Top 17 Team-Bonding Tools to Learn for a Truly Connected Remote Culture in 2025
The shift to remote and hybrid work isn't a trend anymore; it's our new reality. While we’ve mastered the art of virtual meetings and cloud-based collaboration, many teams are still grappling with a critical challenge: connection. How do you build a genuinely cohesive team when the "water cooler" is a Slack channel and happy hour is a grid of faces on a screen? The spontaneous chats, shared lunches, and casual high-fives that once built camaraderie have vanished, leaving a potential void of isolation.
Building a strong remote culture requires intention. It doesn't just happen; it's designed. It means consciously creating opportunities for the informal, human interactions that forge trust and psychological safety. Here on the Goh Ling Yong blog, we believe that the right technology isn't just for productivity—it's for people. The tools you choose can either reinforce silos or build bridges, turning a group of remote employees into a truly connected team.
So, how do you prepare for the next wave of remote work in 2025? You get equipped. We’ve curated the ultimate list of 17 team-bonding tools that go beyond awkward virtual happy hours. From asynchronous trivia to gamified virtual offices, these platforms are designed to spark conversation, celebrate wins, and build the resilient, engaged remote culture your team deserves.
1. Donut
Donut is the quintessential tool for fighting remote work isolation. It integrates directly with Slack or Microsoft Teams and acts as a friendly, automated matchmaker, pairing up team members for non-work-related chats. Whether it's for virtual coffee, a peer-to-peer learning session, or just a 15-minute "get to know you" call, Donut systematically engineers the spontaneous connections that remote teams miss out on.
The beauty of Donut lies in its simplicity and customizability. You can set the frequency of pairings (weekly, bi-weekly), create different channels for different purposes (e.g., a #coffee-pals channel for general chats and a #mentorship-matchup for skill sharing), and even provide conversation starters to break the ice. It’s a low-effort, high-impact way to ensure colleagues who might never interact otherwise can build meaningful relationships.
Pro Tip: Create themed Donut channels. A #Cross-Department-Chat channel can break down organizational silos, while a #New-Hire-Buddies channel can help onboard new employees by pairing them with seasoned team members for their first few weeks.
2. Gather
Tired of static video call grids? Gather is a delightful solution that transforms your remote workspace into a 2D virtual office. Each team member has a pixel-art avatar and can walk around a customizable digital space, from individual desks to meeting rooms and social lounges. When your avatar gets close to another, a video chat automatically opens, perfectly mimicking the act of bumping into a colleague in the hallway.
This "proximity chat" feature is a game-changer for fostering spontaneous interaction. Instead of scheduling a formal meeting, you can just "walk over" to a coworker's virtual desk to ask a quick question. Teams can host all-hands meetings in a virtual auditorium, collaborate on whiteboards in a project room, or simply hang out by the virtual coffee machine. It gamifies the workday and brings a sense of place and presence back to remote work.
Pro Tip: Host a weekly "office hours" in a designated social space on Gather. Encourage leaders to be present during this time so team members can drop by for informal chats, creating a more accessible and approachable leadership team.
3. Water Cooler Trivia
One of the biggest challenges for global remote teams is time zone differences. Water Cooler Trivia solves this by offering asynchronous trivia contests that run throughout the week. You choose the categories and difficulty, and the platform sends out a weekly quiz via Slack, Teams, or email. Team members can answer the questions whenever it's convenient for them.
At the end of the week, the platform sends out the results, complete with leaderboards and fun superlatives (like "Funniest Wrong Answer"). It's a fantastic way to spark friendly competition and conversation. The weekly cadence creates a consistent ritual that people look forward to, and the trivia itself becomes a topic of conversation in team channels, all without requiring everyone to be online at the same time.
Pro Tip: Create a custom category related to your team or company. Include questions like "Which team member has a pet corgi named Winston?" or "What was the codename for our last major project?" It's a fun way to share personal details and reinforce team history.
