication tool similar to Microsoft Teams and Slack that enables me and my team members to communicate and collaborate via desktop and mobile applications. It is by Tvisha Systems PVT LTD, a company based in India. This collaboration software offers the best messaging between business professionals of all sizes and types, anywhere they are. You can have a group chat, team chat or direct messaging to your employees for work conversation. It features a mobile app downloadable on the app store and a desktop app which supports Windows and Mac OS.

For large enterprises, Troop Messenger also offers a on-premise or self-hosted option with a custom app to isolate sensitive information from leaking out. These professional features makes it suitable for all types of uses.

As a chat application, Troop Messenger has developed more of what a collaboration tool is used to offer. The stunning features with high-end security allowed Troop Messenger to rank higher in the market that can help you take your business to the next level.

Why is Troop Messenger a Great Slack Alternative?

I must say, small business owners like us, work hard to thrive in their business more than ever, especially during these trying times. From establishing the business up to daily transactions, hands-on supervision is required to ensure successful profit growth. And this supervision has been easy for me, because of the help of technology. From in-person meet-ups to video conferences, technology has allowed excellent communication with my team and clients a lot easier and cheaper. It became one of the pillars of ensuring the success of my business that when the team was ordered to work from home, a lot of our workforce population was able to adjust.

As we all know, Slack has been the go-to chat and collaboration tool for the past few years. It is a channel-based messaging platform that allows us, the users, or professionals to work together. Slack allows you to integrate other applications into it and receive notifications from them. Say, someone commented on my post on Facebook, I can easily be notified of it. However, Slack is quite expensive compared to other collaboration tools.

Through time, a lot of Slack alternatives like Google Chat, Microsoft Teams, Rocket Chat, Wickr Pro, and other teams instant messaging apps surfaced the market to help provide more efficient service for the user in different workplaces. But, Troop Messenger emerged to provide us with tailored fit functionality and improved service needed in a team collaboration tool, making it a great Slack alternative. Troop Messenger is a new collaboration tool that allows you to share what you are working on, collaborate on tasks, and chat with your team. It looks like a WhatsApp application, but much brighter and cleaner. You can also set goals, track team progress, and communicate quickly and easily in group chats. The good thing about Troop Messenger is that it is a highly functional tool but has a seamless UI too.

Slack vs. Troop Messenger

One-on-one conversations, group conversations, making voice and video calls, sending and sharing files, are some of the few features that Slack and Troop Messenger have in common making them both useful for collaborating with your team. 

To see how Slack and Troop Messenger differ from each other, try to look at the features I listed below.

FEATURES	SLACK	TROOP MESSENGER
One-on-one Messaging	✓	✓
Group Conversations	✓	✓
Voice Calls	✓	✓
Video Calls/Video Conferencing	✓	✓
Audio Messaging	X	✓
Mute Conversations	X	✓
Burnout Window	X	✓
Self-Messaging	✓	✓
Unlimited Message Search	Paid version	✓
Favorite User/Group	✓	✓
Global Search Filter	X	✓
Advanced Search Filter	X	✓
Search by Image Filter	✓	✓
Search by Videos Filter	✓	✓
Search by Files Filter	✓	✓
Search by Location Filter	X	✓
Search by Contacts Filter	X	✓
Search by URLs Filter	X	✓
Search by Time Filter	X	✓
ForkOut option	X	✓
Live Location Tracking	X	✓
Recall/Delete Message Option	✓	✓
Unlimited Accounts/Workspaces	Paid version	✓
High-End Security Pin	X	✓
Fingerprint Access Security	X	✓
Add Members using Public/Private email ids	✓	✓
Settings and Permissions	Few are paid	✓
Guest Collaboration (Orange Member)	Paid version	✓
Share groups with other organizations	Paid	✓
Storage	10 GB / User	20 GB / User	150 GB / Account – Premium	1TB /Account – Enterprise
Easy to Understand	X	✓
Simple Navigation	✓	✓
Preview files/images	✓	✓
Integration Tools	✓	Limited
Free Plan	✓	X

