WEB SERVICES - ONLINE CHAT - 18.02.2014

Chatting professionally in teams

What’s HipChat?

HipChat ( http://www.hipchat.com ) is available as a cloud tool, desktop program or mobile app. It allows you to create a separate chat room for every “project” (which could also be a customer). In this chat room, you can communicate with others and share files in real time. We put the web version to the test. HipChat is free for teams of up to five. If you want to work with larger groups, you will be charged a monthly fee of $2 (£1.20) per user. During the 30-day trial period you can use this tool free of charge and without any limitations.

How does it work?

Registration. After signing up, you will receive a long link to invite other participants, although you can also invite them at a later time. You’re subsequently taken to your personal dashboard, where you can launch the web module via My Account , Home or where you can download the desktop version or mobile app.

Create a chat room. You can create an unlimited number of chat rooms. Each room can be public or private. In the latter case, only the people you invite are given access. In the case of a public space, you can communicate its existence using its unique URL. In each chat room, you will see a Rooms Actions button at the top right: it not only allows you to invite people, but also to change the status of the chat room (e.g. from private to public). Interestingly, participants aren’t required to register: they only need to enter their name in order to join the conversation.

Chatting. Chatting itself is done via the field at the bottom of the chat room. Anything the participants type will appear in the chat window as soon as they hit the Send button. The paperclip icon lets you add files to the chat session. Image files are displayed directly, other formats (e.g. documents) can be downloaded. If you have to leave the room for a moment or don’t want to be disturbed, you can change your status at the bottom left to “away” or “do not disturb” .

Tip. During the chat session, you will be asked whether you wish to activate desktop notifications . If you do this, you will be notified of any new incoming chat message in a separate window, even if you’re doing something else at the time.

Extra features. The Room Actions button contains other options, such as changing the name of the chat room or deleting the room. The magnifying glass next to this button lets you search the chat history but, annoyingly, the results are first shown in a separate window instead of directly in the conversation itself.

Note. Initially, only the chat history of the currently opened chat room is searched; however, in the extra search window, you can indicate that all chat rooms should be checked. Note. Via My Account ; Group Admin you can keep control over your chat rooms, the participants, their rights, e.g. whether they’re allowed to delete the chat history or create new chat rooms themselves, etc.

Worthwhile?

There are plenty of other chat tools, and HipChat isn’t the most original or comprehensive one. Still, if you’re looking for a simple and intuitive chat tool for teams, you should definitely give HipChat a try.