Flowdock icon

Flowdock

Flowdock is a collaborative team workspace combining group chat, inbox, and integrated tool notifications. It streamlines communication and information flow for agile teams, connecting conversations with project management and code development tools like GitHub, Jira, and Trello.

License: Commercial
Available for:
Online

About Flowdock

Flowdock provides a centralized hub for team communication and collaboration. It integrates real-time group chat with a unique 'Flow' inbox that aggregates notifications from various project management and development tools. This structure aims to reduce context-switching and keep team members informed of relevant activities across their workflow.

Key features include:

  • Combined Chat and Inbox: Unlike standard chat applications, Flowdock features a dedicated inbox that pulls in updates from integrated services alongside ongoing chat conversations. This helps users stay on top of activity from tools like GitHub, Jira, and Trello without leaving the Flowdock interface.
  • Integration with Development and Project Management Tools: Flowdock boasts a wide range of integrations crucial for development and agile teams, including GitHub, Jira, Trello, Bitbucket, Asana, and more. These integrations push real-time notifications into the Flow inbox.
  • Real-Time Communication: Offers standard real-time group chat capabilities, allowing team members to communicate instantly, share files, and use mentions (@mentions) to direct messages.
  • The Flow Structure: Communication is organized into 'Flows', which can be created for specific projects, teams, or topics. Each Flow has its own chat and inbox, helping keep conversations and related tool notifications focused.
  • File Sharing: Users can easily share files within chat conversations, making it convenient to distribute documents, code snippets, or other relevant files quickly.

Flowdock is particularly well-suited for software development teams and those using agile methodologies, where staying connected to code commits, bug tracking, and project updates is critical. The unique combination of real-time chat and aggregated tool notifications in the Flow inbox is designed to create a more efficient and less distracting environment for collaborative work.

Pros & Cons

Pros

  • Unique 'Chat + Stream' approach consolidates communication and external tool notifications.
  • Strong suite of integrations, particularly for development and project management tools.
  • Effective for agile and technical teams who need to stay informed about activity across their toolchain.
  • Robust search functionality across chat and Stream history.

Cons

  • Interface visuals feel slightly less modern compared to some competitors.
  • Managing notification volume from numerous integrations in the Stream may require configuration.
  • Relies on external tools for project management rather than offering built-in capabilities.

What Makes Flowdock Stand Out

Combined Chat and Stream

Unique architecture that integrates real-time chat with an aggregated feed of tool notifications in a single interface.

Agile Team Focus

Designed specifically with the needs of software development and agile teams in mind, with robust integrations for key developer tools.

What can Flowdock do?

Review

Flowdock Software Review

Flowdock is a team collaboration platform that distinguishes itself from many standard team chat applications through its unique combination of real-time chat and an integrated 'Flow' inbox (also referred to as a Stream) that aggregates notifications from connected services. This dual-panel approach aims to provide a comprehensive overview of team communication and project-related activities in a single interface.

Core Functionality: Chat and Stream

The primary interface of Flowdock is divided into two main components for each 'Flow' (channel or group): the Chat and the Stream. The Chat functions much like traditional real-time messaging platforms, allowing team members to communicate instantly, share messages, and use features like @mentions, emoji reactions, and file sharing. This provides the necessary channel for quick discussions and collaborative problem-solving.

The Stream is where Flowdock offers a different perspective. It serves as a chronological feed of activities from integrated tools and services. When an event occurs in a connected application – such as a new commit on GitHub, a task update in Jira, or a card movement in Trello – a notification appears in the Stream of the relevant Flow. This aggregation means team members don't need to constantly check multiple external tools to stay informed about project progress or critical events. The Stream acts as a passive observer, keeping everyone in the loop without requiring them to leave Flowdock.

Integrations

A significant strength of Flowdock lies in its extensive list of integrations, particularly those relevant to software development and IT teams. Support for platforms like GitHub, Bitbucket, Jira, Trello, Asana, Zendesk, and various CI/CD tools ensures that development activity, support tickets, and project management updates are surfaced directly within the collaboration tool. The ease with which these integrations can be configured and managed contributes positively to the user experience. The value of Flowdock is significantly enhanced by connecting it to the tools already used by the team.