Troop Messenger Features You Should Know About

Messaging and Video Highlights

Burnout Window

This unique feature that Troop Messenger has is the Burnout window feature. You can chat confidentially because of the Burnout window. It enables you to chat with a user or your members in a confined time period and your chats are stored nowhere. Sending information such as passwords, credit card information detail, can be set to auto self-destruct so that none of that is stored. This is great for a confidential chat or private personal information between colleagues. This allows team members to maintain their privacy when discussing them during work and boost overall employee satisfaction.

To use the Burnout Window feature, you have to choose the contact or recipient of the message first. You can find the Burnout button on the lower part of the message window beside the Location Tracking icon. See the figures below. 

Forkout

This feature allows you to group message users from your computer or phone. If you need to send out the information to a large group of people, you can do that through the Forkout feature without needing to individually message everyone. You can send messages to everybody on the same network, including members of your team, without having to do any of the manual work involved with that.

To try the Forkout feature, you have to click the Forkout button before the voice message icon. Once done, a pop-up menu will appear with a search filter for your contacts. You just have to choose the contacts or the recipients of the message by clicking the box beside their name and you can now begin writing your message. When you are done, you can just send the message and it will be received separately by the contacts you have chosen. 

Respond Later 

If you’re also a busy person like me, and you can’t always respond to email messages right away, just mark them with the Respond Later icon. The message will have a red dotted circle and go back to it anytime. In the meantime, you have the world at your fingertips so your team is always up-to-date. This makes it easier for you to stay in touch with them while keeping your professional projects at the forefront.

Say, you have marked multiple messages with the Respond later icon, and you wanted to look for a certain message that you wanted to respond to first, you can easily find that through the advanced search filter. 

Edit Message

Sending the wrong information is common in the fast-paced business world. It could be because the message was sent at the wrong time, or it’s not what you wanted to say, or it’s just not appropriate for the setting. Just like Slack, you can also edit the message you’ve sent through the edit message feature in Troop Messenger. 

Remember that you can edit the message as many times as you need within five minutes. It can be identified with a pen marker along with the edited time shown within the message. 

Recall Message 

If you’ve sent a message in the wrong window, all you need to do is hit the Recall message icon and it’ll take the message down. This is a useful feature, particularly when you have a habit of sending messages that you didn’t intend to. Not only is this a great way to fix mistakes, but it’s also a good way to protect your privacy. 

To recall a message, you just have to Right-click the message you sent and a pop-up menu will appear. Choose the Recall option. A dialog box will appear asking for your confirmation if you want to recall the message. Click yes and your message will be unsent. You can only recall a message in three minutes. This feature is also available as Slack, there only difference is that you can delete the message in Slack anytime.

Info Message 

As a leader, I can attest that communicating important messages is essential for team collaboration. You always need to get your point across and the only way to do that is by communicating effectively. Of course, you need to send your messages to the right people, and ensure that they put their attention on them and don’t lose it. You also don’t want to waste time and effort sending out messages that go unheard or ignored. With the Info Message feature, you will be able to know if the messages you have sent were delivered or read already.

To check the info of the message simply right-click the message you want to check, then choose the Info option from the pop-up menu.

Read-Receipts 

This Troop Messenger feature allows you to tag the person or a user in a conversation and have it acknowledge the message you sent. The Read Receipts icon will turn to blue at both the receiver’s/ sender’s end, once the message has been read by the recipient. It works well on our team and I must say, you should try it too. 

To enable the Read Receipt feature simply click the read receipt icon beside the Location Tracking icon. Compose your message and hit send. Once the message is read, the circle will have a solid blue color. 

Flag Message 

Messages are overwhelming, especially if you’re receiving notifications from multiple channels. And as a leader, it’s important to make sure I keep track of the important messages and updates I got from my team. One of the best things about Troop Messenger is that you can Flag down the important messages, so you won’t have a hard time looking for them.

