The 6 Best Features of Rock App That Make It a Worthy Slack Alternative

Do you find Slack too complex and costly, but you're afraid to switch? See what the Rock app has to offer. It's free and packed with features!

Are you looking for a free Slack alternative that can assist you in running your freelance gig or small business from one app?

Rock lets you perform all work-related actions in one place, like team communication, collaborative work, task management, file sharing, note-taking, to-do lists, and many more. The best part is that the basic features which you need for remote work are completely free.

If you’ve been using Slack for a long time and want to switch to an all-in-one app, continue reading this article to know what Rock has in store for you.

Getting Started With Rock

Rock is an online browser-based tool. Alternatively, there is a downloadable Rock app for desktop or smartphone app lovers.

To start using Rock, you need to sign up through a Google account or any other email address.

As soon as you complete the signup process, the website will take you to your brand-new Rock app workspace. You can speed up your projects on the Rock app by knowing the following app-specific elements:

• Spaces: These help you organize tasks, projects, and conversations.
• Mini Apps: Within each Space, there are intuitive tools that help you streamline many actions. These are Tasks, Files, and Notes mini apps accessible from the top of the Space.
• Chat: Below the Space, you’ll see the Chat section.
• More than chat: Beneath the Chat section, you’ll find a host of tools to aid you in meaningful and productive communication.
• Create Space: The Create Space button is available in the bottom left corner of the app. It is a blue circle with a plus sign.

Image Gallery (5 Images)

Download: Rock for Windows | macOS | Linux | Android | iOS (Free)

1. Organize All Projects in Spaces

The Spaces feature makes task and project management effortless in Rock. You’ll find all tasks, subtasks, dependencies, notes, files, and conversations in one place through Spaces.

Therefore, it’d help if you create separate Spaces for different things that you do while managing your work. To create a new Space, follow these steps:

1. Click on the Create next space button.
2. Invite your team to Space by entering their emails.
3. You can also set whether the invitees will be a Guest, or Member, or Admin.
4. Now, click on Create Group Space.
5. Select a Template for effortless task creation and organization.
6. Enter a Space name for easy identification.
7. Write a Description of the Space.
8. Click on Create to save the new Space.

You can pin your Spaces to the Pinned section for better visibility when there are many Spaces in your Rock workspace. Hover the cursor on any Space and click on Pin. You’ll also see options like Add to Folder and Archive. Declutter the Spaces section by archiving completed or old Spaces.

Related: Best Free Slack Alternatives for Team Communication

2. Tasks Mini App for Quick Tasking

You can either use the Tasks mini app or the Task button in the More than chat section to create, view, and manage tasks. Compact, Expanded, and Board are the three views available for the Tasks mini app.

Tasks also has the option for basic data analysis through the Filters tool. You can organize your tasks in separate lists to keep them decluttered. You may put tasks in one list during creation or by dragging and dropping from the Board view of the Tasks mini app. To add any new task, follow the below-mentioned steps:

1. Select any Space from the Rock workspace.
2. Click on the Tasks mini app. The Compact view panel will show up on the right side.
3. Now, select Board view, and you’ll see the existing Lists.
4. 
5. Select the Add Task button to initiate task creation.
6. Enter details like task title, list, priority, assignees, label, due date, description, checklist, file attachments, and task followers.
7. Click on Add Task to save the task.
8. 
9. To organize Lists, you can click on the Edit Lists link in the top right corner of the Board.
10. Click on Checkmarks to make the tasks open for the assignees.
11. Click the Cross sign to delete any list.

3. Notes Mini App for Effortless Note-Taking

You don’t need to go to other apps for note-taking, as the Rock app offers an advanced tool, namely the Notes mini app. You can take notes, or you can comment on team member’s notes from this tool.

The mini app is helpful for brainstorming and team collaboration as you can save notes on Q&As, ideas, meeting minutes, website links, tasks, etc. To add notes, follow these steps:

1. Choose any Space from Rock workspace and then click on Notes on the upper panel.
2. Alternatively, you can click on the My Notes icon on the left-side menu.
3. You’ll see three filters for notes, namely Created by me, Followed, and All.
4. Use the Search notes box to look for existing notes, depending on the filters.
5. Click on the Add note box to start taking notes.
6. Select a Space to which you want to link this note.
7. Click on Add note to save the content.

After you add a note, click on it, and a panel would open up from the right side. This section enables you to perform more actions on the notes like Add Label, Attachments, Followers, Set aside, and Mention.

4. Files Mini App for Files Management

Rock app lets you link your Google Drive cloud storage with your Spaces for seamless file managing of any project or task. To manage files of any Space, try these steps:

1. Select any Space in your Rock app.
2. Now, click on the Files mini app on top of the Space screen.
3. On the right-side panel that shows up, click on Link Folder or Google Drive.
4. Click on the Google Drive file editing checkmark and select Continue.
5. Choose the folder for linking with the Rock app.

Files mini app also lets you create Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Slides, and Google Forms from the Rock app.

5. Efficient Team Conversation and Meeting

Rock offers unlimited messaging for free. You can also access the entire messaging history, regardless of its length. The Chat and More than chat features of Rock app offer modern actions like @ mentioning of anything from the spaces, tasks, files, notes, etc.

The integrated messaging service of Rock allows you to convert any text to tasks and notes. It permits better text organization and team collaboration.

Related: Best Features of Mural for Visual Collaboration

Additionally, the More than chat section allows you to initiate meetings through Zoom and Jitsi integration. You can set up meetings or messaging conversations with anyone within your team or outside the team.

6. Bonus Features

Other handy features that you might want to use are My Tasks and Set Aside. You’ll find these on the left-side menu bar. My Tasks enable you to view a global dashboard for all the tasks linked to you. You may add tasks, comments, messages, and notes to the Set Aside section to work on them later.

All-in-One App for Superior Remote Team Productivity

You can experience more efficiency in managing your freelance projects or small business activities if you try out the above features of the Rock app. Furthermore, since this is a free all-in-one app, you could save big on productivity app investments. Keep using Rock, stay unplugged but informed, and exceed your productivity goals.

About The Author

Tamal Das (65 Articles Published)

Tamal is a freelance writer at MakeUseOf. After gaining substantial experience in technology, finance, and business processes in his previous job in an IT consulting company, he adopted writing as a full-time profession 3 years ago. While not writing about productivity and the latest tech news, he loves to play Splinter Cell and binge-watch Netflix/ Prime Video.

More From Tamal Das