Top 20 'Meeting-Killing' Software to try for remote work to finally escape Zoom fatigue
We’ve all been there. That 2:00 PM calendar notification pops up, and a wave of dread washes over you. It's another video call. You stare at your own face in the little box, trying to look engaged, while your mind drifts to the dozen other things you should be doing. Welcome to the era of Zoom fatigue, the digital hangover from a world that tried to replicate the office online, one back-to-back meeting at a time.
The truth is, most meetings are not just unproductive; they're actively destructive to deep, meaningful work. They break our focus, fill our calendars with low-value obligations, and leave us too drained to tackle the challenges that actually move the needle. The constant context-switching is a productivity killer. It’s a problem that plagues even the most efficient teams, a topic I’ve often discussed with Goh Ling Yong when we talk about the future of work.
But what if there was a better way? What if you could reclaim your calendar and replace those soul-crushing meetings with smarter, more efficient workflows? The good news is, you can. The solution lies in a new class of software designed to kill unnecessary meetings by fostering asynchronous communication, clarifying goals, and making collaboration seamless. Here are 20 game-changing tools that will help your remote team finally break free from the shackles of the video call.
1. Loom
Loom is the undisputed champion of killing the "Hey, can you quickly show me?" meeting. It’s a dead-simple tool that lets you record your screen, camera, and microphone simultaneously. Instead of scheduling a 30-minute call to walk someone through a design, a process, or a bug report, you can record a 5-minute video and send them the link.
The beauty of Loom is its immediacy and clarity. The recipient can watch it on their own time, pause, rewind, and absorb the information without the pressure of a live call. It preserves the human element—they see your face and hear your voice—but respects everyone's schedule. It’s a perfect example of asynchronous communication done right.
Pro-tip: Use Loom for code reviews, design feedback, and onboarding new team members to a specific software. It creates a library of reusable content that saves you from repeating yourself over and over again.
2. Slack
Wait, Slack? The app famous for constant notifications? Yes, but when used correctly, Slack is a powerful meeting-killer. The key is to leverage its asynchronous features. Instead of calling a meeting for a quick question, you can post it in the relevant channel where the right people can answer when they have a moment.
More importantly, features like Slack Clips (short audio and video recordings) and Huddles (spontaneous audio-only chats) are brilliant meeting alternatives. A quick huddle can resolve an issue in five minutes that might have otherwise become a 30-minute scheduled call. And a Slack Clip can provide context and tone far better than a wall of text.
Example: Instead of a daily stand-up meeting, create a dedicated #standups channel where everyone posts their updates. This takes 2 minutes per person and keeps a written record, freeing up 30-60 minutes on everyone's calendar.
3. Asana
Status update meetings are one of the biggest time-wasters in the corporate world. They exist because of a lack of clarity and visibility. This is where a robust project management tool like Asana shines. By centralizing all tasks, deadlines, owners, and dependencies in one place, Asana makes the status of any project instantly clear to everyone involved.
When a team member wants to know the progress on a task, they don't need to call a meeting; they just look at the Asana board. The project timeline, task comments, and file attachments provide a complete, living history of the project. This transparency eliminates the need for a manager to go around asking, "So, where are we with this?"
Pro-tip: Use Asana's "Progress" tab to automatically generate status reports for stakeholders. This keeps them informed without pulling the entire team into a weekly check-in.
4. Notion
Notion is the digital brain for your team. It’s a flexible, all-in-one workspace that combines documents, databases, and project management tools. A well-structured Notion page can replace countless kickoff meetings, planning sessions, and information-sharing calls.
Imagine you're starting a new project. Instead of a 1-hour kickoff meeting, you create a comprehensive Notion project brief. It includes the project goals, key stakeholders, timeline, relevant documents, and a Q&A section. You share it with the team, and they can read, comment, and ask questions asynchronously. The document becomes the single source of truth, evolving as the project does.
Example: Use Notion's database feature to create a content calendar. This eliminates the need for weekly meetings to decide what to publish next, as everyone can see the plan and contribute ideas directly.
