2025 Workplace Messaging Trends: SMS, Slack, Email, and Microsoft Teams

Business messaging today is fast, fragmented, and often overwhelming.

Messages come from every direction. Some are ignored. Others are missed. Many employees feel like they're drowning in alerts, even though the tools are supposed to make work easier.

So we asked a simple question. What does internal communication look like in 2025?

We surveyed 1,000 professionals across North America. Our goal was to understand how messages move through today's workplace, where communication breaks down, and what needs to change.

This report is a snapshot of messaging across job levels, industries, and work environments. It doesn't just share the numbers. It gives them meaning to help teams rethink communication when everything feels urgent.

Before you read on, ask yourself:

• Which tools get used the most — and which ones are ignored?
• How many alerts land before your team starts tuning out?
• If your main channel fails, do you have a fallback that works?
• Do employees trust what they're receiving — or are they starting to block it all out?

This report breaks it down. What's working. What isn't. And what your company should be thinking about next.

Methodology

We collected the survey data manually between March and April 2025. We got 1,000 complete responses from professionals across North America.

Participants were asked about messaging habits, tool usage, response expectations, trust levels, and communication challenges. Responses came from a mix of company sizes, job functions, and environments, including desk-based and non-desk employees.

Who We Heard From

Job Functions

IT and Engineering – 31.3%

Operations – 18.7%

Marketing and Sales – 17.6%

HR and Internal Comms – 14.4%

Executive and Leadership – 8.5%

Other – 9.5%

Company Size

1–50 employees – 9.8%

51–200 – 21.6%

201–500 – 24.2%

501–1,000 – 19.5%

1,000+ – 24.9%

Work Environment

Desk-based employees – 67%

Non-desk employees – 33%

Message Volume

Most employees receive between 20 to 40 messages a day

The average employee is receiving a lot more than just a few pings. 40% of respondents said they receive between 21 and 40 alerts daily. For another 25.5%, that number is between 10 and 20.

But in fast-moving roles like IT, support, and logistics, 9.4% said they receive more than 60 messages a day.

The overload is real, shaping how people respond, or choose not to. In Microsoft's 2023 Work Trend Index, 68% of workers said they don't have enough uninterrupted time to focus, citing constant communication as a top reason. Similarly, Asana's Anatomy of Work report shows that employees switch between apps and tools 32 times a day on average, much of it for messaging.

Communication Tools

Slack, SMS, Teams, and email are neck and neck

Employees aren't using just one internal messaging tool anymore. They're splitting their time across Slack, SMS, Microsoft Teams, email, and others.

Slack is the most used platform at 21.3%, closely followed by SMS at 20.7% and Microsoft Teams at 20.0%. Email trails slightly behind at 17.0%, while 21.0% of employees say they rely on other tools.

People choose platforms based on urgency, access, and role.

Desk workers lean toward email and Teams. Field workers rely more on SMS and voice calls and tools that don't require them to be in front of a screen.

The City of Pueblo has seen this firsthand. Their team began using SMS to push out internal updates and saw an immediate shift in responsiveness.

As Bobby Cuomo, media systems administrator for the City of Pueblo, put it:

"Our mayor is really interested in being able to send out information [to citizens], asking questions, and having people actually reply back. He's really eager to get this going."

False Alerts

Messages inside your company aren't always what they seem.

Spoofed internal messages are no longer rare. According to our survey, 60% of respondents said their company has experienced a fake message that appeared to come from an internal source. Another 20% said they weren't sure. The rise of spoofed alerts creates a trust gap inside communication systems that were once considered safe.

These attacks aren't just happening over email. They're creeping into Slack, SMS, Teams and anywhere people expect to hear from colleagues or leadership. The goal is simple: mimic a real message well enough to trick someone into clicking or acting fast.

According to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), business email compromise (BEC) scams resulted in reported losses of nearly $2.9 billion in 2023, a 7% increase from the previous year.

While that stat focuses on email, it's part of a bigger pattern of attackers now targeting internal channels that once flew under the radar. Companies need more than firewalls. They need consistency. Clear formatting. Approved sender systems. And a plan B when a primary channel is compromised.

Backups Matter

Most teams have a fallback

When asked if they had a backup communication system, 71% of respondents said yes. In most cases, that backup is SMS or a direct phone call — tools that don't depend on apps or Wi-Fi. While 14.7% said they had no fallback system. Another 14.3% weren't sure.

SMS remains one of the few tools that cuts through and gets seen, especially when the primary system is down.

Cheri Romonosky, Human Development and PR Specialist, AISIN Manufacturing Illinois said:

"The ability to text employees during weather delays or schedule changes was a game changer this winter. Everyone has a phone, but not everyone has email access. Especially in manufacturing or field work, text is essential."

Urgency

When a message has to be seen, teams choose SMS.

SMS ranks highest when urgency matters. In our survey, 37.2% of respondents said they prefer text messages for time-sensitive communication. Slack followed at 27.4%, then Microsoft Teams at 18.3%. Only 9.8% selected email.

That gap is telling. Urgent updates need to be seen immediately, not buried in a thread or inbox. SMS reaches employees directly, no matter where they are or what device they're using.

Anna Furey, an executive assistant at ARCH Medical Solutions, put it plainly:

"If it's urgent and we want people to actually read it, we use SMS. No question."

