Ever look at your team and go, “We have the talent, the ideas, and the drive – so why does it feel like herding cats to get our work organized?” That’s where the right tools come in. Whether it’s keeping conversations on track or determining who has the bandwidth for the next big project, tools such as Slack and Float promise to make teamwork smoother. But here’s the thing: they aren’t quite fighting for the same crown.
Slack is the de facto team communication app-channels, chats, and GIF conversations that somehow keep everyone on the same page. Float isn’t here to chat; it’s an app for resource management, enabling you to assign tasks, track workloads, and ensure nobody gets drowned in deadlines.
So, are these two tools comparable? Well, technically they aren’t. They’re not in direct competition, actually. One does the talking, while the other acts. But here’s the thing: understanding how they differ and complement each other could be the key to running a more efficient team. Let’s dive into how they stack up.
Slack vs Float: Defining the purpose
Well, first things first: what exactly do Slack and Float do, and why would anyone need them? While both are targeted at making teamwork less chaotic, they solve completely different problems.
Slack is your go-to for keeping conversations organized. It’s like the digital equivalent of a buzzing office – a place where you can pop into a “room” or channel, discuss a project, ping off a quick direct message to a coworker, and share a meme or two for some comic relief. Its chief ambition? To help keep conversations moving without that ugly email fatigue. If your team thrives on instant updates, fast decisions, and GIF wars during meeting downtime, Slack is your tool.
On the flip side, Float is more like the calm project manager in the corner, armed with color-coded spreadsheets. It’s all about resource and workload management. Float ensures that tasks are assigned, deadlines are visible, and no one’s taking on more than they can handle. Need to know who’s free for a last-minute project or whether you’re running over budget? Float has your back.
So, Slack keeps the communications flowing, and Float keeps resources appropriately allocated, making sure projects are moving as planned. These two tools aren’t rivals; they complement each other, which is why their union is perfect for teams looking both at effective communication and resource management.
Now, let’s go to what each tool offers. After all, it’s about features-and both these tools boast plenty.
Key Features of Slack
With a robust set of features aimed at streamlining interactions and keeping things organized, Slack has grown to be one of the primary communication platforms for teams of all different industries. Let’s investigate each of these key features in greater detail so that you understand precisely what makes Slack an effective tool for team collaboration.
Channels
Channels are the basic building blocks of organization in Slack. A channel is a single place for a team to share messages, files, and conversations around one topic. You can create channels for projects, topics, or departments, such as #marketing or #product-feedback. Channels can be public – in other words, open to everyone in the organization – or private, invitation-only spaces for sensitive information. This segmentation reduces noise and allows team members to remain focused on the conversations that matter to them.
But what makes Slack’s channel system so powerful is the flexibility it offers: You can customize your channel notifications, pin important messages or files, and use threaded conversations to reply directly to specific messages without clogging the main feed. This allows teams to stay organized without the chaos that comes from multiple group chats or mile-long email threads.
Direct Messaging (DM)
For fast, one-on-one conversations, Slack’s direct messaging feature is a godsend. Be it a fast question or a private chat, DMs let you skip the larger group conversations and engage in more personal discussions. You can send text messages, share files, or even initiate calls directly from a DM.
Slack also allows for group DMs, which are ideal for smaller teams or ad hoc groups that do not require having a full channel. You can add up to nine people in a group DM, making it ideal for focused, private collaborations among teams. You can, therefore, have specific discussions without the distraction of an entire channel.
Searchable Message History
Slack’s search functionality is actually what makes it different from a lot of the communication tools out there. It indexes everything shared in Slack, whether it be a file, message, or link, making it fully searchable. That includes messages, attachments, and even reactions – yes, even those fun emoji reactions.
When you search in Slack, you can filter results by channel, date, person, or even specific keywords. This makes it very easy to find past conversations, crucial documents, or key points discussed weeks ago. No more endless channel surfing or trying to remember exactly in which thread you talked about the marketing plan. Slack’s search means everything is at your fingertips exactly when you need it, and that’s vital for long-term projects or quick access to past discussions.