5. Miro
Brainstorming sessions over Zoom are often awkward and clunky. One person shares their screen while everyone else struggles to contribute. Miro is an infinite online whiteboard that makes remote creative collaboration feel natural and exciting. It's the perfect replacement for any meeting that involves brainstorming, mind-mapping, or strategic planning.
Your team can jump onto a Miro board simultaneously, adding sticky notes, drawing diagrams, and arranging ideas in real-time. Even better, you can use it asynchronously. A team member can start a board with a few ideas, and others can log in later to add their own thoughts. The board becomes a living canvas of your team's collective creativity.
Pro-tip: Use Miro for remote team retrospectives. Create columns for "What went well?", "What could be improved?", and "Action items." Team members can add their sticky notes anonymously before the short follow-up call, making the discussion far more efficient.
6. tl;dv
Sometimes, a meeting is unavoidable. But does everyone really need to be there? tl;dv (too long; didn't view) is a brilliant tool that records, transcribes, and creates AI-powered summaries of your Google Meet and Zoom calls. It's the ultimate "get out of meeting free" card.
If you’re only needed for a 5-minute portion of a 60-minute meeting, you can skip it. Afterwards, you can search the transcript for your name or relevant keywords, watch a timestamped clip of the part that matters to you, or simply read the AI-generated summary. This frees up countless hours for team members who are only tangentially involved in a discussion.
Example: A marketing team member can skip the weekly engineering sync. If "new landing page" is mentioned, they can get a notification and watch just that 2-minute segment of the call.
7. Geekbot
The daily stand-up is a classic agile ceremony, but it can easily become a time-suck that breaks morning focus. Geekbot is an asynchronous stand-up tool that integrates directly into Slack or Microsoft Teams. It automatically asks your team members the classic stand-up questions ("What did you do yesterday?", "What will you do today?", "Any blockers?") via chat.
Everyone responds when it's convenient for them, and Geekbot compiles the answers into a neat summary in a dedicated channel. This keeps everyone in the loop without forcing the entire team to stop what they're doing and sync up at 9:00 AM sharp. It's faster, less disruptive, and creates a searchable history of progress.
Pro-tip: Customize Geekbot's questions to fit your team's needs. You can use it for retrospectives, team wellness check-ins, or collecting anonymous feedback.
8. Twist
Created by the team behind Todoist, Twist is a communication app designed from the ground up for asynchronous work. It’s an alternative to Slack that prioritizes focused, organized conversations over the real-time chaos of a chat room.
In Twist, conversations are organized into threads with clear subjects. This is a game-changer. Instead of a single, jumbled channel, you have distinct, searchable conversations. This structure makes it easy to catch up on what you missed without having to read through hundreds of irrelevant messages. It kills the "quick sync" meeting because information is so well-organized and easy to find.
Example: A marketing team can have a thread for "Q4 Blog Post Ideas," another for "Social Media Campaign Analytics," and a third for "Ad Copy Feedback." Everything is neatly compartmentalized.
9. Coda
Like Notion, Coda is a powerful tool that blends documents, spreadsheets, and apps into one canvas. My friend Goh Ling Yong swears by Coda for its unique ability to turn a simple document into a powerful, interactive application, which can automate workflows that would otherwise require meetings.
You can build custom tools for your team without writing any code. For example, you could create a "Decision Making" doc. It would have a form for submitting a proposal, a table for tracking pros and cons, and a voting system. Instead of a long, contentious meeting to decide on a new feature, the entire process can happen transparently and asynchronously within the Coda doc.
Pro-tip: Use Coda's "Packs" to integrate with other tools like Gmail, Jira, and Slack. You can create a master dashboard that pulls in data from multiple sources, eliminating the need for meetings just to sync information.
10. Range
Range is designed to replace the classic "team check-in" meeting by helping teams feel more connected and aligned, without the need for constant calls. It integrates with your existing tools (like Asana, GitHub, and Google Calendar) to make sharing what you're working on effortless.