4. Jackbox Games
For a synchronous, high-energy bonding session, nothing beats Jackbox Games. A collection of hilarious and easy-to-learn party games, Jackbox only requires one person to own the game and stream it over a video call. Everyone else plays along using their smartphone or a web browser as their controller, making it incredibly accessible.
Games range from the witty wordplay of Quiplash to the absurd drawing challenges of Drawful. The sessions are almost guaranteed to result in laughter and inside jokes that will last for weeks. It’s the perfect formula for a virtual Friday game night that actually feels fun and engaging, not like another mandatory meeting.
Pro Tip: Designate a different "host" from the team for each game night. This gives more people a chance to lead and allows them to pick their favorite Jackbox games, adding variety to your sessions.
5. Bonusly
A culture of recognition is vital for team morale, and Bonusly makes it easy, public, and fun. It’s a peer-to-peer recognition platform where every team member gets a small monthly allowance of "points" they can give to their colleagues to say "thank you" or "great job." These small acts of appreciation are posted in a public feed, often integrated with Slack or Teams, for everyone to see.
This constant stream of positive reinforcement is incredibly powerful. It highlights the everyday contributions that often go unnoticed and empowers everyone to celebrate each other's work. Employees can then redeem their accumulated points for real-world rewards, like gift cards or company swag. It’s a brilliant system for embedding gratitude directly into your team's daily workflow.
Pro Tip: Link Bonusly recognition to your company values. Encourage employees to add a hashtag related to a specific value (e.g., #CustomerObsessed, #TeamPlayer) when giving points. This reinforces your cultural pillars in a tangible way.
6. Miro
While primarily a digital whiteboard for collaboration, Miro is a surprisingly versatile tool for creative team bonding. Its infinite canvas can be used for much more than flowcharts and project plans. Think of it as a shared digital playground for your team to express themselves and connect visually.
You can host a session where everyone creates a personal "mood board" for the week, sharing images and notes about what's on their mind. Or, try a virtual "Two Truths and a Lie," where each person adds three statements about themselves on sticky notes, and the team votes on which one is the lie. These activities encourage vulnerability and sharing in a structured, creative format.
Pro Tip: Create a permanent "Team Canvas" in Miro. Dedicate sections for personal user manuals ("how to work with me"), a team photo gallery, a map showing where everyone lives, and a "kudos corner." It becomes a living document of your team's culture.
7. Loom
Asynchronous video is one of the most underutilized tools for building human connection remotely. Loom allows you to quickly record your screen, camera, and voice, then share it with a simple link. While great for work-related walkthroughs, its real bonding power comes from using it for personal, informal communication.
Instead of a text-based weekly update, a team lead can send a 2-minute Loom video sharing their thoughts and smiling. A team member can record a quick "WFH Cribs" tour of their workspace. It adds a layer of personality and non-verbal communication that text can never capture, helping team members feel like they truly know the person behind the avatar.
Pro Tip: Start a "Loom Chain" where one person records a short video asking a fun question (e.g., "What's the best thing you've eaten this week?") and tags another person to answer and pass it on. It’s an easy, asynchronous way to create a fun, ongoing conversation.
8. Gartic Phone
Often described as the "telephone game" with drawings, Gartic Phone is an absolute riot and requires zero artistic skill. The game starts with each player writing a silly sentence. That sentence is then passed to another player who has to draw it. Their drawing is then passed to the next player, who has to describe what they see in the drawing.
This continues until everyone gets their original prompt back, having been hilariously misinterpreted through a series of drawings and descriptions. The final reveal, where you see the entire chain of transformations, is guaranteed to have the whole team in stitches. It's a perfect, low-pressure icebreaker that takes about 15-20 minutes.
Pro Tip: Use the game's settings to your advantage. Try "Animation" mode for a collaborative flip-book or "Secret" mode where you don't see the previous step, leading to even more chaotic and funny results.
