WhatsApp vs Crafter Teams : Which app is better for movie teams during production work?

7 min readJan 4, 2023

In the age of post covid, most movie teams communicate asynchronously.

If you want that kind of communication to be effective, you need to choose the right tools.

Picking the right tool is easier said than done — there are so many team and instant messaging apps out there. And, looking at all the lists of the most popular apps can get overwhelming pretty fast.

If you manage to narrow down the choice to two or three apps, I’ll come to help you out.

In this article, I’ll do a comparison of the the most popular communication app WhatsApp and Crafter Teams

I’ll compare Crafter Teams and WhatsApp in the following categories:

Pricing
User interface
Communication
Notifications
Search
File sharing and storage
Video calls
Support
Security

Crafter vs WhatsApp overview

WhatsApp is among the most popular communication apps.

What’s the difference between the two?

Crafter is a team messaging app. Movie studios mainly will use it for internal business communication. It will have a user-friendly interface and offer a wide range of features — from file sharing to integrating movie production related apps — it comes as no surprise that it’ll be one of the most used collaboration tools in the movie industry.

WhatsApp is also an instant messaging app. While it can be used for business, people mainly use it to keep in touch with their family and friends. It can also be used for communication within a team.

It supports sending and receiving a variety of media, as well as making voice and video calls.

Crafter vs WhatsApp user interface 1:1

Crafter Teams has a simple and user-friendly interface.

Conversations take the majority of the screen, while on the sidebar you can see all your channels, threads, and people you’ve chatted with.

You can also change the color of the sidebar, and the changes will automatically apply to the mobile app too.

Even if you’ve never used Crafter Teams before, you’d probably find what you need with no trouble.

WhatsApp Business App has the same interface as the original WhatsApp app — a list of conversations that you click on to see the messages, with the addition of product catalogs.

You can pick your own chat background or use one of those offered in the app.

It’s elegant, as well as quite intuitive and easy to use.

Both have a simple UI that’s easy to navigate and get used to — so both apps get a point.

Crafter vs WhatsApp communication 1:1

Crafter Teams has many useful features that facilitate team communication — such as:

Organizing conversations into channels
Sharing files
Scheduling messages
Creating polls
Search option
Editing and deleting messages
Emojis and GIFs
Formatting messages

WhatsApp has many features up its (metaphoric) sleeve too — for example:

File sharing

Location sharing

Voice messages

Temporary images and text messages

Group chats

Seeing if the other person has seen your message and when they were last active

Search option

As you can see, both apps have a plethora of options that will facilitate your daily communication.

So, there are some features that both apps have — but that’s not the case for all features.

For instance, you can schedule and edit messages only on Crafter Teams which is needed while working with a team

And, you can share locations and check if your message is seen exclusively on WhatsApp.

Because of that, it’s up to you to decide what features are more valuable to you and your team — hence, both apps get a point.

Crafter Teams vs WhatsApp notifications 1:0

Generally, you get notifications on Crafter Teams when:

You get a direct message from someone
Someone mentions you
You get a reply on a thread you’re following
You receive a message from Crafter Team’s bot

But, our app will have advanced notification options — it’s up to you whether you’ll receive all notifications, some of them, or none.

You can also pick a time frame in which you’ll receive notifications or choose to be notified on your mobile device if you’re inactive on the desktop. Work life balance

Additionally, you can activate Do not disturb mode and work notifications-free for a time period of your choice.

WhatsApp also has a couple of notification preferences — but they’re not nearly as customizable as Crafter Teams’s.

When you want to focus on work, you can mute chats for 8 hours, 1 week, or forever

Since Crafter Teams has more sophisticated notification options, it’s the champion of this category.

Crafter Teams vs WhatsApp search 1:0

Crafter Teams will have quite advanced search options — you can search for:

Messages
Files
People
Channels

You can even pick a certain period or exclude some channels from your search, as well as search within documents.

In WhatsApp, you can:

Search conversations with a keyword

Search media (photos, videos, links, GIFs, audio, and documents) by using filters

View media of choice — for instance, you can see all the photos shared in one conversation

Again, more advanced options guaranteed Crafter Teams a win in this round.

Crafter Teams vs WhatsApp audio and video calls 1:0

The free version of Crafter Teams offers you 1-on-1 video and voice calls, while the paid version allows you to add up to 15 participants. You can also:

Share your screen

Let others draw on your screen

Share the mouse control

Record meetings

WhatsApp also has video and voice call options for up to 8 participants, all for free.

But, the kicker is — this option is only available on mobile devices and not on WhatsApp Web.

That won’t be a problem if your team is often on the go — but for more serious, sit-down meetings, WhatsApp is not the best solution.

Better options and more participants make Crafter Teams a winner once again.

Crafter Teams vs WhatsApp file sharing and storage 1:0

Crafter Teams will support all kinds of files, from PDF documents to video and audio files.

They can be uploaded from your device or via file-sharing apps, such as Dropbox or Google Drive.

When it comes to file storage, it depends on the plan you choose:

Free plan: 5GB for the entire workspace

Pro plan: 10GB per member

Business plan: 20GB per member

Enterprise Grid plan: 1TB per member

As always, the more you invest, the more you’ll get.

On WhatsApp, you can share:

Images

Videos

Audio files

Locations

Contacts

Documents

The only catch is — there is a limit of 100MB per file on Android and 128MB on iOS.

When it comes to storage, WhatsApp is not a storage medium — it uses up the space on your phone and cloud.

Again, Crafter Teams wins this round as it supports more types of files and ways to upload them.

Crafter Teams vs WhatsApp support 1:0

When it comes to support, Crafter Teams’s free plan includes:

Email/Help Desk

FAQs/Forum

Knowledge Base

If you purchased the Business+ plan, you also have 24/7 support with 4 hour response time and 99.99% guaranteed uptime at your disposal.

The Enterprise Grid plan additionally offers you tailored support with a designated account and customer success team.

That’s hard to beat — but let’s see what WhatsApp offers.

If you happen to have some trouble with the app, you can search for a solution via:

Help Center/FAQ

Email support

As you’ve already guessed — Crafter Teams wins.

Crafter Teams vs WhatsApp security 1:1

Last, but definitely not least, we have to consider how protected your data is on these two apps. Data security should not be taken lightly, especially since business communication can contain confidential information like scripts, story boards etc.

Crafter Teams plans to encrypt data at rest and data in transit. It will also have many security certifications, such as:

ISO/IEC 27001

SOC 2

CSA

However, Crafter Teams doesn’t have end-to-end encryption.

WhatsApp, on the other hand, has strong end-to-end encryption for both individual and group chats. Messages are also protected by Signal encryption.

Unlike the majority of apps, data encryption is enabled on all chats by default — you don’t have to manually turn it on.

But, WhatsApp shares some information with its parent company, Meta.

Since both apps have their pros and cons in regards to security, we’ll go with 1:1 in this round.