Top 15 'Virtual-Watercooler' Connection Tools to learn for Remote Workers to Combat Isolation and Build Real Team Bonds - Goh Ling Yong
Remember the office coffee machine? That magical place where brilliant ideas were born, weekend stories were shared, and you actually got to know Sarah from accounting as a real person? In the world of remote work, our kitchens have become our coffee stations, and that spontaneous, human connection—the "watercooler" moment—has all but vanished. This shift has brought incredible flexibility, but it's also created a new challenge: digital isolation.
The silence between scheduled Zoom meetings can be deafening. Without those casual chats, team bonds can weaken, creativity can stagnate, and a sense of belonging can fade. But what if we could recreate that spontaneous magic, digitally? The good news is, we can. It just requires a little more intention and the right set of tools.
This isn't just about forced fun or another mandatory virtual happy hour. It's about weaving connection into the fabric of your remote workday. We're talking about creating spaces for the non-work conversations, the silly jokes, and the shared experiences that turn a group of individuals into a cohesive, supportive, and truly connected team. Here are 15 of the best "virtual watercooler" tools designed to do just that.
1. Donut (for Slack & MS Teams)
If you want to start simple and effective, Donut is your go-to. This clever integration automates the process of connecting teammates who don't normally interact. It randomly pairs up colleagues for virtual coffee chats, peer mentoring, or even lunch meetings, gently nudging them to schedule a brief, non-work-related call.
The beauty of Donut lies in its simplicity and consistency. It takes the awkwardness out of randomly messaging a coworker and makes cross-departmental connections a regular habit. By breaking down silos, it fosters a broader sense of community and helps new hires get integrated into the company culture much faster. It's the digital equivalent of bumping into someone from another team in the hallway and striking up a conversation.
Pro-Tip: Create a dedicated Slack or Teams channel (e.g., #coffee-pals or #donut-buddies). Encourage people to post a selfie or a key takeaway from their chat in the channel. This creates social proof and inspires others to participate, turning individual connections into a visible part of the team culture.
2. Gather
Imagine your office, but in a charming 16-bit video game style. That's Gather. It's a virtual space where each team member has a small avatar they can move around. The killer feature is proximity chat: as your avatar gets closer to a colleague's, their video and audio fade in, allowing for spontaneous conversations just like in real life.
Gather excels at recreating the feeling of "presence." You can see who is "at their desk," who is collaborating at a virtual whiteboard, and who is taking a break in the social lounge. This ambient awareness is a powerful antidote to isolation. It’s perfect for co-working sessions, virtual events, or simply leaving open in the background to feel more connected to your team throughout the day.
Pro-Tip: Designate specific areas in your Gather space for different activities. Create a "focus zone" with timers for deep work, a "game room" with integrated apps for quick breaks, and a "kitchen" for casual chats. This helps set expectations and encourages diverse types of interaction.
3. Miro (for Fun & Games)
You probably know Miro as a powerful collaborative whiteboard for brainstorming and project planning, but its potential for fun is limitless. A blank digital canvas is the perfect playground for a remote team looking to unwind and get creative together.
Forget flowcharts for a moment and think bigger. Use Miro to host a game of Pictionary, create a collaborative team vision board for the year, or run a "show-and-tell" where everyone posts a picture of their pet or WFH setup. The shared, interactive experience of creating something together, even if it's silly, is a fantastic bonding exercise.
Pro-Tip: Create a permanent "Team Hangout" Miro board. Add different frames for ongoing activities like a "virtual fridge" for posting memes and funny screenshots, a "recommendation station" for sharing book/movie suggestions, and a "kudos corner" for giving shout-outs.
4. Kahoot!
Ready to unleash your team's competitive side? Kahoot! is a game-based learning platform that makes it incredibly easy to create and host fun, engaging trivia quizzes. The fast-paced music, point system, and live leaderboard create an energetic atmosphere that can liven up any team meeting.
Quizzes can be about anything from general knowledge and pop culture to inside jokes and company history. It’s a low-stakes, high-energy way to learn more about your colleagues' interests and personalities. A quick 15-minute Kahoot! session at the end of a long week can completely shift the team's mood and end things on a high note.