9. KumoSpace
Similar to Gather, KumoSpace is another spatial chat platform that offers a more streamlined and audio-focused experience. It excels at creating virtual environments that feel like real-life social events. You can customize rooms with different background music, embedded YouTube videos, and interactive elements.
KumoSpace's audio is directional, meaning you hear people louder when their avatars are closer to you, and you can hear multiple conversations happening at once, just like at a real party. This makes it ideal for larger, less structured social events where you want people to break off into smaller, organic conversation groups. It’s a great choice for hosting virtual conferences, holiday parties, or department-wide mixers.
Pro Tip: Set up different "themed rooms" for your next virtual social. Create a "Board Game Cafe" with embedded links to online games, a "Chill Lounge" with relaxing music for quiet chats, and a "Karaoke Stage" with a shared YouTube playlist.
10. Tribute
For celebrating major milestones like work anniversaries, birthdays, or farewells, Tribute is an incredibly powerful and personal tool. It makes it easy to create a collaborative video montage. You simply create an event, invite contributors, and they can each record a short video message on their phone or computer.
Tribute then automatically compiles all the clips into a beautiful, heartfelt final video. Watching a colleague receive a surprise video filled with messages of appreciation and well wishes from their entire team is a deeply moving experience. It’s a way to show genuine care and make people feel truly seen and valued, which is priceless in a remote setting.
Pro Tip: Don't just save Tributes for major events. Create one for a team that just shipped a difficult project, celebrating their hard work and perseverance. It’s a fantastic way to cap off a big win.
11. Notion
Notion's power as a team-bonding tool lies in its flexibility as a shared knowledge base. Beyond project management, you can create a vibrant, internal "Team Hub" that serves as a cultural anchor for your remote team. This isn't just an org chart; it's a living, breathing space that reflects your team's personality.
Create a gallery view database with a "profile card" for each team member. Encourage them to fill it out with their Myers-Briggs type, their "working with me" guide, their favorite Spotify playlist, and photos of their pets. You can also have shared pages for "Team Recipes," a "Book Club," or a list of "Favorite Lunch Spots" near wherever your team members live.
Pro Tip: Start a "Wins of the Week" page in your Notion Team Hub. At the end of each week, everyone adds a bullet point—personal or professional—about something they're proud of. It’s a great asynchronous ritual for celebrating progress and practicing gratitude.
12. Slack (Creative Use of Channels & Huddles)
Don't overlook the tool your team already uses every day. With a little intentionality, Slack can be a powerful engine for connection. The key is to create dedicated, non-work channels that cater to shared interests and encourage informal chatter. Channels like #pets-of-company, #i-made-this (for creative hobbies), #sports-talk, or #what-are-you-watching give people a space to be themselves.
Slack's Huddles feature is perfect for quick, spontaneous conversations. It’s the digital equivalent of leaning over a desk to ask a question or share a funny thought. Encourage your team to use huddles for quick co-working sessions or just to chat for a few minutes, reducing the formality and friction of scheduling a full video call.
Pro Tip: Use a Slack app like Giphy, Simple Poll, or Polly to run fun, interactive polls and questions in your social channels. A simple "This or That?" poll (e.g., "Coffee or Tea?") can spark a surprising amount of conversation.
13. Unmind
Team bonding isn't just about fun and games; it's also about supporting each other's well-being. Unmind is a workplace mental health platform that provides tools and resources for everything from stress and anxiety to sleep and nutrition. Providing this as a company-wide benefit shows a deep level of care for your employees as whole human beings.
Beyond the individual benefits, platforms like Unmind can be used for team-based wellness initiatives. You can participate in a team-wide "mindfulness challenge," listen to a guided meditation together at the start of a meeting, or use the platform's content as a jumping-off point for discussions about mental health, reducing stigma and building a culture of psychological safety.
