Best Quick Catch-up Tool for Remote Teams
Start a quick catch-up for your remote team for free. Get started in minutes!
What are quick catch-ups?
Most of the meetings are are scheduled with a goal-oriented objective in mind and have an agenda. Serendipitous quick catch-ups rarely have one - often they’re just normal conversations between people which arise spontaneously and the topic is dictated by the current context. Even though they happen organically, they’re an important part of the communication within any business and they bring team mates together and allow the information to flow in a natural way.
If you’re using a tool like ZOOM for your remote work communications, impromptu quick catch-ups happen very rarely. It’s hard to catch-up with someone when you’re both embedded into a meeting that has 20 participants and someone is giving a presentation. Quick catch-ups were so easier in a physical office because… it was physical. You could simply walk up to someone to start a conversation. With the modern video-conferencing solutions, replicating that simple experience becomes a challenge.
What is flat.social?
Flat.social is a creative tool where remote teams can create permanent and collaborative virtual spaces for their teams and projects. Those can act as your remote team’s virtual office or a project space.
With flat.social, each of the participants of the meeting will be able to move around and talk with others who are in proximity. It’s like your physical office but in the virtual!
Enable quick catch-ups in your remote team
A meeting in flat.social is spatial - everyone can move around and talk with others in their proximity. Just like in a physical office, you can simply fly up to someone and start talking! Since a virtual office (or a virtual workspace) is permanent, there is no need for setting up a meeting in a calendar with a PIN code or a meeting link that looks like it has been typed by a cat walking on a keyboard.
Flat.social aims on bringing the serendipity, connection and quick catch-ups back into the world of video-conferencing. We built a tool that is flexible, fun and focused on participants more than it is on the agenda of the meeting. It’s unstructured and brings the freedom of movement to all of the attendees which can decide who and when they want to speak with.
How to create a quick catch-up meeting?
Creating your first virtual workspace is really simple - you only need to create a permanent space (takes less than minute) and distribute the link to your team. 1. Sign up for free & create a virtual space on flat.social
2. Customise the space and brand it with your team’s logo
3. Add the link to the calendar invites. The link to a flat is permanent and never changes which makes it easier to join in.
4. If you wish, connect the virtual space with your Slack workspaceand set up recurring reminders that will notify your team about any events and meetings that you would like to organise in the space.
Movement and Interaction
With flat.social participants are not chained to a grid of tiny squares like they would in a classic videoconference. Instead, they can move around the rooms like they would in any multiplayer game.
Learn more about movement & interaction
Rooms & Activities
Your new virtual spaces can consist of multiple different types of rooms. Each room can be different - a mini-game, activity or something special for your team.
Dependently on the type of room, you will be able to host from 10 to 100 simultaneous guests.
See rooms & activities available
Spatial Media
By default each guest can only hear & see others around. Spatial audio and video allows for more natural and spontaneous conversations that are based on proximity, not on the loudest guests.
Want to speak with someone? Simply fly up!
Learn more about spatial audio & video
Collaborative, real-time whiteboard
Add colorful drawings, images, stickers, sticky notes and much more. Whichever room or activity type you choose, you can use it as a real-time collaborative whiteboard.
Build your own space
Build your own virtual space for your team or event by selecting from many of the available rooms and activities.
Each room is special and can be placed in whichever position you want. Fancy a quick retreat on the beach? Simply add the beach elements into your space :)
Physics 💫
Expression
It's so much more than just a plain video-chat. Guests in a flat.social meeting can express themselves through a variety of virtual gestures and customizations on how they present themselves.
From becoming a godzilla to doing a frog dance, it's all built to be playful and interactive.
Presentations and Screensharing
Engage your guests with interactive presentations and talks by using the spatial screen sharing and broadcasting features! Whether you're giving a talk or want to present something with a real-time video stream, sharing the live screenshare will be an experience that seamlessly integrates into the virtual space.
Frequently asked questions
What are the fun features of flat.social?
From flying around to playing football and doing a frog dance, there is plenty! We built those features to make flat.social the most fun place to organise an event online. Read more features that we built.
Is there a need to install anything?
No need to install anything new. It all runs in the web browser both on desktop and mobile. Safari and Chrome are doing great, Firefox is catching up!
Do you support simultaneous screensharing?
Yep, a number of participants can screenshare at the same time. Those can be positioned next to each other or distributed in various locations around the virtual space.
How much does it cost?
Check out thepricing page to see free and pro plans available.
Can I use it as an alternative to ZOOM or Microsoft Teams?
Sure, if all you do is fun and creative meetings! (we sincerly hope so:)
Over the past 3 years we learned that while ZOOM and Microsoft teams are amazing tools to keep you productive, they're not optimized to to keep a group of people connected, engaged and happy.
Hence, flat.social was created. It does not aim to be a complete replacement - it's an addition for when the priorities switch from productivity to human interaction. It's here to bring smile and show that spontanous creative moments and connections can happen without having to travel to an office or an event venue.
How do participants move in a flat.social meeting?
Meeting attendees can use WASD keys like in multi-player games or drag themselves around with a mouse.
How do I speak to all of the guests at once?
The experience is spatial by default - only ones around will hear you. You can however use the loudspeaker feature to speak to everyone at once. It's useful if you want to make an announcement or managing a larger workshop where attendees are distributed around the room.