Pro-Tip: Let different team members take turns creating and hosting the weekly quiz. This gives everyone a chance to share their passions and adds variety to the topics. You might discover you have a history buff, a movie fanatic, or a 90s music expert on your team.
5. Water-Cooler-Trivial
For a more passive, daily dose of fun, Water-Cooler-Trivial is a brilliant Slack app. It automatically posts a new trivia question in a designated channel each day. Team members can submit their answers throughout the day, and the app keeps track of a running leaderboard.
This tool is perfect because it requires very little effort but delivers consistent engagement. It provides a non-work-related reason to check in with the channel, see what colleagues are guessing, and engage in some light-hearted debate. It's the epitome of a low-pressure watercooler interaction that keeps the social channels buzzing.
Pro-Tip: Use the channel not just for answering, but for discussion. If the question is about a movie, it can spark a conversation about favorite films. This transforms a simple Q&A into a genuine connection point.
6. Discord
While it originated in the gaming world, Discord has evolved into a powerful community platform that's fantastic for remote teams. Its standout feature is its always-on voice channels. Unlike a Zoom call that you have to schedule and join, a Discord voice channel is like an open room you can drop into anytime.
Teams can create channels like #co-working-cafe where people can work with their mics on (or off), creating a sense of shared presence. It’s perfect for asking quick questions without the formality of a scheduled meeting. You can also have channels for specific interests like #gaming, #book-club, or #pet-photos, allowing people to connect over shared hobbies.
Pro-Tip: Encourage a "cameras optional, drop-in anytime" culture for your main voice channel. This lowers the barrier to entry and makes it feel more like a casual, communal space rather than another formal meeting.
7. Jackbox Games
When it's time for a proper social event, nothing beats Jackbox Games. This suite of party games is designed for pure hilarity. One person hosts and shares their screen, and everyone else plays along using their phone as a controller. Games range from witty writing challenges like Quiplash to absurd drawing competitions like Drawful.
The magic of Jackbox is that it's built to generate laughter. The prompts are ridiculous, the results are unpredictable, and it puts the focus on creativity and humor rather than skill. It’s a surefire way to create inside jokes and shared memories that will last long after the game is over.
Pro-Tip: For larger teams, play games in "audience mode." This allows more than the standard 8 players to participate by voting for their favorite answers, ensuring everyone feels included in the fun.
8. Tandem
Tandem is a virtual office platform designed to reduce the friction of remote communication. It shows you what apps your teammates are using (e.g., Figma, Google Docs, VS Code), giving you a sense of what they're working on and whether they might be available for a quick chat.
This "ambient awareness" is key. Instead of wondering if you're interrupting someone by sending a Slack message, you can see if they're in a "deep work" app or a collaborative one. With one click, you can start a spontaneous audio call. Tandem is all about bringing back the ease of turning your chair around to ask a colleague a quick question.
Pro-Tip: Use Tandem's "Rooms" feature for specific projects. When team members are working on that project, they can all hang out in the designated room, making collaboration seamless and organic.
9. Loom
Asynchronous communication is vital for remote teams, but text can feel cold and impersonal. Loom bridges that gap by allowing you to record and share quick, casual video messages. It's faster than typing a long email and infinitely more personal.
Use Loom for things other than work updates. Send a video to welcome a new hire, to give a colleague a heartfelt "thank you," or to share a quick, funny story from your weekend. Seeing a friendly face and hearing a familiar voice helps strengthen bonds and reminds us there are real people on the other side of the screen.
Pro-Tip: Start a weekly async "check-in" thread where everyone shares a 60-second Loom video about one personal and one professional win from their week. It’s a fast, engaging way to stay connected on a human level.
10. Bonusly
Connection isn't just about fun and games; it's also about recognition and appreciation. Bonusly is a peer-to-peer recognition platform where employees are given a small monthly allowance of points they can give to their colleagues to say "thanks" or "great job."
Each time someone gives a bonus, it appears in a public feed for the whole company to see. This creates a powerful culture of gratitude and makes achievements, big and small, visible to everyone. Seeing your colleagues celebrate each other's successes fosters a strong sense of team pride and mutual respect.
Pro-Tip: Integrate Bonusly with Slack so that recognition appears in a public channel. When a new bonus is given, encourage others to pile on with congratulatory emojis and comments, amplifying the positive impact.