User Experience and Interface

The Flowdock interface is generally clean and intuitive, with the Chat and Stream panels easily accessible within each Flow. Navigating between different Flows is straightforward. The search functionality is robust, allowing users to search across both chat messages and Stream items, which is crucial for finding past information or specific events. File sharing is simple, and shared files are easy to access. While the interface is functional, it might appear slightly less modern compared to some newer collaboration tools on the market. Performance is generally good, with real-time updates appearing promptly.

Collaboration Features

Beyond basic chat and the Stream, Flowdock offers standard collaboration features like thread replies (though the implementation might differ slightly from newer platforms), the ability to paste code snippets with syntax highlighting, and support for various file types. The focus is primarily on facilitating communication and awareness through the combined chat and notification feed rather than providing integrated project management tools within Flowdock itself (unlike some competitors that offer built-in task management). Flowdock relies on integrating with specialized tools for those functions.

Use Cases

Flowdock is particularly well-suited for agile teams, especially in technical fields like software development, where the workflow involves frequent updates on code, bugs, and project tasks across multiple tools. The Stream feature is highly valuable in environments where staying constantly aware of developments from external systems is essential for team coordination and responsiveness. It can help reduce the need for manual status updates in some cases, as relevant activities are automatically posted to the feed.

Potential Considerations

One aspect to consider is how teams adapt to the two-panel Chat and Stream layout. Teams heavily reliant on a single, high-activity feed for all types of communication might find the separation and the volume of Stream notifications in busy projects require some adjustment. While the Stream is valuable, managing the potential noise from too many integrations or high-frequency events needs consideration during setup. Compared to platforms that focus purely on chat or integrate project management more deeply within the chat interface, Flowdock's approach is distinct and may require a slight shift in team workflow.

Conclusion

Overall, Flowdock provides a solid and reliable platform for team collaboration, particularly for technical teams using agile methodologies. Its unique selling proposition is the effective integration of real-time group chat with a consolidated feed of notifications from a wide array of external services. This 'Chat + Stream' model helps teams stay informed and connected across their diverse toolchain. While the interface might feel slightly dated to some, the core functionality and robust integrations make it a powerful tool for managing communication flow and awareness in busy, tool-reliant teams. Teams seeking a solution that specifically addresses the challenge of integrating chat with notifications from external development and project management tools will find Flowdock to be a compelling option.

Similar Software

Basecamp
Basecamp

Basecamp is a project management web app.

Grape
Grape

Grape is an REST-like API framework for Ruby. It's designed to run on Rack or complement existing web application frameworks such as Rails and Sinatra by providing a simple DSL to ...

Dialog Messenger
Dialog Messenger

Dialog Messenger is a handy and feature-rich enterprise multi-device messenger available for server or cloud.

Echoplexus
Echoplexus

Echoplexus is an anonymous, web-based, IRC-like chatting platform that makes its best effort to respect your privacy.

Fleep
Fleep

Fleep enables communication within and across organizations, be it your team chats, project communication or 1:1 conversations.

Flock
Flock

Flock is a communication app for teams. Packed with tons of productivity features, Flock drives efficiency and boosts speed of execution.

Gitter
Gitter

Gitter is an open source instant messaging and chat room system for developers and users of GitHub repositories.

Glip
Glip

Glip is fully searchable, real-time group chat; video chat, task management, file sharing app.

Hack Chat
Hack Chat

Hack Chat is a minimal, distraction-free chat application.

Hibox
Hibox

Hibox provides task management, business chat and video calls.

Mattermost
Mattermost

Mattermost is an open source, private cloud Slack-alternative, Workplace messaging for web, PCs and phones. MIT-licensed.

Quire
Quire

Quire is a collaborative task management tool for breaking down goals in hierarchical lists.

Screenshots

Help others by voting if you like this software.

Compare with Similar Apps

Select any similar app below to compare it with Flowdock side by side.

Compare features, pricing, and reviews between these alternatives.

Compare

Compare features, pricing, and reviews between these alternatives.

Compare

Compare features, pricing, and reviews between these alternatives.

Compare

Compare features, pricing, and reviews between these alternatives.

Compare

Compare features, pricing, and reviews between these alternatives.

Compare

Compare features, pricing, and reviews between these alternatives.

Compare

Compare features, pricing, and reviews between these alternatives.

Compare

Compare features, pricing, and reviews between these alternatives.

Compare

Compare features, pricing, and reviews between these alternatives.

Compare

Compare features, pricing, and reviews between these alternatives.

Compare

Compare features, pricing, and reviews between these alternatives.

Compare

Compare features, pricing, and reviews between these alternatives.

Compare