Team chat app for UK hospitality
Your team's chat, with the rota in it.
Paddl's team chat gives every venue its own channels, groups and direct messages, with broadcasts that ask for acknowledgement, open shifts and swaps posted as cards staff can claim, shared-tablet tap-in, translation into 12 languages, and an exportable, retained history. Included at £69/location/month; staff seats are free.
Why the WhatsApp group stops working
It was fine at six people. It is not fine at forty.
The WhatsApp group has the whole business in it
Every rota change, every "who can cover Saturday", every photo of a broken fridge, in one thread with the leaving drinks and the memes. The message that mattered was read by eleven people and acted on by none of them, and nobody can find it a week later.
Leavers keep reading
Somebody who left in March is still in the group in June, still seeing the rota, the customer complaint and the manager's opinion of the new starter. Removing them depends on whoever set the group up remembering to.
"Seen" is not "understood"
You told the team about the allergen change. The ticks went blue. When the EHO asks who was told and when, a blue tick on a personal phone is not a record, and the phone belongs to somebody who may not work for you any more.
The shift never gets covered
An open shift goes out as a message. Three people say "maybe", one says "I can if nobody else can", and the manager spends the afternoon chasing. Nothing in the chat knows who is trained, who is over hours or who is already on.
Chat that knows the rota, the records and who works here
Paddl team chat lives in the same app as the checks, the training and the rota, so a channel already knows who is on the team, a broadcast can ask for an acknowledgement you can show an inspector, and an open shift is something staff claim rather than something they reply to.
Channels made from the rota
Every site gets a channel, every staff group at that site gets one, managers get theirs, and there is one for everybody. Membership follows the rota: put somebody on the Kitchen team and they are in the kitchen chat; deactivate them and they are out of every channel that second, with the history intact for everyone else.
Broadcasts that ask to be acknowledged
Send one message to everyone, a site, a group, a role or an employment type. The report shows who it reached, who read it and who acknowledged it, and you can chase the ones who have not. Mark it urgent and it cuts through mutes and quiet hours and asks each person to swipe to acknowledge.
Shifts in the chat
Publish a week and the open shifts land in the site channel as a card. Staff tap Claim; you approve, or let the first eligible person have it. Somebody who cannot make a shift offers it from the thread and the swap goes through the same checks the rota runs: trained, under hours, not already on.
A message becomes a record
A photo of the leaking ice machine does not need retyping. Turn the message into a maintenance job, a quick task or a note on tonight's handover, and the thread gets a card that follows the job through to done. The chat is where the fault was spotted; the record is where it gets fixed.
Everything WhatsApp does, without the personal phone
Groups and direct messages, replies, @mentions, reactions, pins, search, photos, video, voice notes, documents, GIFs and polls. Mute a channel for the evening, set quiet hours, or take only mentions from the busy ones. The same app the team already uses for checks and training, so there is nothing new to install.
One tablet, everybody signed in as themselves
A shared tablet behind the bar is enrolled once. Staff tap their name and enter a PIN; their check-in, their messages and their acknowledgements are theirs, and tapping out clears the screen for the next person. No more one login for the whole floor.
Twelve languages, one conversation
A message written in Polish shows a Translate link to a reader whose language is Portuguese. One tap shows the translation; another shows the original. Nothing is translated until somebody asks, and names and links are never changed.
A history you can stand behind
Every message carries a server timestamp, the author as they were at the time, the edit history and who read it. Export a thread as a PDF for an EHO, an insurer or a solicitor. Put a conversation on legal hold and retention leaves it alone. An owner can open a direct message with a written reason, and both people are told.
Ask Paddy what you missed
"What did I miss" reads the unread channels and tells you. "Sum up the kitchen chat this week" gives you the decisions, the problems and the open questions. "Tell everyone the car park is closed tomorrow" drafts the broadcast for you to confirm, then reports who has not read it.
What changes
The difference between a group chat and a team that has been told
How venues use it
The allergen change everyone has to know about
Send it as an urgent broadcast. Each person swipes to acknowledge on their phone; the report lists who has and who has not, and a reminder goes to the ones who have not. When the EHO asks, the report is the answer, with names and times.