File Sharing
Slack makes file sharing seamless: drag files in and drop them into your conversations, whether that’s channels, DMs, or even group DMs. Slack supports a wide range of file types-from simple documents to high-resolution images.
But Slack doesn’t stop at the transferring of files. Once uploaded, you can preview those files directly within the platform. You can, for instance, open up PDFs, images, and even slideshows without downloading anything. Slack also supports the cloud storage services of Google Drive and Dropbox so you can link to the files stored on these platforms, thus never having to leave Slack while collaborating on such. This really is a great way to have your team dependent on an outside document management system: streamlining the entire workflow into one platform.
Audio and Video Calls
When text isn’t enough, Slack offers audio and video calls to cater to quick meetings or discussions of ideas more than just messages. Slack lets you initiate a call from any conversation – be it in a channel or DM – with just one click of a button.
Other handy features include screen sharing on calls. Whether you are reviewing a report, walking through a design, or troubleshooting an issue, the ability to share your screen within the app reduces the need for separate video conferencing tools. It also integrates with other video platforms like Zoom and Google Meet, making jumping into a meeting with just one click pretty easy.
Customizable Notifications
Slack knows that not every notification is critical. To help you minimize distractions, Slack has a range of notification settings to customize. You can refine the alerts to notify you of only the most important messages or when you’re directly mentioned, so you can keep focused on what matters most.
You can exclude irrelevant channels from showing up, set priorities for notifications either from a channel or from specific people, and even set “Do Not Disturb” hours to avoid alerts during off-hours. This way, Slack remains a useful tool for communication without overwhelming you with constant notifications.
Key features of Float
Float is one of the most powerful tools in resource scheduling and project management, as it lets teams plan, track, and optimize their workflows in style. While Slack is all about communications and collaboration, Float focuses on resource allocation, time management, and project tracking. Now, let’s review some key features of Float that make it a strong means to manage teams, schedules, and tasks.
Resource Scheduling
The most iconic feature of Float is probably its resource scheduling. Apart from standard project management systems that merely allow you to track activities, Float allows for effective resource utilization. You can plan how much time each of your team members will have, assign specific tasks to certain people, and understand their availability in real-time.
Float’s drag-and-drop interface lets you adjust the timelines for projects and employee workloads with ease. If any project falls behind or one feels overloaded, you quickly readjust tasks, change dates, and even add extra help – all without knocking a wrench into the works. This feature is beneficial to any team that would want to stay up to speed on project timelines and evenly balance employee workloads.
Workload Management
Float enables workload management, presenting an overview of current and future assignments for each member of the team. It thus helps project managers to visualize the availability and workload of individuals in different projects.
With this tool, you can easily find out who is underutilized or overwhelmed and redistribute the tasks accordingly. The color-coded schedule gives a visual of each person’s workload to help prevent burnout. Workload management within Float provides you with an overview of all your resources so that you can better plan future tasks and make necessary changes.
Team Collaboration and Comments
While the main focus of Float relates to scheduling and resource management, collaboration features are available that help keep the team in close touch. It will, for example, support commenting on any task or project, or even a scheduled resource for the alignment of everyone.
This feature is helpful for updates, task details, and feedback all within the platform. Users can tag colleagues within comments to make them aware of the change in certain tasks, ensuring that conversation stays focused on that particular task rather than scattered communication. Collaboration features of Float are fewer compared to Slack; however, they play their role in keeping the views of a team aligned with regard to their schedule and work.
Project Dashboards
Float project dashboards give a high-level overview of the progress and health of your projects in the works. These dashboards surface important information such as deadlines approaching, resource allocation, and how much time has been logged against tasks.
These dashboards give the manager an overview of the whole team’s progress for better decision-making. You can easily tell if a project is on track or not, or identify resource shortages that you need to take action on. It makes life easier for the team to stay on top of the work and then course-correct when needed.
Task and Project Tracking
Float helps you to divide big projects into smaller, manageable tasks and track the progress of the same in real-time. You can assign each task to a team member, give it a priority level, and then track it through to completion.
