Top 20 Slack games for hybrid and remote teams in 2024
List of the top 20 Slack games
- Dungeons & Dragons
- Speak Your Own Adventure
- Meme Review
- Plop
- Liar’s Dice
- PokéQuiz
- Q&A
- Get
- Trivia
- Would
- Tic
- Hangman
- Rock
- Connect Four (Open-source)
- Word of the Hour
- Chess
- Fact or Fiction
- Pingpong
- Jukebot
- Raffle
With everyone working remotely nowadays, connecting with your department can either be really easy or really hard.
There will be times when the team needs some pick-me-up sessions, which usually start with games and icebreakers.
If your department uses a remote chat app, then these fun slack games would surely lift everyone’s spirits and morale up.
What is Slack?
Slack is a messaging platform for businesses that need an internal communications tool other than emails. With this app, users can create specific channels for each department or user group.
Alongside workplace collaboration and communication, Slack provides integrations from third parties as well.
For instance, it can connect to Google Workspace, allowing users to grant permissions from the app itself.
This kind of convenience is what drives companies to use it for their internal communication.
Reasons why remote teams prefer Slack
Other than being convenient, Slack provides a “place” where teammates and colleagues can connect and collaborate asynchronously.
Asynchronous communication is especially important for hybrid and distributed teams from different time zones.
While it isn’t perfect and has its own flaws, working with an app like Slack that allows team members to connect with each other makes all the difference.
It’s free
The app’s free plan is a perfect fit for startup companies with small teams. Small-to-medium businesses (SMBs) can start with this tier to feel out the app and play with their options.
Slack’s free plan does have a caveat: free users can only see 10,000 recent messages at most, and video calls are limited to one-to-one calls. However, this doesn’t stop companies from implementing Slack as their primary workplace messaging app.
It’s easy to use
If you’re looking for a plug-and-play chat app, look no further than Slack. Its user interface (UI) is intuitive and easy to navigate, even for those not familiar with the program.
Channel owners can name each channel with specific words, such as #general-communication, #content-team, #after-working-hours, and more.
If someone is still having trouble navigating the app, Slack offers round-the-clock support for questions, comments, and feedback.
It’s accessible
With remote and hybrid teams, you can’t expect everyone to have the same operating system. That said, Slack can run on all major platforms and OS, including Linux, Android, iOS, and more.
If you can’t download the native app, it can also run on browsers like Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Safari. All you need is a device and a browser that can connect to the internet, and you’re all set.
Slack app directory
The Slack App Directory is a marketplace where users can find and install apps that integrate with Slack.
These apps can enhance Slack’s functionality and help users streamline their workflows. However, keep in mind that information may have changed since my last update.
To access the directory, you can follow these steps:
- Open your Slack workspace.
- In the left sidebar, click on “Apps.”
- This will take you to the App Home, where you can find the “Browse” option.
- Click on “Browse” to explore the app directory.
From there, you can search for specific apps, browse different categories, and discover new tools that can be integrated with Slack.
20 Slack games for remote and hybrid teams
This messaging app isn’t just about workplace communication. With how innovative Slack is, there are some interesting features that promote casual conversations, team collaboration, and just plain fun in the workplace.
Slack is also the best venue for team-building or happy hour activities.
Below, we’ve listed the best Slack games that everyone on the team can enjoy, whether they’re in-house, remote, or hybrid:
1. Dungeons & Dragons
What once was a tabletop multiplayer role-playing game has found its way into remote team building. Through Slack, anyone can play Dungeons and Dragons anytime and anywhere.
How to play D&D in Slack:
- Create a special #dnd-channel.
- Utilize Slack’s D&D dice roller app.
- Nominate a dungeon master and choose a storyline.
2. Speak Your Own Adventure
Like D&D, Speak Your Own Adventure is a multiplayer roleplaying game but without needing anything other than imagination and creativity. With Slack games like these, the sky is the limit.
Playing Speak Your Own Adventure in the app is just as easy as installing a bot right into the #games channel.
3. Meme Review
Popularized by YouTube personalities and Twitch streamers, this Slack game’s premise is reacting to the internet’s most popular and trending memes.
In the safe-for-work version of Meme Review, teams can react to workplace memes that have been floating around the corners of the internet.
To kick off things, players can head over to the #games channel and hop on a video call, where the game master can share their screen.