Saturday is short
The open shift is a card in the site channel with the day, the hours and the role. Two people tap Claim. The manager sees both in the approvals queue with the warnings the rota would have shown, picks one, and the other is told. No thread of maybes.
A fridge is reading high at 10pm
The closer posts a photo in the kitchen channel. The manager turns it into a maintenance job from their phone, assigned to the refrigeration contractor, and the thread shows the job's status as it moves. The morning shift opens the app and sees it was handled.
A team that speaks four languages
The head chef writes in English. The kitchen porter reads it in Portuguese, the bar in Polish. Each person taps Translate on the messages they need; the original stays a tap away, and the manager never had to write it four times.
A group with eight sites
Each site has its own channel and its own managers channel. The area manager is in all of them at mentions-only, so the phone stays quiet until somebody needs them. A broadcast to "all bar staff" reaches every site's bar team without anyone building a list.
The one shared tablet behind the bar
Enrol it once. Everybody taps in with their name and PIN when they start and taps out when they finish, so the check-in, the temperature record and the message all carry the right name. Nobody needs a personal phone at work, and nobody is paying for a seat they only use on the tablet.
A grievance six months later
A former member of staff says they were told one thing and rostered another. Export the site channel for that fortnight as a PDF: every message with its server time, who read it and when it was edited. If it is going further, put the conversation on hold so retention leaves it be.
A manager back from a week off
Ask Paddy "what did I miss". It reads the unread channels and the broadcasts still waiting on an acknowledgement and gives the short version, with the conversations to open for the rest.
What Paddl's team chat app does
- Site, group, managers and everyone channels made from the rota; leavers are removed the moment they are deactivated
- Groups and direct messages, replies, @mentions, reactions, pins, search, photos, video, voice notes, documents, GIFs and polls
- Broadcasts to everyone, sites, groups, roles or employment types, with read and acknowledgement reports; urgent ones cut through mutes and quiet hours
- Open shifts posted as claimable cards; give a shift away from the thread; claims land in the approvals queue
- Turn a message into a maintenance job, a quick task or a handover note in one tap
- Shared venue tablets: staff tap in with a PIN so check-ins and messages are theirs
- Translate and show original in 12 languages; mute, quiet hours and per-channel notification levels
- Exportable PDF history, legal hold, retention you set, and audited owner access to direct messages
- Ask Paddy: what did I miss, summarise a thread, send a message or a broadcast, who has not read it
What it does not do
- No voice or video calls
- Staff only: customers and suppliers are not in it
- Push notifications need the Paddl app; without it people get the broadcast by email
- Direct messages are private, but the owner can open one with a recorded reason that both people are told about
Questions people ask about team chat app
Does Paddl replace our WhatsApp group?
Yes, for work. It has the things the group is used for (channels, groups, direct messages, photos, voice notes, polls, reactions) and the things the group cannot do: membership that follows the rota, broadcasts that ask each person to acknowledge, open shifts staff claim, and a history you can export. It does not do voice or video calls, and it is for staff only.
Can staff use it without installing the app?
The dashboard has the full chat for managers on a computer, and a shared venue tablet can be enrolled so staff tap in with a PIN. Push notifications need the app on a phone. Somebody with no app and no tablet still gets an urgent broadcast by email.
What happens when somebody leaves?
Deactivate them in Paddl and they are out of every channel that moment, their open sessions are closed, and they get no more pushes. Their messages stay in the history under their name, because the record belongs to the business. Rehire them and they rejoin with the history from that point.
Can I read staff direct messages?
An owner can open a direct message between two members of staff, but only with a written reason, and both people are told in the conversation itself. Every access is recorded with who, when and why. Managers cannot. That is the rule staff accept on first use, so nobody is surprised later.
Is team chat extra?
No. It is part of the £69 per location per month plan, and staff seats are free: only owners and managers count towards the included users, so a fifty-person team costs the same as a five-person one.
Which languages does translation cover?
The twelve Paddl runs in: English (UK and US), Polish, Portuguese (Brazil and Portugal), Spanish, French, German, Thai, Tagalog, Tamil, Arabic and Simplified Chinese. A message shows a Translate link to a reader whose language differs from the one it was written in; nothing is translated until they tap it.
How Paddl compares
Where Paddl's team chat app sits against the alternatives, with prices and the honest trade-offs.
Works with
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