What makes Float unique is the real-time tracking of task progress; once a task is complete, it reflects in real-time across the platform. You’re able to track the status of each task through visual flags that identify if tasks are on schedule, delayed, or complete. You’ll have full visibility so you’re able to catch things early before they go off the rails.
Reporting and Analytics
Float’s reporting and analytics enable managers to understand how much time is spent on different projects and by team members. The platform provides real-time insight into project performance, team workload, and resource utilization so that managers can optimize their operations based on actual data.
Reports can be created for specific projects, clients, or team members to let you gauge the performance against key goals and deadlines. These insights will no doubt be very helpful for budgeting, forecasting, and resource planning by giving you a more informed look at where to put your time and resources in the future.
Slack vs Float: Pricing
Slack offers a variety of pricing plans to suit different team needs. The free version is great for small teams or those just starting, but the paid plans unlock more advanced features like unlimited integrations, group video calls, and enhanced security. While the premium plans may be a bit pricey for smaller businesses, they offer great value for larger teams or organizations with complex communication needs.
Float’s pricing is fairly straightforward, with plans based on the number of users. It’s affordable for small teams but scales well for larger organizations with more complex project and resource management needs. While it’s a paid tool, the investment is justified by the powerful scheduling, workload management, and reporting features it offers, making it a worthwhile choice for teams focused on optimizing their workflows.
Slack vs Float: How Each Tool Fits into Your Workflow
By now, you’ve seen what Slack and Float bring to the table, but how do these tools actually fit into your daily workflow? Let’s break it down.
Slack is your team’s communications hub. Here, your conversations flow, the files get shared, and coordination is done in real-time. Channels keep things organized, and integrations ensure connectivity-everything your team needs to move faster. It’s not for deep task management or resource planning; it’s to move the conversation.
On the other hand, Float is great at scheduling and resource management. You can plan out your team’s time, assign tasks, and make sure no one is over or underworked. Float offers that structure to keep your projects organized, on track, and completed on time; it doesn’t focus on real-time communication or chats.
Put them together, and you’ve got the perfect workflow – Slack handles communication and quick decisions, while Float ensures that resources and schedules are properly managed. These two work in harmony, so your team stays aligned and productive, without constantly toggling between apps.
Slack vs Float: How They Can Complement Each Other
1. Structured communication
Slack keeps the conversation flowing, keeping your team in the know about who is doing what and where as it happens. Meanwhile, Float handles resource allocation, rescheduling, and balancing workload to maintain a seamless structure that helps manage tasks with much more efficiency.
Where Slack provides the spark for communication, Float lays the foundation for teamwork to thrive and become truly productive.
2. Stay informed with notifications
Float goes beyond organizing tasks – it keeps everyone in the loop. Automated reminders and notifications make sure upcoming deadlines never slip through the cracks. If a new task is assigned or someone’s workload becomes too heavy, Float sends updates straight to Slack, keeping your team informed instantly.
3. Clear views and quick chats
Float’s intuitive dashboards give you a clear view of projects, helping you track progress and identify hurdles. Slack complements this by having quick discussions of tasks and solutions. This ensures your team stays organized, aligned, and collaborative.
4. Integrations for simplicity
Where the magic really happens is in how they all integrate. When you connect Float to Slack, you get real-time updates on who’s working on what, and when, and whether your resources are available-all from within Slack. No more app-switching; everything you need is at your fingertips.
Slack vs Float: The final word
Looking back at all that, it’s pretty obvious Slack and Float aren’t competing on the same playing field. Slack keeps your team talking: chats, channels, and quick updates to keep everyone connected. Float, however, is all about making sure things stay organized, assigning tasks, tracking workloads, and making sure deadlines are met without burning out the team.
So, are they comparable? Not quite. But while Slack and Float serve different purposes, when used together, they offer the perfect combination of communication and organization, creating a seamless workflow that keeps teams productive without missing a beat.
If you need a combination tool for communication and task management in one user-friendly platform, try Chanty. Chanty puts everything in one place – chats, tasks, file sharing, and more – to help your team deliver results seamlessly. Try it for free today and discover how Chanty can revolutionize your team’s productivity!
