Emails faces an existential threat from another great app, writes Perry Timms
Inbox bulging? Calendar stacked? Messages that need responding to from your remote team? Constant series of video calls looking for people’s addresses? Projects in progress that all need checking? Meeting after meeting after meeting getting in the way of doing work and catching up with the team?
Skrumble might be for you. Take the same email relief approach to Slack with messages through channels and threads, private and group messages coupled with integrated calling, meetings setups, and video calls.
Skrumble is effectively trying to negate the need to have a series of machine-slowing tabs open for Skype, Slack, Basecamp, Outlook, Word, Lync, Excel, Sharepoint Intranet, Yammer, Google Docs, Hangouts – you get the idea.
Within Skrumble you can:
- Set up channels – projects, ongoing work, new ideas, new leads, team keep-in-touch just like Slack
- In the channels, post updates, progress checks, drag-and-drop files and clips, links and images
- Private or group messaging – just like Yammer DMs or Lync messages
- From group or channel posts, launch immediately into a voice or video call complete with screen share
- Set up virtual meetings and launch them from within the channel: no need to dive into the Skype address book or scan Hangouts for the last time you made that call
- All files, threads, posts, hashtags, uploads are searchable with Skrumble
This is an app to watch – it brings knowledge and creative workers together and brings dialogue to their work. Is it another nail in email’s coffin? If nothing else this proves how busy the alternative to email marketplace is becoming. Slack and Ryver had better watch out.
Skrumble is available from iOS and Play stores alongside a desktop interface. There are enterprise accounts available – small fees per user give access to unlimited messages and full video and voice calling options.
Perry Timms is an independent HR/OD practitioner, speaker, writer and CIPD adviser on social media and engagement. Tweet him @PerryTimms