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Platform
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Pros
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Cons
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WhatsApp
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- You can block someone
- Keeps an audit trail
- Encourages empathy and acceptance
- Informal
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- Can get added to a group without giving consent if someone has your number
- Anyone in the group can access your number
- Asynchronous communication (can get called or messaged at any time)
- You can’t unsend or delete messages
- Doesn’t enable collaborative working
- Surveillance- shows the person has read the message
- The university cannot control what happens outside of the university – accountability issues if issues arise
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Facebook messenger
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- You can unsend messages
- You can block someone
- Keeps an audit trail and you can search back through the conversation
- Encourages empathy and acceptance
- Informal
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- Asynchronous communication (can get called or messaged at any time)
- Doesn’t enable collaborative working
- Surveillance- shows the person has read the message
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Microsoft Teams
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- Can choose which group to join
- Synchronous communication (can schedule interactions by phone, video)
- You can edit or delete posts/messages
- Enables collaborative working
- Can view analytics relating to activity and engagement
- Q&As, polls and interactive features
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- Can get added to a group without giving consent if someone has your email
- Has limited reach (only those in the group can see the information shared)
- Does not provide an audit trail (gets deleted after a certain period)
- You can’t block anyone on a work account
- Surveillance- shows the person has read the message
- Formal so less personable
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Yammer
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- Can choose which group to join
- Enables collaborative working
- Can view analytics relating to activity and engagement (must ask IT however)
- Q&As, polls and interactive features
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- Has limited reach (only those in the group can see the information shared)
- Formal so less personable
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Instagram
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- Engagement is easy/user friendly
- Most of the members are already well familiar with it – easy to connect
- Can share photos/videos that are graphically appealing
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- Group chats are not enabled
- Requires a picture to post an update (if using a page)
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Telegram
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- Can have large number of group members – up to 30,000
- Group can join many channels to stay connected
- Easy to use – the mobile app is user friendly also
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- Cannot send anonymous messages
- Messages are not end-to-end encrypted
- No individual read receipts in group chats
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Discord
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- Specific channels for text and voice chat make planning and holding meetings easily.
- Can assign custom titles to users, which makes identifying a user’s job or position easy.
- Screen sharing
- Most Discord services are completely free of charge.
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- Limit of users and channels per server
- Predominantly used as a platform for gamers
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Twitter
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- Can create group chats which support sharing pictures, links, emoji, and tweets in addition to text.
- Reach a wide audience and use hashtags to help encourage engagement.
- Twitter Analytics shows you how your audience is responding to your content, what's working, and what's not.
- It is free.
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- Only allowed 20 participants in a private group chat.
- Additional users can be added to the group chat at any time and by any group member -- not just the user who started the group- Privacy issues.
- Restrictive 280 character-limit for posts
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