Blink is an entirely mobile-oriented alternative to Interact. Whilst Interact can be used on a desktop and has a mobile app to accompany it, Blink is an intranet and internal communications app designed exclusively for mobile.
Which one is best for you? That depends on your business requirements, although if your workforce is largely remote or mobile, you may be paying for desktop features your employees won’t use with Interact. We’re also confident that because we can focus exclusively on mobile, our app offers more in the way of features than Interact’s app does - online reviews pick up that Interact’s native app lacks some of the functionality of its desktop intranet.
What makes Blink one of the standout Interact alternatives is the inclusion of in-app instant messaging features. This means that your employees can communicate with each other without having to leave the app environment, which increases engagement and efficiency. It also saves having to pay for separate instant messaging services, and asking your workforce to download multiple work-based apps onto their personal devices.
Interact offers a company directory, useful employee forum and solid integrations with major instant messaging tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams. It doesn’t, however, offer instant messaging as a native feature. This could cost you, both in terms of budget and in terms of how quickly your employees warm to your new software.
One of Interact users’ major gripes is often that, although the software is powerful and fit for purpose, it’s not super intuitive when it comes to UX (user experience). This can be frustrating and labour intensive when trying to complete administrative tasks, particularly when you have limited time and personnel to spend maintaining and administrating your company intranet. As one SME reviewer explained, “we don’t have an ‘Intranet’ department”.
Blink is at the forefront of Interact competitors because of its intuitive user interface and administrative tools. Whether you’re a major corporation or a one-person HR department working for an SME, Blink’s UX can save you significant amounts of time administrating your mobile intranet which you can then reinvest in more pressing tasks.
When installing any sort of new enterprise software, a slick, well-planned implementation is everything. You want to start working on user buy-in and realizing the benefits as soon as possible, whilst avoiding delays that drain enthusiasm for your new project and cause costs to creep up. The more you delay, the harder it will be to get a good return on the software you paid for.
Whilst both Blink and Interact are good options here, we think Blink has the edge due to the UX advantages outlined above. Interact’s training is in-depth but long, due to the amount of options it needs to cover and the time needed to get used to Interact’s UX. Blink’s training is more succinct, making it a great Interact alternative for those needing to get their internal communications app up and running in a short space of time. Content migration to Interact from other services is also reputationally slow, so you’ll need to factor time into your implementation plan to allow for this.
Customization might seem like an icing-on-the-cake feature, but it’s really worth considering as something more. Internal communications and employee engagement is all about making your workforce feel part of something bigger. Being able to brand your internal communications app as your own can make a significant difference here, especially if your workforce is remote and doesn’t have a specific ‘headquarters’ feel part of each day.
Blink is one of the best Interact competitors in this area. Interact offers a decent level of customization, but Blink takes it a step further by offering you the ability to brand your app your way so that employees recognize it as their organization’s - and by extension theirs. You can list it on both Apple and Google app stores as your own company app, making it both easier to find for your employees and easier to engage with.
One of the major pain points that Interact’s online reviews point out is that the forms module is difficult to use and customize - particularly for those without any coding knowledge. Whilst you’ll be able to get by if you have access to this skill set, you may find yourself limited to Interact’s out-of-the-box setup without it.
Rather than relying on complicated, in-app configuration, Blink allows you to create forms using your existing tools and embed them into the app environment (which makes it one of the few Interact alternatives which allows employees to complete them in-app rather than having to use third-party software). This makes them easier to build, customize and share - your survey response rates will increase as a result.
Blink’s pricing plans start at just $3.40 (£2.65) per month. Direct comparison with Interact is difficult because they don’t publish their prices upfront, but for the features we offer, we’re confident that we’re one of the best value Interact competitors out there.
When comparing prices, it’s important to add in the cost of adding in extra features from elsewhere if your potential internal communications app doesn’t support them. For example, if you wanted an Interact subscription but were also looking for a new internal messaging tool, you’d need to add the cost of a separate one to get the functionality you needed. Equally, if you needed form creation alongside internal comms when considering Blink, you would need to add the cost of external form creation software to Blink’s price.