Raven is a simple work messaging tool that is built using Frappe Framework and can be installed on any new or existing Frappe site (e.g. in addition to ERPNext or Gameplan). It is designed to help teams collaborate and communicate with each other and get work done. Teams can create their own channels (publically viewable or private) and send messages, emojis, files and images.

Motivation

Raven was born out of a need to have a simple work communication tool that could replace Slack for us at The Commit Company. Most work communication tools in the market had the following problems:

1. They include many features like video calling, audio sharing on top of work messaging which are not required for small teams. However, these features are expensive to build and run.

2. Hence, they require payments for every user every month - regardless of how much time a user uses the tool or how many messages they send. This meant that we would have to pay for "mostly inactive" users as well.

3. We were already using ERPNext hosted on Frappe Cloud for our operations. Since all our users were already on ERPNext and we were paying for the server, we thought that a simple Frappe app can solve our work communication problem - and we feel there are many other teams and organizations who would benefit in a similar way.

Features

1. Send messages to all members in your organization (in an "open" channel), or just in your team in a private channel.

2. Create new channels for your team and your team members.

3. Send text messages 💬, code blocks 💻, emojis 😆, files 📑 and images 📸.

4. Mention users in your messages with "@"

5. Don't strain your eyes 👀 - Raven supports dark mode 🌙

6. Collaborate on the go with the Raven mobile app 📱 (in progress).

We plan on adding more advanced features in the future:

1. Support for inline message reactions
2. Support for message threads
3. Ability to search for messages and files across channels
4. Integration with third party services like Github, Linear, Frappe Desk, Sentry etc via a common API layer that allows third party services to send messages to specific channels using OAuth.