For the past couple of decades, every tech bro has dreamed of “the one app to rule them all. While there have been some vigorous attempts, none have landed quite like the creators hoped. I’m not looking for an app that can be everything I need, but I do love an app that can bring together and organize my other apps, which are everything regarding my day-to-day work. Rambox does just that.
This “Workplace simplifier,” as it’s marketed, supports just about any app you could imagine from messenger apps, to social media, email, AI, entertainment, cloud storage, and more. You name it, it probably supports it. While that gives Rambox a similar do-it-all vibe, it’s more of an organizer of other apps rather than trying to take over everything. That makes it such a useful tool.
You can use it completely for free, too.
No do-it-all app can really do-it-all
I don’t tend to use most of the features in most of the apps I use. I use Docs and Drive because they’re convenient for sharing, but I have LibreOffice Calc for spreadsheet work. I use Photoshop for photo editing, but I’ll use ChatGPT if I want to generate something from scratch with AI. I like writing in Word, but I’ve yet to find a real use for its Copilot integration. And the less I have to use Teams, the better.
I like to pick and choose the features from different apps because they’re better at different things. Unless I’m locked down with a subscription, I’ll find the best app for the job rather than just using what’s in front of me because this other app can also do those things.
I can’t tell you how best to organize your apps, but I can tell you this app-connector has been life-changing.
I’m no monolith here, either. Friends, family, and colleagues I work with all have their own particular tastes in apps – especially when it comes to communication. And that means I have to use them too.
I have friends on Whatsapp, Telegram, and Signal. I have Asana and Trello to organize different workspaces with different publications I write for.
One of my editors likes Google Chat, while others use Slack, and another still prefers Teams for all-hands meetings. Zoom makes an appearance occasionally, too.
Then there are Trello and Asana for organizing daily work, Sheets spreadsheets, and shared Google calendars… and these are just the ones I can remember.
There’s no do-it-all app when everyone wants to use different ones for different tasks. The result is a hodgepodge of standalone and web apps that can make keeping track of the many ways I communicate for socializing and work laborious. Without some way to organize everything together, it’s all too easy to miss a notification. I’m distracted enough to quickly lose myself in manually checking apps that haven’t nudged me.
That’s why I need help from something like Rambox.
Organizing the mess
Rambox is my one-stop communication shop for work and socializing while at work. I always have Whatsapp, Telegram, Google Chat, and three Slack channels on the go, and I enable Teams when I feel like annoying myself. I like the ChatGPT integration, too, and there are so many ways I could expand by using it. For now, how it brings together all my comms apps is a lifeline that stops me from drowning in procrastination.
I don’t need to pick up my phone to read or answer messages from friends and family, I have one place to look for notifications rather than a bunch of different windows, and it means I never forget to open a particular chat app. Before Rambox, if I missed opening that one other Slack channel I need to keep up with throughout the day, I’ll suddenly be minutes or hours behind my colleagues. For a freelancer who often relies on being flexible and responsive to short term deadlines, that’s incredibly important.
It’s not an infallible system, though. I’m sorry to my LaptopMag editor; this piece was a late submission.
But my own difficulties with time management aside, Rambox is a tool that I’ve made work for me in the way I want. I’ve barely scratched the surface, but it gives me exactly what I need. You can make it work for you if you have different needs.
Find what works for you
There are so many apps integrated with Rambox that I haven’t even considered yet. I might do, I might not, but it’s already worth the few dollars a month I pay for the Pro version. But that’s only because I want more than two instances of Slack. Until that recent change, I made do with the free version for years, and you can easily do that too.
But whether you want Rambox to organize chat apps like mine or a whole range of other apps or prefer a different workspace streamlining tool, many options are available.
Franz is an excellent alternative, although the free tier doesn’t offer unlimited app support. Other options include All-in-one Messenger, Zapier, and Station. If you prefer open-source software, I also hear good things about Hamsket.
I can’t tell you how best to organize your apps, but I can tell you that managing at least some of the many apps I need to use daily has been life-changing. Putting them in one place helps me focus and avoid some of the worst habits that the modern distraction-filled workspace can encourage.