11. Scribbl.io
Sometimes you just need a quick, 10-minute brain break. Scribbl.io is a free, browser-based Pictionary-style game that's perfect for this. There's no sign-up required; one person creates a private room, shares the link, and you're ready to play.
The simplicity of Scribbl.io is its greatest strength. It’s an easy and hilarious way to break up a long afternoon of meetings or focused work. The often-terrible drawings and wild guesses are guaranteed to get the whole team laughing and re-energized for the rest of the day.
Pro-Tip: Keep a running "Worst Drawing of the Week" award. Screenshot the most hilariously bad drawing and post it in a team channel on Friday for a final laugh.
12. Kosy
Similar to Gather, Kosy is another virtual office space that aims to bring teams together. It focuses on creating a customizable and cozy environment with different "rooms" that serve different purposes. You can have a library for quiet work, a rooftop bar for socials, and a team room for collaboration.
Kosy puts a strong emphasis on seamless communication and includes features like music sharing, integrated games, and collaborative whiteboards within the space. It’s a great all-in-one solution for teams who want a persistent digital space to call their own, blending focused work with social interaction.
Pro-Tip: Schedule "office hours" where managers or team leads hang out in their virtual Kosy office. This makes them more approachable and allows for the kind of informal drop-in questions that are often lost in remote work.
13. Shared Spotify Playlists
Music is a universal connector. Creating a collaborative team playlist on Spotify or Apple Music is a simple, passive way to learn about your colleagues' tastes and share a common experience. It can be a "Focus Playlist" for deep work, a "Feel-Good Friday" playlist, or a collection of everyone's favorite workout songs.
This is a background activity that fosters a sense of shared identity. When you're all listening to a playlist you built together, it creates a subtle but powerful feeling of unity, even when you're miles apart. It's a small detail that makes the team feel more like a "tribe."
Pro-Tip: Each week, assign a different "DJ" to be in charge of the playlist. They can pick a theme and ask for suggestions, giving everyone a chance to share their musical flair.
14. Goodreads (for a Book Club)
A team book club is a fantastic way to spark deeper conversations. The chosen book doesn't have to be work-related—in fact, it's often better if it's not. Reading a compelling novel or an interesting non-fiction book gives the team a shared intellectual experience to discuss.
Using a platform like Goodreads helps organize everything. You can create a group, vote on the next book, and track what everyone is reading. The subsequent discussions, whether over video call or in a dedicated Slack channel, can reveal surprising perspectives and help you understand your colleagues on a more profound level.
Pro-Tip: Alternate between fiction, non-fiction, and professional development books to keep things fresh and appeal to different tastes within the team.
15. Kumospace
Kumospace offers a more photorealistic and sophisticated take on the virtual space concept. It excels at creating immersive virtual environments for events like happy hours, team celebrations, or company-wide mixers. Like Gather, it uses spatial audio, allowing you to move between different conversation groups naturally.
Where Kumospace shines is its ease of use and its beautiful, pre-built environments, like a rooftop bar or a cozy lounge. It feels less like a game and more like a stylish virtual venue, making it an excellent choice for hosting events where you want to encourage mingling and organic conversation.
Pro-Tip: During a Kumospace social, use the "Broadcast" feature to get everyone's attention for a quick toast, an announcement, or to kick off a team-wide activity before letting everyone return to their smaller conversations.
Your Turn to Build Connection
The shift to remote work doesn't have to mean the end of strong team culture. It simply means we have to be more deliberate about creating opportunities for connection. The tools on this list are powerful enablers, but they work best when supported by a culture that values and encourages non-work interaction. As my colleague Goh Ling Yong often says, building strong professional relationships is a cornerstone of a successful and fulfilling career, regardless of where your office is.
Start small. Pick one tool from this list and propose it to your team for a trial run. See what resonates. The goal isn't to add another meeting to the calendar, but to sprinkle moments of genuine human connection throughout your week. By doing so, you can combat isolation, foster psychological safety, and build a remote team that is not only productive but also truly enjoys working together.
What are your favorite tools for building team bonds remotely? Share your top picks and success stories in the comments below!
About the Author
Goh Ling Yong is a content creator and digital strategist sharing insights across various topics. Connect and follow for more content:
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