I do this by right-clicking the message that I want to flag down and choosing the Flag option on the pop-up menu. 

Audio Message

Send or receive a short audio message to and from your team to ensure the right leveling of information. You can also review the audio message you record before sending it to your team. This is helpful when you wanted to explain intricate instructions to your team.

The one thing I like about the audio messaging feature of Troop Messenger is that you can send audio that is more than a minute long.  You can do this by clicking the voice message icon beside the Forkout icon. 

Mute Conversation 

You can always choose to mute conversations that you don’t want to be notified about. This is called the Mute Conversation feature. You can also choose to unmute the messages anytime. To Mute a conversation, you need to choose the user or contact that you want to mute and click the speaker icon beside its name. 

Always remember that when you mute a conversation, you can still receive a message but you won’t get notified by it.

iBUZR (Quick Response Panel- QRP) 

URLs, text files, videos, images, contacts, code snippets, canned, and recent messages are stored in the iBUZR panel helping you to quickly pick and share the things that you need across groups and other users of the application. 

To enable the iBUZR feature, go to your Personal Settings then choose the iBUZR field. Simply slide the switch button to enable the Quick Response Panel.

Group Calling

This feature enables us or the users of the group to join an audio/video group call and experience video conferencing conversations with each other. Once you initiated the call, the participants or members of your group can be added to an ongoing call. One can also join the call through the “Join Now” facility. If the users want to reject the call, they can select a customized message to be sent to the host as to why they declined the group call invitation.

Search Filters

Troop Messenger has a lot of useful Text Search filters to help you perform some basic tasks with ease and trim the use of your time. For example, you can use the filters to quickly find files like a text document or a video, and you can then either share it with the contact or send it to the team. You can also filter your contacts to find the person you want to talk to, which is great if you have a lot of people you want to contact at once. You can mark them as your favorite contact for you to easily find them next time. There are also other text filters you might want to use like contacts, by location, time, and even use the URL filter to quickly find the links you need for your work.

Sharing Highlights

Remote Screen Sharing and Controlling 

Presenting reports is easy with the use of Troop Messenger platform because it allows you to screen share with your managers and allows them also to access the contents of your work using the screen controls. This can be done in Troop Messenger without the use of a third-party tool. In this feature, you can also initiate an audio-video call during the screen share for you to detail the contents. And sharing your screen can be done easily since you do not have to ask the permission of the host to do so. Just take note that screen sharing can be done one participant at a time, so you have to take turns in sharing your screen.

Sharing

File Sharing 

Troop Messenger makes data sharing easy for me and my team. There are plenty of cases where I have to share files, for example, to show them my recommendations for their work or to share design files to get their opinion about it. You can do this too, through the File Sharing feature of the app.

Screen Sharing 

Giving instructions will be made easier through direct sharing of your real-time desktop screen with other team members. This will help you save time, and understand the tasks, better. Simply open the chat window of the team member/user you want to share your screen with. Click on the “+” symbol and choose the Screen Share feature. The user you choose to share your screen with should be online for him/her to accept the screen share request. This time, your desktop screen is already shared with them. When you are done, you can simply click the stop button to end screen sharing.

Live Location Tracking

You can share your real-time location with other participants in a chat for a limited amount of time when using the Troop Messenger app. This feature can stream live location data of the user from the device to maps so that the user and chat members can detect real-time location updates. Live location tracker expires by the time it reaches the timer limit or when you or the user terminates it.

Other Features

Orange Member 

One of the unique features of Troop Messenger as an office chat platform that is really helpful for me and my team is the Orange member feature. If you wanted to work with someone, say a vendor or an outsourced individual to help you accomplish a certain project, you can do so by adding him/her as an Orange member of the group. An orange member can not be added in groups, see message info of other users, and see profile info of other users. 

