8 Virtual Meeting Tools for Collaboration

Over the past two years, all of us have had to deal with significant collaboration changes in the workplace. Now that remote work has become the norm and hybrid offices and work-from-home setups are slowly overturning the mighty open and cubicle offices, both business owners and employees have to adapt to succeed.

One important change that we’ve all seen is how organizations do meetings. If there’s one thing 2020 has taught us, it’s that Zoom fatigue is real. Even if video conferencing has helped us progress through our work, the frequent use of technology can also be exhausting. Especially, if the software we’re using is confusing and doesn’t promote genuine connection with our colleagues.

In this post, we’ll focus on amazing virtual meeting tools that can improve collaboration and productivity in the office. We’ll also help you pick which software is most suitable for your business. Read on to find the right collaboration tool for your company in the list below:

1. Slack

Slack is a collaboration messaging tool designed to bring teams together to work as a strong and unified group. Currently, the leading workplace chat app, Slack, is the most used collaboration tool for a number of reasons.

Aside from its simplistic design, Slack excels in the way that it makes work communication fun and less boring. In Slack, conversations can be organized into public or private channels. This is incredibly useful for organizations handling several projects and departments. With the goal to replace formal and dull email messages, Slack makes collaborating enjoyable and exciting, an activity team would actually look forward to.

Pros: Private and public channels, app integrations, screen sharing, good mobile version

Cons: Video call quality, limited message storage, notifications are sometimes buggy

2. Asana

The best team collaboration software solutions should allow team members to collaborate on tasks while keeping track of the progress of each job. If you’re looking for a great collaboration and progress tracking software, we recommend Asana. Asana is a productivity collaboration tool and content management system designed for huge teams with both short and long-term projects.

With Asana, virtual brainstorming can be done effectively. Asana has a ‘board’ function that’s similar to a real-life whiteboard, which you can use with your other members to collaborate. The boards can also hold sticky notes that can be moved across sections. This visual collaboration function makes it very easy to hold meetings and creatively dump ideas together with your team.

Pros: Amazing drag and drop feature, task assigning, linking projects and tasks, task progress

Cons: No offline mode, cluttered view, no time-tracking functions, no file commenting

3. Notion

Notion is a note-taking and project management tool that’s also becoming a favorite workplace collaboration software. Now that a majority of offices are relying on hybrid setups and virtual meetings, the need for better note-taking during these meetings is a must.

Notion can help managers create meeting templates for any kind of meeting in the office. Whether it’s a recurring meeting, a presentation, or an impromptu meeting—Notion helps you plan and set up a smooth meeting session with your team members.

The beauty of Notion is that it can be easily integrated with other virtual meeting platforms such as Zoom or Google Meet. You can also sort meetings, track attendees, or create a note template that will allow you to structure the meeting the way you want it. The only thing to expect with Notion is the initial setup can be a lot of work. If you’re someone who doesn’t like building notes from scratch using other templates can help immensely.

Pros: Amazing customization and flexibility, rich integrations, wikis, notes, project management

Cons: Poor search and navigation, no PDF and image annotation, takes time to set up

4. Loom

Loom is a video messaging tool that helps teams reduce meeting times for better collaboration and time-saving. With Loom, inefficient virtual meetings are decreased and replaced with short and concise video messages. If you simply want to explain a project or announce a huge change in the organization, a personalized asynchronous video made through Loom can do the job.

This makes Loom a highly effective means of communication for busy teams. However, for teams that don’t collaborate much often and need more “facetime,” opting for virtual meetings is the best thing to do.

Another way Loom makes collaboration convenient is through its recording and editing capabilities. Unlike other video messaging apps where you’re either recording your screen or yourself, Loom can give you both options and more. Its screencasting tool allows you to capture yourself and your screen. You can also edit the video before opting to share it with your team members.

Pros: Easy recording feature, several integrations, affordable premium, chrome plugin

Cons: Audio sync issues, limited video editing features, videos public by default

5. Calendly

Calendly has been around since 2013 and is one of the few tools out there that has become indispensable for many people. So, what is Calendly? Calendly is a meeting booking tool that is built to reduce the hassle of scheduling meetings by email.

The app allows people to pick a time slot based on their availability in their calendars. Now that virtual meetings are the new normal, Calendly solves a very important problem when it comes to scheduling meetings. It also allows people to accurately set the time and date for virtual or in-person meetings, reducing no-shows and time zone confusion.

With Calendly, the people you will have a virtual meeting with will know how long the meeting is going to last, who is joining, and what the meeting will be about in the meeting summary feature. Plus, it shows the local time zones of the people you’re inviting.

Calendly is so intuitive and easy to use that it’s almost a necessity for businesses with workers from all over the globe. If you’re a recruiter using Calendly with recruitment software like Manatal or Zoho Recruit, it will make your job exceptionally easy.

Pros: Easy appointment scheduling, user-friendly platform, Google Calendar sync

Cons: Limited integrations and customization, poor customer service, no double booking

6. Fireflies

Taking meeting notes is a job that’s often done by the workplace secretary or the team member that’s assigned by the manager for that week. But what if a software can do all the note-taking for you?

Introducing Fireflies. Fireflies is a note-taking app that automatically records meetings from different web conferencing platforms. With Fireflies, you can easily record and share your meeting with one person or a group of people.

Aside from recording, Fireflies can also be used to transcribe meetings or audio files. Teams can add comments or mark specific sections of calls to discuss specific ideas with members. Meeting details can easily be forgotten if they’re not recorded or put into writing. By doing so, your teams can properly work on what was discussed during the meeting. The note will also act as a great reference for future uses.

Pros: Easy to set up, good audio recording and transcribing capability, workflow automation

Cons: Limited storage, low voice recognition accuracy, no option to log in outside the SSO

7. Google Meet / Video Conferencing Software

Google Meet is fast becoming the king of video meeting software. Zoom, WebEx, and Microsoft Teams have all skyrocketed in popularity during the quarantine season, but when it comes to reliability and ease of use Google Meet is a fan favorite.

Google Meet is a virtual meeting app designed for teams to come together online and collaborate with each other. It’s one of the most used virtual meeting software by companies around the world. With Google Meet, you can schedule a video meeting and send invites through Gmail.

Pros: Best for team meetings, easy to use, safe and secure, multi-device support

Cons: No private messaging enabled, limited number of participants, limited features

8. Stormboard

Finally, there is Stormboard. A leader in the digital whiteboard and virtual collaboration space, Stormboard combines the best of everything on this list, providing users with an end-to-end solution for collaborating, ideating, note-taking, and project management.

Designed to make business operations smoother and more efficient, Stormboard provides over 250 pre-built, but configurable templates to help virtual teams with everything from planning and tracking meeting agendas and notes all the way to product development and marketing tactics.

Best of all, Stormboard directly integrates with dozens of other tools (including some on this list, like Slack or Calendly!), which helps make for a seamless workspace and reduces the amount of time spent switching between various apps and programs.

Virtual Meeting Tools are Crucial To Business Success

Choosing the right virtual meeting tool can help you make meetings more fruitful and meaningful for everyone in the organization. To help you master every meeting session in the team, we highly recommend the tools listed above. The collaboration tools in the list are some of the best and highly recommended tools available on the market today.