The WhatsAppification of Work

Is WhatsApp the best or the worst thing that’s happened to work-life balance? According to research from Ofcom, the app is the most commonly used messaging platform in the workplace, followed by Microsoft Teams, then Slack.

As the White House is finding out, using smartphone messaging apps like Signal for sensitive workplace information can lead to problems. WhatsApp rose to the top during lockdown and stayed there.

Around two thirds of UK adults say it’s their main online communication service and research from MobileMonkey in 2024 found WhatsApp messages had open rates of around 98% while emails struggle to achieve more than 20%.

Doctors overcome creaky NHS messaging with WhatsApp groups, projects are managed on it and nights out are arranged on it – which can lead to interlopers being invited into groups by mistake, but also shows that you probably don’t need to use every new comms platform that comes along.

Downloads
➜ WhatsApp Desktop
➜ Microsoft Teams
➜ Slack


Written by James Jackson - DJATOM Web Serv (Updated 19/05/25)