from Hacker News

Ask HN: Is there any app or extension for remote office coffee breaks?

by pog92 on 1/26/21, 9:00 AM with 8 comments

In my company, after the initial trouble going full remote for the COVID-19 outbreak we managed to do everything remotely: 1-1s, meetings, workshops, all the things that looked impossible to do outside the office.

Only one exception: the coffee break. The occasional chit chat which happened in the coffee area has not been substituted from any call, even the most informal one.

In fact, people didn't schedule coffees, just went in the coffee area when willing to take one and there we met other people and had a quick chat. It was super useful for informal alignment, team building and company culture building.

We tried to do remote coffees but the magic doesn't happen.

Do you know anyone who tried to replace this moment with a remote tool and succeeded?

  • by jakub_g on 1/26/21, 8:09 PM

    https://workadventu.re

    You have a virtual office and when you approach someone on the map, it creates adhoc webrtc conference. You can have up to 4 people meetings this way.

    You can create a custom map of your own office to make it feel real. We started using it last week in my team. Really fun.

  • by 97amarnathk on 1/26/21, 10:51 AM

    https://tandem.chat/

    We use this where I work

  • by tabletzone on 1/27/21, 9:26 PM

    https://tappy.so/ This it the best for spontaneous talk. one click to talk! Donut for Slack can help throw random topics for coffee break.

  • by babygoat on 1/27/21, 4:57 PM

    We use the donut app in Slack which pairs you with someone every week to set up a chat. It’s not the same as being face to face, but it keeps you in touch with people who you may not otherwise talk to in a work context.

  • by asimpo on 1/28/21, 12:43 AM

    My team just discovered Sococo. It creates an actual virtual office environment with rooms and offices. So you can "meet" someone in the "break area" and engage via zoom etc.

  • by herbst on 1/26/21, 9:46 AM

    I am pretty sure there is no replacement. However offtopic channels in slack to share some music, stories and interesting tech would always lead to nice short break convos

  • by runjake on 1/28/21, 2:16 AM

    IRC.

  • by forgotmysn on 1/27/21, 10:49 PM

    clubhouse?