Meet the new technology that wants to end your email headaches

With over 2.5 billion email users worldwide, it’s safe to say that we rely on email for our online communication. While email is familiar, universal and connects people together, it lacks many features teams prefer for effective communication, which can lead to gaps in correspondence and delayed responses. Just imagine all the times you’ve spent trying to find pertinent information within lengthy email chains and now picture doing that very same thing while corresponding with multiple people simultaneously. Chaotic right? Well, I’ve come across an alternative online communication app that’s more suitable for teams, without having to face the hassles of email.

Meet Riot, an app that aims to provide a more secure online messaging experience that gives teams a workspace to communicate effectively. With Riot users can interact in real time and in one place with chat enhancing features like large group chat rooms, voice/video calling, simple file transfers and bots that help bring conversations to life.

Riot is similar to Slack and Whatsapp messaging applications, but with a stronger emphasis on universal collaborative workspaces. They strive to build online communities that are inclusive by implementing easy user onboarding without subscriptions or downloads, this way everyone can engage and take part in these workspaces, all you need is an email address and a connected device. Riot is suitable for personal exchanges, office correspondence or even business communications, whether you’re planning an event with family or working on a project with colleagues, there’s a space for you.

This app was built to provide a space that lets users maximize efficiency and mutual understanding within teams. Chat rooms are designed to be user friendly and are clearly labeled so you can easily access prior correspondence as well as differentiate between them. This layout is very convenient and saves boatloads of time, especially when locating information or while multitasking and trying to pinpoint where the conversation left off. Chats have alerts and customizable settings, giving you the freedom to focus on what’s important and weed out the insignificant chatter. For example, when your name appears in a chat room, Riot automatically highlights it in red to get your attention. Chat rooms are compatible with hosting large groups and help keep conversations organized and engaging.

What I liked the most about Riot is knowing that the app stores all your data on a secure network and protects your conversations using end-to-end encryption. Since Riot is built on Matrix, a decentralized secure open source network, they make it a priority to protect user privacy and data. We’ve recently seen privacy glitches in Whatsapp with their chat encryption loophole which made user data potentially vulnerable, so it’s quite reassuring to know that with Riot you control who you share your data with, enough that you can feel comfortable to discuss topics openly with your team.

Riot is in a competitive market for team communication, with other players such as Slack and Whatsapp and even email, which has remained a main correspondence for many of us. This app has great potential to gain a loyal following because of its dependence on Matrix that prides themselves on user data privacy and secure networks. Ensuring that our data is safe on the web is a concern we all share and Riot could serve as a more secure online workspace.