Text is still the fastest way to get a message in front of someone. That's why it remains the go-to choice for messages that can't afford to be ignored.

Devices

Most messaging still happens on desktop but mobile matters more for in-field teams.

In our survey, 41.2% of employees use desktop only for messaging. Another 26.8% said they primarily use desktop. While a combined 32% of respondents said they use mobile for messaging either mainly or exclusively. Mobile is often preferred for in-field teams, including manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, and service roles.

If your communication channels don't prioritize both devices, you risk leaving part of the workforce out. Text messages are one of the few formats that reach both desktop and mobile users effectively.

Jamie Hunsaker at Aisin Electronics Illinois shared:

"[Mobile] texts allowed us to bridge the gap between management and non-management team members. The ability to reach everyone, not just those at desks, changed how teams shared information across roles."

Integration

Only a third say their messaging tools are fully integrated.

Messaging still happens in silos. Only 38.2% of respondents said their internal communication tools fully integrate with other systems. The rest are working around gaps.

Another 41.3% said their tools are only partially integrated. For 20.5%, there's no integration at all. That means messages don't connect to schedules, alerts don't sync with internal workflows, and employees have to manage communication manually.

This lack of integration slows teams down. Messages get repeated or lost. Alerts don't tie back to task management. The more disconnected the system, the more time employees spend chasing information instead of acting on it.

Integration gaps may not seem urgent until a critical message slips through. That's when the limitations become obvious and expensive.

Challenges

Too many tools. Too many threads. Too many delays.

We asked employees to name their biggest internal communication challenges. The top issue was juggling multiple channels. 31.4% said the number of tools they manage causes confusion and slows them down.

Next was delayed responses, reported by 28.1% of respondents. Another 21.7% said messages often get buried in long threads. While 12.6% struggle to track priorities. Only 6.2% chose other issues.

These numbers show a common pattern. More tools do not equal better communication. Instead, employees are spending more time figuring out where to respond than actually responding.

Missed Alerts

Almost half say they sometimes miss something important.

We asked how often employees miss a key message. 47.6% said it happens occasionally. Another 12.3% said it happens frequently.

Only 10.3% said they never miss alerts. That means nearly 6 in 10 employees admit to missing important messages at least some of the time.

This is not a small problem. When alerts are buried in crowded threads or scattered across tools, response rates drop. Even when messages are urgent, they get lost.

The City of Pueblo ran into the same problem before adopting SMS alerts. Bobby Cuomo said:

"A lot of times [people] just aren't looking at their email... With a text alert — boom — there it is. It's a better way to communicate" (City of Pueblo).

Automation

Only 1 in 4 companies use automation regularly.

Most internal messaging is still manual. In our survey, only 24.7% of respondents said their company uses automation frequently. 32.9% said they use it occasionally. The rest said rarely or not at all.

That means more than four in ten teams send every message by hand. For routine updates, shift changes, or safety alerts, this slows things down and increases the chance of errors.

The tools exist. But adoption hasn't caught up. Most companies still rely on manual workflows for tasks that could be scheduled, triggered, or repeated automatically.

Until that changes, communication will stay reactive and slower than it needs to be.

Encryption

78% say they trust encrypted messaging — but not everyone is convinced.

Security matters, but trust in encrypted tools is not universal. In our survey, 36.1% of employees found encrypted messaging trustworthy. Another 42.2% said it's somewhat trustworthy.

But 13.4% said they don't trust it much. 8.3% said they don't trust it at all.

Even with security standards in place, perception gaps remain. For some employees, encryption is just a background feature. For others, it's a black box. People who don't understand how their data is protected are less likely to rely on available tools.

Technical trust is not the same as user trust. Communication systems need both.

Speed

Most people expect a response within the hour.

Internal messaging isn't just about what you say. It's about how fast people respond.

In our survey, 31.2% of employees said they expect a reply within an hour. 28.8% expect one in 30 minutes or less. Only 7.9% said they have no specific expectations.

The pressure is clear. In most companies, same-day responses aren't fast enough anymore. Nearly half of employees expect to hear back within the hour, if not sooner.

For teams working across shifts or roles, this sets a new bar. Communication tools need to move with the pace of the work and not slow it down.

Reaching Non-Desk Teams

SMS leads for reaching frontline and offline employees.

We asked which channels work best for employees who aren't at a desk. SMS was the top answer. 54.3% of respondents said it is the most effective way to reach non-desk workers. In-person communication came next at 19.6%.

Other methods like mobile apps, phone calls, and email ranked much lower. Email was last at just 4.6%. For field-based and hybrid teams.

Looking to simplify and strengthen your internal alert system?

With direct delivery, audit trails, and lightning-fast setup, SMS is the silent workhorse your internal comms strategy needs.

Whether you're a growing team or a large organization, Mobile Text Alerts helps you send the right message and ensure it gets seen.

Get a free Mobile Text Alerts account now to get a feel for whether it would be a good fit for your team.

Author Bio

Isioma Ogwuda is a marketing expert helping companies grow through content. She works with brands to create research-driven articles, standout reports and LinkedIn posts for founders and execs. Her go-to line? “If a piece doesn’t make you nod, bookmark or share — it’s not ready."