Each day, team members share a quick, asynchronous check-in that covers their work plan and how they're feeling. Range combines this with activity from their other tools to create a holistic view of what the team is doing. This builds trust and visibility, so managers don’t feel the need to schedule meetings just to "see what everyone's up to."
Example: The "how are you feeling?" check-in, using simple emojis, is a lightweight way to keep a pulse on team morale without having awkward, forced conversations on a video call.
11. Standuply
Similar to Geekbot, Standuply is a digital scrum master that automates many of the routine agile meetings. It runs asynchronous stand-ups, retrospectives, backlog grooming sessions, and more directly within Slack or Teams.
Standuply's power lies in its wide range of templates and integrations. It can pull data from Jira or Trello to ask team members about specific tasks, and it can run complex surveys to gather feedback. It essentially automates the information-gathering part of most agile meetings, so when you do need to talk, the conversation can be much shorter and more focused.
Pro-tip: Use Standuply's "360 Degree Feedback" feature to collect peer reviews asynchronously, making performance review season much less meeting-intensive.
12. Claap
Claap is another async video collaboration tool, but it's specifically built for teams to create a "video workspace." Think of it as a private YouTube for your company, where you can record screen shares, capture meeting highlights, and build a library of knowledge that replaces repetitive meetings.
Where Claap shines is in its collaborative features. When you watch a video, you can leave time-stamped comments and tag colleagues, turning a passive viewing experience into an active discussion. This is perfect for user research sessions, product demos, and design critiques. One person can record a session, and the whole team can "attend" and provide feedback on their own time.
Example: After a sales demo with a client, record a quick Claap video summarizing the key takeaways and action items. Tag the product and engineering teams on specific feature requests mentioned by the client.
13. Basecamp
Basecamp is one of the original pioneers of remote, asynchronous work. Its entire philosophy is built around reducing meetings and real-time interruptions. It organizes work into distinct projects, each with its own message board, to-do list, file storage, and schedule.
The key meeting-killer feature is the "Message Board." Instead of hashing out an idea in a meeting, you post a detailed write-up. Team members can then comment with thoughtful, well-articulated feedback over the next few hours or days. This leads to higher-quality decisions and eliminates the pressure of having to form an opinion on the spot.
Pro-tip: Enforce a "write it up in Basecamp first" rule for any new idea. This forces people to clarify their thinking and often solves the problem without needing a meeting at all.
14. Vidyard
While often seen as a sales and marketing tool, Vidyard is a fantastic internal communication platform for killing meetings. Like Loom, it makes it easy to record and share videos, but it comes with more robust analytics and organization features.
You can create centralized "hubs" or channels for different types of content, like "Onboarding Videos," "Weekly CEO Updates," or "Product Training." Instead of an all-hands meeting to announce a company update, the CEO can record a 5-minute video. Vidyard's analytics will show you who has watched it, ensuring the message has been received without blocking an hour on everyone's calendar.
Example: Create a Vidyard library of short videos explaining different parts of your product. When a new hire has a question, you can send them a link instead of scheduling a training session.
15. Frame.io
For creative teams working with video, Frame.io is an absolute necessity. Reviewing video edits over a Zoom call is a painful, inefficient process. "Go back two seconds... no, a little more... stop there!" is a phrase that haunts video editors' nightmares.
Frame.io solves this by allowing collaborators to leave precise, time-stamped comments and even draw directly on the video frames. The feedback is clear, contextual, and all in one place. It turns a chaotic, hour-long review meeting into a simple, asynchronous feedback loop, saving immense amounts of time and frustration.
Pro-tip: Integrate Frame.io with your editing software (like Adobe Premiere Pro or Final Cut Pro) to see comments appear directly on your timeline, streamlining the revision process even further.
16. Slab
How many meetings happen just because someone can't find a piece of information? "Where's the latest brand guide?" or "What's our policy on X?" Slab is a modern, beautifully designed internal knowledge base, or "company wiki," that serves as a single source of truth for your team.
