5 fun virtual meeting platforms to connect your remote and hybrid teams

In January 1988, Tina Turner broke the world record for a solo artist's largest paying concert attendance. The Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll gave a captivating show in the Maracanã Stadium, Brazil, and drew a huge crowd of 188,000 fans.*

Virtual meetings can’t beat Turner’s legendary concerts but, when done well, they do have a few things in common: an energetic atmosphere, a collective experience that brings people together, and a good time.

But, like a band needs a venue, a great meeting requires a fun virtual meeting platform: One that keeps people engaged and productive, helps create a positive work culture, and lets you feel more connected to team members.

But finding the ideal one is easier said than done.

We’re not here to tell you that finding the right platform will make your meetings instantly go from tedious marathons to thrilling interactive experiences—nothing screams "fun" like discussing deadlines and projects while pretending you're in a virtual world, right? 

Because let’s face it, nobody really thinks virtual meeting platforms are fun—but what you do with them can be. That’s why, as a leader of a highly collaborative team, you need to look beyond features like floor plans and digital plants to invest in tools that let your people come together to get more done—and have a good time.  

In this piece, we’ve reviewed five virtual meeting platforms you can use to make your meetings more dynamic. We’ll look at their features, pricing, and who each is best for to help you narrow down your choice more easily. Finally, we’ll demonstrate how Switchboard lets you build a team culture that’s truly collaborative and fun.

Let’s roll.

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Virtual meeting platforms: overview 

Before we go backstage to meet the band, here’s a quick visual overview of how these different virtual meeting platforms compare and what they have to offer.

Want a more detailed product analysis? Keep reading!

What to look for when choosing a fun virtual meeting platform 

With the right virtual meeting platform you can create an environment where people actually enjoy getting things done together. Here are some features to look for that help make teamwork the best part of work:

• A virtual office to give teams a space to find each other and get work done between meetings‍
• Persistent rooms that save your work so you never lose track of what you were doing last time‍
• Presentation and screen sharing mode so everyone in the room can show others what they’re seeing ‍
• File sharing so team members can easily open, view, and work on documents together ‍
• Ability to share, access, and work on multiple types of content, including all the websites, images, PDFs, or apps you might need for effective teamwork in one place‍
• Virtual whiteboards, comments, sticky notes, and in-room chat to make remote communication and brainstorming easier—both in real time and async ‍
• Dedicated 1:1 meeting rooms for spontaneous meetings and private chats‍
• In-app meeting recordings so no one misses out on valuable knowledge and action items‍
• Live polling widgets to make meetings more interactive and engaging‍
• Integrations with project collaboration tools like Asana or Wrike to keep track of the deadlines and project statuses you discuss on the call
• Easy setup and a straightforward interface to make getting started a smoother process‍
• Data security and encrypted infrastructure for keeping company and client data safe‍
• In-app support to easily answer questions and solve problems

5 fun virtual meeting platforms to wow your team (honest) 

With these functionalities in mind, we’ve made a list of five virtual meeting platforms you can use to make your meetings more fun and offer a multiplayer experience. This means multiple team members can interact with tools, share content, and work together at the same time as opposed to sitting back and watching a screenshare.

We’ve reviewed each platform based on its top features, pricing, and who it’s best for to help you make your decision more easily.

Here are our suggestions:

1. Switchboard
2. SpatialChat 
3. Gather 
4. Spot 
5. Kumospace
   

Let’s dive in. 

1. Switchboard

Switchboard is a collaborative digital workspace that lets you and your team work together on files and browser-based apps in a virtual room—without needing to share your screen. With its visual canvases and intuitive meeting rooms, Switchboard helps foster genuine team connection, collaboration, and productivity. 

When you’re working in a Switchboard room, you can communicate in real time with video, audio, and chat. Plus, everyone can scroll, type, and browse at the same time so you’re truly working together and don’t have to wait for the host to hand over the mic.

For example, your design team can create a cloud-based virtual room for creative reviews and look at their designs and brief side-by-side. Whether your work is in Figma, Invision, or Canva, you can open different browsers, share control of the tools, and produce results everyone can be proud of. 

When you need to get everyone’s attention, just use “present mode” to focus their eyes on what you’re seeing. Otherwise, team members may explore any file in the room, move around, and view whatever they want without getting in the way of others.

Finally, Switchboard saves all your files after every meeting, so you never need to download anything or prep the same meeting twice. That means you can set up a permanent room for fun team-building events and games. You can also use polls and the Switchboard chat function to get people involved and make things more interactive.

