Whether it’s for business or staying in contact with friends and family, on your mobile device, PC, or Mac, we’re wondering which one(s) you’re using. My choice in IM and team collaboration clients have varied over the years. A lot of it depended on where I was working or what my other friends are using at the time. Rather than start with the early days of BBS or ICQ let’s just jump ahead a bit. I started with MSN Live Messenger (later to become Skype) because my workplace required it for everyone. I also used it for my own communication, too. However, after MSN became bloated and I realized my friends were on different platforms, I started looking for simpler cross-platform solutions. Then, of course, Skype happened… I decided to go with the open source solution called Pidgin. It’s a free Open Source solution that allows you to bring together all sorts of different platforms. Needless to say, I’ve tried them all. I was even using AIM and Trillian at certain points. When working with a team, a more robust team collaboration IM platform like what we use here now – Slack. However, to talk with friends and family, I move between Skype and Facebook messenger. The only reason I bother with Facebook Messenger, as I’m sure most of you do is that I have so many friends and family on Facebook, it’s almost necessary. There are a lot out there, and I don’t know if there is a single one that does it all. Slack, in my opinion, definitely comes the closest. It’s growing in popularity and rapidly getting necessary features, too. You can add Skype contacts to your team, and video and voice chat and screen sharing are coming soon. So, our question to you is: Which IM or team collaboration client are you using these days? Do you have a favorite or one you can’t stand? Do you use specific ones for business and personal conversations? Let us know in the comment section below and join the conversation. 1 – Apple Messenger (On my Mac and iPhone) 2 – Skype (Consumer) 3 – Slack 4 – WhatsApp More and more….. the people I want/need to speak with are in private Slack Teams. /done Comment

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