Energize your remote work culture with these 5 apps for Slack

If you’re new to remote work, you might be nostalgic about the little things that helped you feel connected while at the office: water cooler talks, your deskmate’s music choices, even seeing who’s on snack break. In the midst of getting used to working remotely, our developer community has come up with solutions to bridge the gaps with some fun apps to help you feel close to your coworkers, no matter their distance.

Schedule a spontaneous meetup in Slack

When you’re missing the coffee meetups and hallway chats of office life, grab time with Snack. The app matches two random people in a Slack channel for a short, timed video call. Matching is based on your activity on Slack, your time zone and your interests, and it helps kick things off with a series of icebreakers to discuss.

Curate daily virtual art shows with ArtLens

ArtLens lets users recharge, get inspired and discuss different topics in a distributed workplace. It does this by sharing artwork every weekday from The Cleveland Museum of Art’s Open Access collection, inserting a moment or two of art appreciation into a busy workday.

Sync your whole team’s music with Resonatr

Resonatr solves an interesting problem: How do you share and synchronize music across your entire team, no matter where they’re working? With Resonatr, you set aside a channel for people to post requests or add songs to a playlist, and in turn it creates a station everyone can listen to together and work to the same beat.

Connect your team over topics with Polly

Polly is an old favorite and at its core is a great way to poll everyone for their opinions or track satisfaction through surveys. But recent updates—from trivia to team recognition features—have added a slew of ways to spark social connections in your team.

Track your time in no time with Remoty

Remoty offers a lightning quick way to track your time in Slack, courtesy of a few short slash commands. Use it to clock in and out, mark off breaks and let others know when you’re back. Remoty also does daily standup meetings and offers export files for preparing timesheets or billable hours for clients.

Creative times call for creative measures, and this crop of new and updated apps can help your team meet each other, work together, and stay up to date with one another wherever they are. With more than 2,200 tools available in the Slack App Directory, there’s something for every team’s needs.

Looking to build an app of your own? Slack API has all the tools you need to get started. You can also sign up for a free consultation with Slack experts.