The Best Microsoft Teams Apps for Collaboration in 2024

“One good turn deserves another.” It’s safe to say that this exact mindset gave birth to Karma, the employee recognition software. On Karma, team members can recognize and reward each other for work well done. Beyond these, Karma can generate performance reports, so managers are up-to-date on the team’s achievements. 

When integrated with Microsoft Teams, Karma helps share micro-feedback instantly and engage with teams to gain valuable insights. A small dose of Karma’s magic can be the turning point for improving employee engagement and happiness at work.

Reasons to Use Karma:

• Dedicated onboarding tour of the app that sets you up for success
• Leaderboard, dashboard, and other views to give you a bird's eye view of selected performance metrics
• Reward your team with real-life perks and rewards

Something to Note:

• Karma might be a bit pricey compared to its alternatives

On the surface, Assembly’s app looks deceptively simple. With its culture suite, you can shout out peers and reward employees to make them feel seen and appreciated. On a deeper level, you can integrate other features to suit your needs on the Assembly platform. Take the Microsoft Teams integration feature, for example. 

With it, your team can:

• Give and receive recognition directly in Teams
• Get notified about Birthdays and Anniversaries in Teams
• And do so much more

The best part is that it’s easy to set up and start using.

Reasons to Use Assembly:

• Assembly offers a wide range of integration options, including but not limited to Microsoft Teams, Bamboo HR, ADP, Workday, Rippling, and many more
• Responsive customer care representatives to help you get started quickly and efficiently on the platform
• Assembly comes loaded with anniversary and birthday automation so that you never miss important milestones
• Personalize your core values with the recognition feature so that it becomes second nature to employees
• An engagement suite that includes recognition,  1:1’s, contests, icebreakers, employee nominations, announcements, and more

Something to Note:

• The number of features can prove daunting to some customers

Is there anyone here who dislikes administrative tasks? If you raised your hand, you’d love Signeasy, the…easy way to sign, send, and manage work agreements. The Microsoft Teams integration comes with features that allow you to edit documents in real-time, add details to agreements when signing, and sign multiple document formats like PDF and Word. Etc. With Signeasy, you never have to chase anyone [too much] for a signature ever again. 

Reasons to Use Signeasy:

• There’s a dedicated email and chat support
• It supports both Android and IOS — two of the biggest operating systems

Something to Note:

• The pricing can be a bit steep for smaller teams

Boring meetings, poor communication, and subpar employee engagement are some of the deadly sins plaguing the modern workspace. As a result, the present-day employee feels unmotivated, and productivity is always in the gutters. This problem exists at the individual level and in some general company cultures. 

However, this doesn’t have to be your company’s story. 

Introducing Polly; an easy way to engage with colleagues, capture feedback, and instantly make more data-driven decisions. Polly integrates with Microsoft Teams to give features like:

• Real-time responses to pressing questions
• Multiple choice, freeform polls, hot takes, and icebreakers for teams
• Real-time analytics and insights to gauge the mood of your audience 

Together, these features can boost employee productivity, engagement, collaboration and, ultimately, take your team from zero to hero.

Reasons to Use Polly:

• The free version comes with an unlimited number of templates to choose from
• Engage your team with multiple quizzes, trivia games, multiple choice, open-ended, and rating-type polls
• 30 days of result search history for free

Something to Note:

• At the moment, users can’t import external data from other surveys into Polly

Mural says that teams don’t just need a better place to work; they need a better way to work. And their approach to solving this issue is providing teams with a virtual whiteboard for troubleshooting problems. In the Mural collaborative system, you can add a blank canvas to your chat, draw with anyone you invite, brainstorm with colleagues, and collaborate visually with selected participants — all in one place. You can also integrate Mural with Microsoft Teams to get a custom tab, a notification bot, and a messaging extension. Taken together, these strengthen employee habits and lead to more engaging and impactful results.

Reasons to Use Mural:

• Dedicated email customer support service for all your inquiries
• Access to over 100+ built-in templates 
• Custom Mural tab for brainstorming, mapping, and visualizing processes, user journeys, etc

Something to Note:

• There is limited support for working offline with Mural

Trello, the popular project management software, needs no introduction. Channeling a triple-threat combination of lists, boards, and cards, Trello is the fastest way to convert your workplace into a “productivity powerhouse.” 

You can integrate Trello with Microsoft Teams to view your boards, lists, and cards directly from the Teams app. After integration, team members can create new Trello cards, set due dates, and mark them as complete straight from the Teams app. Trello for Microsoft Teams allows work to get done in a faster, more flexible, and more fun way. 

Reasons to Use Trello:

• It integrates easily with a wide range of software
• The free plan has a rich catalog of freebies like unlimited cards, unlimited storage, and endless activity log
• Trello is available on both computers and mobile phones (iOS & Android)

Something to Note:

• Advanced features like analytics and time tracking are only available as integrations

Feedback is key. This is evident in all areas of life and not just at work. However, knowing your team's feelings and productivity levels always pays off long-term. And that’s why businesses need to adopt TINYpulse, a single platform for employee engagement, recognition, and surveys on Microsoft Teams. This platform lets teams quickly give and receive actionable feedback in real-time, leading to a better-engaged workforce.

Reasons to Use TINYpulse:

• Exclusive access to insights, support guides, and resources to keep you updated on the latest trends
• A dedicated customer success manager to set you up quickly and smoothly
• 24/5 customer support services to attend to all your needs

Something to Note:

• Because of how much TINYpulse can do, some users report that it can get overwhelming 

Givitas works because it democratizes knowledge sharing and also makes it accessible. Operating on the principle that “no question is a bad question,” the software provides employees equal access to their peers' collective intelligence, knowledge, experience, and expertise. As a result, this increases a team’s efficiency, engagement, and energy levels.

Reasons to Use Givitas:

• Easy to use, easy to set up, and an all-around intuitive tool
• The software is relevant across a range of industries and use cases
• It also comes with metrics and analytics support to help you better understand your organization's who, why, where, and how

Something to Note:

• There is limited information on the cost of the software so request a demo before making any commitment

Picture Iron Man’s J.A.R.V.I.S. or Batman’s Alfred, and you’re halfway to understanding what Hypercontext does. 

Although Hypercontext won’t help you fight off villains, it’ll help to organize meetings, keep them on track, and eliminate pointless distractions. It’ll also go one step further to take meeting notes, gather feedback, and analyze meeting conversations. Integrate Hypercontext into the Microsoft Teams app, and voila! — you have all your interactions in one place. 

Hypercontext is the ultimate sidekick because it frees up your time to do focused work without all the annoying admin bits.

Reasons to Use Hypercontext:

• It comes with notifications to help you stay on track and follow up in meetings
• Access to over 500 conversation starter templates so your meeting is never awkward or boring
• Unlimited 1:1 team meetings on the free plan

Something to Note:

• There’s no real-time collaboration on the free version