Customer Support 

Just like any other corporate chat app, Troop Messenger also offers customer support to answer your queries and guide you on how to fully maximize the features of Troop Messenger. They have How-To guides, FAQs, TM Bulletin which displays the latest updates for the messenger version, and Product Demos that will help you understand the interface of the Troop Messenger application. 

You can also send a message to the Troop Messenger customer service team and expect their assistance within 24 hrs. The team can remotely control and fix your issues for you without the use of different software. See the image below. 

Features to Look Forward to in Troop Messenger

I must say, Troop Messenger has great features, however, there is still much more the instant messaging app can extend to its users. Lacking in integrations is one of the biggest downsides of Troop messenger that is why the developers are making ways to improve the integration features of the application.

According to Ranadeep Devarakonda of Tvisha Technologies Corporation, there are still upcoming product features in Troop Messenger that will surface in the next six months, but on a scale of 1 to 10, he would recommend the use of Troop Messenger with an 8.5 score rating. Below are the features we should look out for in Troop Messenger.

Zapier

Not having the ability to have a notification come in when new customer tickets come in, or updates in your project management tool or new movements in your CRM makes troop messenger quite handicapped. With that, they are adding Zapier as another integrated tool for the chat application and the issue will no longer be a problem. However, I think Zapier is quite expensive. I would definitely look at having the possibility of Webhooks, Pabbly Connect, Integromat, or Integrately integrations instead.

Mailtrim

They are also adding Mailtrim, developed by the same parent company as another integration tool. Mailtrim is an email client which allows the user to link in email accounts, read/send emails from clients and other team members, saving enough time for us, users, to do such email tasks. 

Cattle Call 

There will also be added features with Cattle call to improve our video calling user experience. 

The addition of integration tools, allows us to skip the need of using an email client like Outlook, Windows Live Mail, or Thunderbird and integrate more business functions into one app which Slack currently does not have. Creation of polls and event features, setting restricted permissions between members and admin access, migration of messaging contents and channels from other collaboration tools, and even allowing the user to take off the grid for personal and work emergencies are some of the upcoming features we can look out for at Troop Messenger. Through these soon-to-emerge features, we can say how effective Troop Messenger will be for team collaboration.

How Does Troop Messenger Work? 

Of all the advantages you have read about the efficiency the Troop Messenger can offer, I’m sure you are excited to know how it actually works. And you can easily do that, in a few easy steps.

Step 1. Go to the Troop Messenger website.

Step 2. Click on the 1-month Free trial button.

Step 3.  Fill the form with your valid details.

Step 4. Create the password and enter the OTP which has been sent to the given email ID.

Step 5. You are now registered with Troop Messenger. You can begin adding staff or teammates, make group conversations, and start communicating.

Final Thoughts

From the stated features I have shared above and yet to be experienced by users of the chat app, I can say that Troop Messenger makes a great tool for Slack alternative. Though it still needs some improvement especially on its search function, I think Troop Messenger right now is an affordable option for many people who can’t afford Slack. There are still some annoying bugs in Troop Messenger such as the browser being limited in features and very slow. But the developers are trying their best to improve the application for a better user experience. I believe it answers the business needs of effective collaboration and business communication, especially those operating on a small scale. Offering quality and efficient sharing features, and customized messaging app enhancements, at an affordable cost, will make team collaboration and communication a lot easier. You wouldn’t have to worry about delegating tasks and leveling office memos for you can actually do that in a few clicks. We can even communicate with people outside your team where your ideas and suggestions will meet in a safe place. 

Troop Messenger may still be in the process of developing some of its features, but I believe it helps empower businesses and organizations in their team communication and collaboration, help guarantee the success of project management, and work effectively as remote teams, even in different workplaces set-ups. At its core product Troop Messenger is definitely still a much superior product than Slack. Once some time Troop Messenger opens up their API for integration with thousands of different apps out there, I’m very sure we can loudly proclaim that Troop Messenger is better than Slack.