Pro Tip: Use Unmind's features to kick off your weekly team meeting. Start with a 3-minute guided breathing exercise or a short "Praise" session where everyone shares something positive. It sets a calm, positive tone for the rest of the meeting.
14. Skribbl.io
For a quick, easy, and free dose of fun, Skribbl.io is a fantastic choice. It's a browser-based Pictionary-style game where players take turns drawing a word while others guess what it is in a chat box. The game is fast-paced, intuitive, and works great for teams of all sizes.
The simplicity of Skribbl.io is its greatest strength. There’s no login required, and you can set up a private room for your team in seconds. It’s the perfect activity to fill a 15-minute gap in the schedule or to act as a fun warm-up at the beginning of a longer meeting. The often-terrible drawings are a source of endless amusement.
Pro Tip: Create a list of custom words related to your company, industry, or team inside jokes before you start. This personalizes the game and makes it even more hilarious for your team.
15. Lattice
Many modern performance management platforms like Lattice have powerful built-in features for fostering connection and recognition. Lattice's "Praise" feature allows anyone to give public shout-outs to colleagues, which can be linked to company values and shared directly in Slack. It's a great way to formalize and encourage the act of appreciation.
Furthermore, its "1-on-1" meeting tool helps managers have more meaningful, structured conversations with their direct reports, with shared agendas and action items. Strong manager-employee relationships are the bedrock of a connected team, and tools like Lattice provide the framework to ensure those crucial conversations are happening consistently and effectively, even in a remote environment.
Pro Tip: Use Lattice's "Update" feature for more than just work progress. Add a recurring weekly or bi-weekly question like, "What was a personal win for you this week?" or "What are you looking forward to outside of work?" This prompts sharing on a more personal level within a professional context.
16. MasterClass at Work
Learning together is a powerful way to bond. The MasterClass at Work program allows you to provide your team with access to a vast library of courses taught by the world's leading experts. A shared learning experience can spark new ideas and create a common intellectual ground for the team.
You can form a "lunch and learn" club where the team watches a lesson together once a week and discusses it. Imagine learning about creative leadership from Anna Wintour or scientific thinking from Neil deGrasse Tyson and then applying those concepts to your own projects. It elevates conversation and invests in your team's personal and professional growth simultaneously.
Pro Tip: Align your MasterClass selections with upcoming team goals. If you have a big presentation coming up, watch a class on public speaking. If you're kicking off a creative project, dive into a course on storytelling.
17. Snack
Tapping into the short-form video trend, Snack is like a private TikTok or Instagram Reels for your company. It's a platform for creating and sharing short, asynchronous videos, which is perfect for the modern workforce that is often suffering from video call fatigue.
Teams can use Snack for quick project updates, sharing "a day in my life" videos, introducing new hires, or running fun video challenges. The format is inherently casual and creative, encouraging authenticity over polish. It's a fantastic way to get a glimpse into your colleagues' personalities and work environments in a way that feels fresh, modern, and engaging.
Pro Tip: Start a weekly video theme on Snack. For example, "Mindful Monday" where people share a wellness tip, "Workspace Wednesday" for a tour of their desk setup, or "Foodie Friday" to show off their lunch.
Your Toolkit for a Connected Future
Technology is not a silver bullet for building a great remote culture. As my mentor, Goh Ling Yong, often advises, "A tool is only as good as the intention behind it." The platforms on this list are powerful, but they are simply conduits. The real magic happens when you use them to intentionally create space for authenticity, recognition, and shared fun.
Don't feel pressured to implement all 17 at once. Start small. Pick one or two that resonate with your team's personality and needs. Run a pilot, gather feedback, and see what sticks. The goal isn't to add more meetings to the calendar; it's to weave moments of genuine human connection into the fabric of your remote workday. By doing so, you'll build a culture that is not only productive but also resilient, supportive, and truly connected, no matter where your team members are.
Now, over to you: What are your go-to tools for team bonding in a remote world? Did we miss any of your favorites? Share your top picks and experiences 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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