Editing Instant messaging (section)

=== Workplace communication ===
Instant messaging has changed how people communicate in the workplace. Enterprise messaging applications like [[Slack (software)|Slack]], [[TeleMessage]], [[Teamnote]] and Yammer allow companies to enforce policies on how employees message at work and ensure secure storage of sensitive data.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.telemessage.com/text-messaging-apps-are-transforming-workplace-communications/|title=Text Messaging Apps Are Transforming Workplace Communications|website=TeleMessage|language=en-US|access-date=2020-04-01}}</ref> They allow employees to separate work information from their personal emails and texts.

Messaging applications may make workplace communication efficient, but they can also have consequences on productivity. A study at Slack showed on average, people spend 10 hours a day on Slack, which is about 67% more time than they spend using [[email]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://learn.g2.com/messaging-apps-affect-productivity|title=Are Messaging Apps at Work Affecting Team Productivity?|last=Kashyap|first=Vartika|website=learn.g2.com|language=en|access-date=2020-04-01}}</ref>

Instant messaging is implemented in many [[Videoconferencing|video-conferencing]] tools. A study of chat use during work-related videoconferencing found that chat during meetings allows participants to communicate without interrupting the meeting, plan action around common resources, and enables greater inclusion.<ref>{{Citation |last1=Sarkar |first1=Advait |title=The promise and peril of parallel chat in video meetings for work |date=2021-05-08 |work=Extended Abstracts of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems |pages=1–8 |url=https://doi.org/10.1145/3411763.3451793 |access-date=2021-11-01 |place=New York, NY, USA |publisher=Association for Computing Machinery |doi=10.1145/3411763.3451793 |isbn=978-1-4503-8095-9 |s2cid=233987188 |last2=Rintel |first2=Sean |last3=Borowiec |first3=Damian |last4=Bergmann |first4=Rachel |last5=Gillett |first5=Sharon |last6=Bragg |first6=Danielle |last7=Baym |first7=Nancy |last8=Sellen |first8=Abigail}}</ref> The study also found that chat can cause distractions and information asymmetries between participants.