Flock is a collaborative business messaging application, designed to compete with Slack. The app is presented as a fast and reliable means of communication, and is available in a free edition for teams of up to twenty members.
$0
for teams of 1-20 members
Google Hangouts (Classic)
Score 7.8 out of 10
N/A
The classic version of Google Hangouts included messaging, voice, VoIP, and video call capabilities. It was replaced by the Hangouts Chat collaboration tool, and Google continues to support conferencing via the new Hangouts Meet.
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Pricing
Flock
Google Hangouts (Classic)
Editions & Modules
Starter
$0
for teams of 1-20 members
Pro
$6
per month per user (ideal for teams of 20-100 users)
I did not like Google Hangouts. Hangouts is more geared toward personal communication instead of business related communication. Flock is also a lot easier to use and has more options related to a business setting.
Unlike Flock which is more official,
Google Hangouts are geared towards personal communication rather than business.
Flock on the other hand has many features which relate to business setting
Flock is very well suited in scenarios where individuals must communicate via chat. It also works great when teams need to communicate via group chat messages. File and document sharing is another area where Flocks works well. Channels are used for discussions on specific topics or organization-wide announcements. Flock may be less appropriate when you use it for voice and video calls. Where.
Had I completed this review a couple years ago, I would have given a rating of 9 or 10 as Hangouts (Classic) is an excellent product. However, now that Google Chat has succeeded Hangouts, I would not recommend that any new users begin using it where other more modern options are available. Android users who want an internet based instant messaging that also supports calling and video calling could benefit from using Hangouts (Classic) as Google Chat requires the user to also have Google Meet installed to make video calls and there is no voice only calling option.
Networked phones are a thing of past now. We don’t have to stop what we are doing to receive phone calls currently because Flock can do that
It is now easy to send messages to many people at the same time, all we need to do is to add all the contants in the chat and select all to send a message
This software has an in-built to-do-list which allows us to assign tasks to different people or users and then supervise each independently
I would like to see improved video support, so that saved videos can be sent back and forth via Hangouts more easily, without having to start a separate meet chat
More pronounced notifications of messages would be helpful; pop up notifications are good, but once there is one, additional messages do not pop up
Custom muting times would be great, so that if I am in a 90 minute Zoom meeting, I can set it for that time; right now, it is 1 hour or 2 hours. Easy to forget.
We would likely to renew use of Flock for our organization since it meets most of the requirements of team collboration and communication for a small group like us. Most of our Flock users like it's features and use it extensively for day-to-day work. We are quite optimistic about it's future updates.
It is good to give what an app deserves, Flock is very efficient and effective app to manage the all day to day activities and communicate across all team members, create groups, share files, send reminders schedule reminders for each group or persons and share notes.Pin files and search any messages from anyone with advanced filters. It's a great app.
The tool is almost self-implemented. It is likely to be available in every pc or mobile device a user or potential user might have, and all you need to do is adding the company's account and you are done. Once you are setted up, you have almost all actual communication methods available in one tool
We've only needed customer support a few times with Flock (mainly concerning app integration and security), and they've always been timely and helpful, which are the only things I truly need from support. The response rate was still rapid, and there's plenty of support available online as well for Flock.
Google Hangouts works great and does not require a lot of work to troubleshoot. Everything is simple and easy to use. Google provides all of the tools that one requires to utilize Google Hangouts and any information can be found in the built-in help tools. There is also a forum for users to report issues and typically, Google responds well and will try to work out any issues.
Flock as mentioned takes the best of all these apps and improves upon them. Flock's UI was exactly what we were looking for and Flock doesn't overcharge small teams for search functional or messaging. It just offers a great product at a great price combined with great support. Their chat ticket system works almost immediately.
Google is the white cotton socks of the conferencing world. It’s a great ad-hoc tool, but not too much more. If you are not looking to spend money or operate completely on WiFi (without data charges), it’s a great free option as well. The benefit of being free and open is also the liability. It doesn’t have a great integration story with other corporate tools, but [it doesn’t have to] if you aren’t looking for that. All in all, it’s as helpful and ubiquitous as a public payphone…without the pay…and with a video capability.
I believe it was part of the google suite that was purchased. It was worth the cost as it was cheaper. I believe it is now free, but also becoming deprecated. It is much better to use Teams, Discord, Telegram, etc. Google does not provide enough support or features to make using hangouts worth it these days.
