In your working life, you probably use email to keep in touch with colleagues and team members, as well as meeting face-to-face or using the telephone.

Kids today, though, have found a much more efficient way to stay in constant contact with friends. They use social media chat apps like Whatsapp, which allows them to maintain a continual stream of conversation in written form, among multiple people.

Online services such as Slack have, over the past couple of years, been highly successful in bringing Whatsapp-style efficiency and style to business conversations, allowing colleagues and teams to communicate in groups both large and small without needing to resort to email or telephone. And one of the newest entries in this area is currently offering its service totally free.

To try it, head to this website and sign in with any valid email address or your Google account details. Then you can start building online teams, inviting people to participate in online discussions, and generally start streamlining your communications.

Whether you use such a system for work, or for personal chores such as planning a family event, this might be just the technology you've been looking for.  Read More

Allo is Google's latest instant messaging app, announced at Google I/O together with a one-to-one video calling app Duo in May 2016.

Three months later, Duo was launched and it has now reached more than 10 million downloads, whereas Allo was just launched in September 2016.

It's too early to predict if Allo will gain popularity among IM users but certainly it has many competitors, including WhatsApp with most active users currently around the world, in this crowded market of IM apps.

Chances are you're already on a chat platform but one is hardly enough if you need to message with friends that are all over several platforms.

Allo serves as an alternative IM with some standout features like smart replies and a digital personal assistant called Google Assistant, making full use of what Google is already best at—Search.

Are you impressed with Google Assistant in Allo? Give it a try and let us know what you think about this instant messenger. Read More