4. Plop
Slack games like Plop can push co-workers (especially the remote ones) to recognize each other’s faces outside of the weekly Zoom meetings. It’s a great way to welcome newcomers in a less formal manner.
Plop takes your co-workers’ profile pictures and queues them up for a quick guessing game.
5. Liar’s Dice
Test out your bluff detector with this app/game integration. With these kinds of Slack games, players either work together to find the liar or learn how to read between the lines.
The game is simple; each player just has to guess how many dice are on the virtual table. Whoever gets the number correct (or the closest to the correct answer) wins.
6. PokéQuiz
If the majority of the team is a fan of the famous anime and video game Pokémon, then they might have fun with this Slack game.
As the name suggests, PokéQuiz’s questions revolve around the animated sensation. This is a score-based Slack game, so whoever gets the highest score wins.
7. Q&A
One of the best boredom breakers are trivia-esque Slack games, like Q&A. With this game bot, players can get random questions for strangers to answer and vice versa.
While it doesn’t have a way of keeping score, players can come up with a system of their own.
8. Get to Know (Icebreaker questions)
Some Slack games are known to be competitive, but some are more focused on allowing co-workers to know each other better. Even then, icebreaker games are a fun way to kickstart the team-building session.
9. Trivia
One of the more popular Slack games is Trivia. This almost always puts everyone’s general knowledge (and even obscure ones) to the test every time it happens.
The game master would pick a theme and the rest of the players can team up or go against each other for the battle of wits.
10. Would You Rather
If the team is getting tired of your usual Slak games, then this one should break the monotony.
Would You Rather is the type of game that requires the players to really think about their decisions. Oftentimes, they would have to justify their choices, much to the amusement of others.
You can create your own Would You Rather game for your team by using a poll or quiz app on Slack.
11. Tic-Tac-Toe
One of the lesser-known app integration is Ricotta, which lets everyone play different social games like Tic-Tac-Toe.
Small, quick games like this could break the monotony of working remotely, thus alleviating the tiredness and brain fogginess that remote workers feel in the middle of their workday.
12. Hangman
Also available via Ricotta, Hangman is a classic game that everyone is familiar with.
Starting with blanks, each player guesses a letter in the word for that round. Players race to guess the word before the game master “hangs the man” completely.
13. Rock, Paper, Scissors
Need to make a low-stakes decision in a flash? This Slack game can help you decide who the game master will be for the next team building.
By using the Janken app integration, playing rock-paper-scissors on a remote chat app has never been easier.
14. Connect Four (Open-source)
Connect Four is an open-source bot that connects directly to the Slack environment. Everyone on the team can play the game without ever leaving the app.
Turn your Fridays into Connect Four tournaments to blow off some steam before hitting the weekend.
15. Word of the Hour
Learning a new language alone is a challenge, but you can make it more fun by turning it into a game for the whole team. When integrated with Slack, Word of the Hour will give the users a new word every hour.
While the integration itself isn’t a game, users can challenge others to make a complete sentence with the words they will be getting.
16. Chess
Stimulate the team’s brains with a round of chess. This nifty game is native in the app, so players can still be productive in between their turns.
The game itself is contained within a thread, but making a #games channel is still strongly encouraged.
17. Fact or Fiction (No bots needed)
Another icebreaker game on the list is the age-old question, “Is it a fact or a fiction?”
There’s no need to install a Slack app for this. The game master simply comes up with a series of statements ranging from hyper-specific to general knowledge. Players would then guess if it’s real or not.
18. Ping-Pong
Slack games turn even physical sports into online competitions. By initiating a game after installing the Ping-Pong app, players can have a match right in the #games channel.
19. Jukebot
Karaoke and remote singalong sessions have never been easier. Connect a Spotify account using the Jukebot app and set a playlist to listen to while working.
To make it even more collaborative, each team member can queue up their favorite songs using Slack’s slash commands.
20. Raffle
Save the raffle games for bigger team-building sessions such as holiday parties and end-of-the-year events. With a high-stakes game of raffle, team members will most likely be more engaged and participate in the games.
How Slack games help employee morale stay high
Working remotely can be lonesome at times. In fact, virtual employees have reported feeling lonely due to the isolated nature of a work-from-home setup.
However, facilitating weekly games, hangout sessions, and team-building activities through virtual channels like Slack lessens the divide that some of us feel at times.
By engaging in virtual games, employees will be more active, confident, and present as days go by.
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