Key features:

• Shared online workspace and rooms for recurring meetings
• Web-based canvas to add multiple browser-based apps, websites, PDFs, and images side by side
• Persistent rooms that save your work
• In-meeting video, audio, and chat
• Secure, fast multiplayer browsers for instant collaboration
• Screen sharing for native apps—including multiple screen shares inside a room
• Built-in whiteboard virtual brainstorming
• Presentation mode
• In-app support
• Google Calendar integration
• Unlimited rooms for 1:1s, meetings, and projects
• Meeting recording
• No integration required for browser-based apps—they all work
• Room permissions for members and guests
• Sections to organize documents and apps
• Host not required for members to enter a room
• Up to 50 participants 
• In-app support 

Pricing: 

• Free: Includes limited features, rooms, and members for small teams or individuals.
• Pro: $15 member/month for up to 200 rooms and 500 members plus Switchboard AI and additional storage.
• Enterprise: Custom pricing.

Best for: 

• Switchboard is designed for people that need a better way of collaborating no matter where they are—sitting side-by-side in an office, spread across time zones, or hybrid. It's a great option for teams that need a dedicated, interactive space for projects and meetings.

2 . SpatialChat

SpatialChat is an online office platform that aims to bring distributed teams together for meetings, workshops, and fun events. It lets you brainstorm together and hold internal video calls, like all-hands sessions, and watch as your team members engage in real time—whether it’s with emoji responses or in-app messaging.

You can design your own customizable headquarters and make your space more fun by personalizing public and private offices and rooms. You can even create public spaces dedicated to informal chats and catch-ups to make work more enjoyable. 

It also lets you open various apps and media to connect with coworkers and stay on top of things more easily. For example, if your developers need to do pair programming, they can join a meeting, open a browser window, and code at the same time. They can also highlight and annotate on the screen to communicate more clearly and share feedback more easily. 

Key features: 

• Allows up to 5,000 participants at once 
• Browser-based application 
• Ability to annotate or draw on the screen 
• Sticky notes
• Simultaneous screen sharing
• Breakout rooms
• Personalized offices and office decor

Pricing:

• Free plan available for up to five users
• Startup: $5/month per user 
• Enterprise: $12/month per user
  

Best for: 

Educators or large distributed organizations who want to host virtual events and training conferences across multiple departments.

3. Gather

Gather, also known as Gather.town, is a virtual office app that lets you build a fun, gamified digital space for your teams to gather. When you first log in, you can create your own avatar and use it to walk around the “office” and interact with others. Then, as the workspace owner, you can use pre-made templates to design a space that best represents your team culture.

For example, you can add anything from virtual office pets and outdoor ponds to whiteboards for co-working sessions and a dedicated all-hands meeting room. You can also have game stations, like Tetris or Draw Battle, which makes Gather a great option for playing employee engagement games or organizing culture-building activities. 

However, while Gather’s funky layouts and digital plants let you create a fun workspace, you might find yourself spending more time decorating it than working together. So it might be a good option for game time, but less so for getting work done. 

Finally, as of right now, you can’t record your Gather calls natively. This means to record an audio or video call, you need to use the app’s Google Meet or Microsoft Teams extension for the meeting.

Key features: 

• Public and private space
• Highly customizable floor plans  
• Unlimited audio and video calls 
• Hand raising and emoji reactions 
• Screen, file, and link sharing capabilities
• Private and public in-meeting chat
• Interactive objects like timers, game stations, and furniture 

Pricing: 

• Free for up to 10 users 
• Monthly subscription: $7/month per user 

Best for: 

• Small teams of under 10 who like working in a gamified online workspace
• Large conferences and workshops of up to 500 people 
• Organizing team-building events and online game sessions

4. Spot

Like Gather, Spot is a web-based virtual office tool that lets teams come together and have more productive, engaging conversations. You can create fun avatars, see where your colleagues are, and interact more spontaneously as you “walk” past each other. It helps you make your work day more interesting and productive by letting you visualize your space and see where your colleagues are.

Let's say you’re a content writer in a small digital marketing agency and you need to talk to your project manager about an upcoming deadline. Instead of messaging them on Slack, you can walk up to their avatar and chat instantly, just like you would if you were physically in the same space. 

You can also use Spot for virtual events like conference calls, workshops, and meetups. Decorate and personalize your space, move between rooms and conversations, and even stream your favorite playlist for a collective jam session.

Key features: 

• Unlimited calls
• HD audio and video quality on paid plans 
• Guest links and external conferencing
• Multiple screen sharing 
• In-app instant messaging
• Document and media-sharing
• Poll widget
• Customized virtual office for topic-centered channels, spaces, and rooms
• Virtual backgrounds

Pricing: 

• Free Plan: unlimited members and guests, limited functionality 
• Growth: $10/month per user 
• Enterprise: custom priced 

Best for: 

• Distributed teams of all sizes that like the metaverse experience and want to replicate their physical office plan in a virtual setting.