By documenting everything—processes, policies, project histories, best practices—in one central, searchable place, you empower your team to find answers for themselves. Slab's clean interface and powerful integrations with tools like Slack and Google Drive make it easy to create and maintain documentation, which is the cornerstone of reducing repetitive question-and-answer meetings.
Example: Create a "New Hire Onboarding" topic in Slab with all the essential documents, links, and FAQs. This drastically reduces the number of introductory meetings needed for new team members.
17. ClickUp
ClickUp bills itself as "the one app to replace them all," and for good reason. It’s an incredibly powerful and customizable project management platform that can be adapted to almost any workflow. Its ability to consolidate tasks, docs, chat, and goals into one place is a direct assault on the fragmented communication that leads to so many meetings.
One of its best meeting-killing features is "Assigned Comments." If a quick action is needed on a task, you can create a comment, assign it to a team member, and it becomes a trackable sub-task. This is perfect for those small to-dos that might otherwise get lost or require a "quick sync" to resolve.
Pro-tip: Use ClickUp's "Whiteboards" and "Docs" features to keep project planning and documentation right next to the tasks themselves. This context-switching reduction is a huge productivity booster.
18. Monday.com
Monday.com is a visual and intuitive "Work OS" that helps teams plan, track, and manage their work. Its strength lies in its highly customizable boards and automations, which can eliminate the manual work and follow-up that often lead to check-in meetings.
You can set up automations like, "When a task's status changes to 'Done,' notify the project manager in Slack and move the task to the 'Completed' group." This kind of automated workflow keeps everyone informed in real-time without anyone needing to schedule a meeting to provide an update. The visual dashboards also give stakeholders a high-level view of progress at a glance.
Example: Use a Monday.com form to handle incoming requests from other departments. This standardizes the intake process and eliminates the back-and-forth emails and meetings that often precede new work.
19. Guru
Similar to Slab, Guru is a knowledge management solution, but with a unique twist. It works by "capturing" information where it lives—in Slack, in emails, in documents—and making it instantly accessible via a browser extension or Slackbot.
The magic of Guru is its ability to surface verified information on the fly. A sales rep can be in the middle of writing an email and use the Guru extension to quickly pull up the latest pricing information without having to ask someone. This "just-in-time" knowledge delivery prevents countless interruptions and "quick question" meetings, empowering everyone to be more self-sufficient.
Pro-tip: Assign "verifiers" to key pieces of information. Guru will periodically remind them to check if the content is still up-to-date, ensuring your team can always trust the information they find.
20. Yac
Yac is a voice-messaging platform designed for async collaboration. It’s like a super-powered walkie-talkie for remote teams. Instead of typing out a long message or scheduling a call, you can quickly record a voice note, complete with a screen share if needed, and send it to a colleague or channel.
This is perfect for conversations that are too nuanced for text but don't require the immediacy of a live call. Hearing someone's tone of voice adds a layer of context and personality that text often lacks, helping to avoid misunderstandings and build team connection without filling the calendar. It's the perfect middle ground between typing and talking live.
Example: When giving complex feedback on a document, send a Yac. You can talk through your thought process while scrolling through the doc, providing much richer context than written comments alone.
Reclaim Your Calendar, Reclaim Your Focus
The goal isn't to eliminate all meetings. Strategic, well-run meetings for complex problem-solving, deep personal connection, and major decisions will always have a place. The real enemy is the default meeting—the lazy, reflexive scheduling of a call for something that could have been handled better, faster, and more thoughtfully through other means.
By adopting even one or two of the tools on this list, you can start to chip away at the mountain of unnecessary meetings on your team's calendar. You’ll be giving your colleagues the most valuable gift of all: uninterrupted time to do their best work.
So, what’s your next step? Pick one tool from this list that addresses your team's biggest meeting pain point and propose a one-week experiment. You might be surprised at how quickly you can change your team's culture and finally escape the grip of Zoom fatigue.
What's the one meeting you wish you could replace with an app? Share your thoughts 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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