5. Kumospace

Kumospace is an online events platform and office that reduces your number of meetings through spontaneous interactions, live chats, and simple nudges. For example, you might bump into your team member on your way to a brainstorming session and ask them a quick question about an upcoming project. Or if you pass someone by the water cooler, say hi and ask them about their weekend. By replicating the spontaneous interactions you get in a physical office, it helps you build personal connections and make work more enjoyable. 

Kumospace also uses spatial audio to better mimic an in-person work environment and give you a more intimate experience. So if a senior developer overhears two junior developers having trouble with a particular task in a public space, they can just “walk” over and help them out. The added spontaneity and ability to integrate in-app games make teamwork on Kumospace more dynamic.

Key features: 

• Audio and video chat 
• Live chat 
• Customizable space 
• Private and public rooms
• Virtual games to build culture and bring people closer
• Interactive objects like water coolers, DJ booths, and sales gongs
• Built-in whiteboard 
• Spatial audio for more immersive experiences
• Screen sharing 

Pricing: 

• Free
• Professional: starts at $8/month per user 
• Business: starts at $16/month per user 
• Enterprise: Custom pricing

Best for: 

• Large teams of hybrid and remote workers that need a hub for collaboration activities and virtual-office-based events. 

How to really make your virtual meetings fun, engaging, and productive

Now that you know which platforms to look out for, you’re on the right track to make meetings more engaging and fun. But there’s more to a great call than just the right platform, so here are some best practices to upgrade your virtual meetings and make teamwork more exciting:

• Make team meetings more engaging by encouraging everyone to contribute. In Switchboard, you can do this by adding sticky notes, participating in polls, typing in the chat, or working on the same browser-based apps, docs, and files as other participants at the same time. Let’s say you’re in a brainstorming session and have an idea about the new branding specs. You can leave a virtual sticky note on the file with your suggestion for incorporating a new color palette so the team can circle back to it asap. 
  
• Let different people present and run the meeting. This makes the call more of a team effort as opposed to just “one-direction” with one person sharing their screen. Switchboard is naturally designed to give you a shared experience because you don’t need a host to enter a room and people can share and work on multiple screens, docs, etc. simultaneously.
  
• Ask for feedback before, during, and after calls and co-working sessions to give everyone the chance to speak up about what went well, what didn’t quite hit the high notes and what you can do to improve next time. With Switchboard, you can use live polls to quickly vote on the direction of projects, gauge how people are feeling, and get them to participate. For example, during a sprint planning, you can ask: “What are the most important tasks in your backlog?” to help prioritize workload. 

• Use the right collaboration tools that let you build a positive work culture and create an inclusive virtual space where everyone can get involved. For example, in Switchboard you can pull up a project management tool like Asana, a virtual whiteboard like Miro, or collaborate on documents with Google Docs to get everyone working together. They all work in Switchboard with no need for tedious integrations.  

Switchboard also fosters team connection, collaboration, and productivity through user-friendly, persistent meeting rooms. These save your progress and any media you put in them so you can jump back in at any time and work together or play solo. 

Switchboard also removes the hassle you get with traditional video conferencing software as you don’t need to waste time toggling between apps. This cuts time spent preparing the meeting and sharing materials and links afterward. It makes it easier than ever for people to get stuff done—and have fun while they’re at it.

Check out the video below to see how smooth sprint planning can be in Switchboard’s interactive rooms.

Fun virtual meeting platforms: Rock your remote and hybrid world with Switchboard

Tina Turner’s soulful voice, unparalleled energy, and dynamic stage presence made a significant impact on the music industry. Through her powerful shows, she pushed boundaries and helped redefine what it meant to be a captivating artist—both on and off stage. 

Let’s face it, your virtual meeting is never going to get everyone as fired up as a great concert, but you can achieve some of the same things. Like bringing people together, creating a great atmosphere, and leaving everyone feeling energized and motivated.

A great venue can go a long way toward making a concert more memorable, and a top video conferencing platform–while not fun in itself–can certainly help make work more fun if you use it to bring people together, have spontaneous interactions, and get more done. 

In this post, we looked at five platforms, including Switchboard, SpatialChat, Gather, Spot, and Kumospace. All of these go beyond traditional one-sided-screen-sharing platforms like Zoom and Google Meet to give you more interactive, engaging meetings. They’re designed to recreate the feeling of an in-person office and help you build connections while still getting things done. 

Switchboard, however, goes beyond creating cool digital office furniture and virtual avatars to give you an interactive, multiplayer hub. Here, your people can actually enjoy “jamming together” and doing great things, whether it’s in a cozy 1:1 setting or a stadium-level company-wide meeting. Its persistent, “always-open” rooms let your teams enjoy spontaneous interactions, be more productive on calls and, in the words of Tina Turner, “get stronger in every way.”

Want to make virtual meetings more fun?
‍Switchboard brings your teams and tools together in one place for better collaboration and more satisfying work.
Sign up for free