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In distributed work setups, the most effective teams tend to follow a few key patterns, as Anita Williams Woolley, an associate professor of organizational behavior and theory at Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business, told us in an interview. Woolley’s research, which focuses on communication and collaboration among remote teams, shows that distributed collaboration works best when teams establish clear norms around communication. That can include adhering to a schedule of “burstiness,” or short periods between focused work where colleagues can synchronously message one another; limiting communication channels; and creating shared guidelines for the purpose of specific channels. 

Just as importantly, it also includes being deliberate about the shared set of tools used to transmit information clearly. Today, we’re highlighting the best tools available to help foster asynchronous collaboration and communication, drawn from past Charter Work Tech picks.

The best AI text generators for capturing exactly what you want to say

As Melissa Swift, VP of workforce and organizational change acceleration at Capgemini Invent, noted in her 2023 book Work Here Now, written communication skills have only become more valuable with the shift toward more asynchronous work. “Did anyone ever teach you, or any of your coworkers, how to write a great email?” she wrote. “Might we all benefit from something like that? Absolutely! The better and more we can express ourselves in writing, the less time we need to spend working at the exact same time as someone else.”

AI text generators can give you a leg up in nailing that self-expression, offering solid first drafts of emails, memos, and other written material and revisions based on user direction. (A tip we recently shared with Charter Pro members, adapted from Wharton professor Ethan Mollick’s newsletter, is to give an AI tool a persona along with instructions and ask it to provide feedback on the text through that point of view.) 

Our picks for the best AI text generators of the nine we tested:

  • ChatGPT Plus is the strongest AI text generator of the ones we tested. It outperformed the other tools on most writing tasks, with solid overall writing quality and the most creative outputs. It also takes feedback well, adjusting its tone and format based on what it’s told.
  • Bing is the second-best text generator we tested. It outperformed ChatGPT Plus on some less advanced writing tasks, though its outputs were less interesting and less creative.
  • NotionAI’s writing is a level below our other two picks, but its speed and ease of use give it a spot on our list. Since it’s built into the Notion app, it has a nice interface, and for those who already use Notion it can be incorporated seamlessly into existing workflows. 

Note: Since we released our review, AI company Anthropic released its new version of Claude. It’s currently free for users, and it does a great job generating text, especially when users provide specific prompts that specify the length, audience, and purpose of the text. 

Read our full review here.

The best screen-recording programs for when a written note won’t cut it 

A text-based message isn’t always the answer. Psychologist Grin Lord, founder and CEO of mpathic, an artificial-intelligence platform that analyzes text-based conversations to offer users suggestions for making their messages more empathetic, told us in an interview that one of the biggest communication mistakes people make is not knowing when to switch to another medium. “If we're detecting problems in confrontations, lots of back and forth in rapid succession, or people writing entire paragraphs without a response, we'll say, ‘Hey, this is a meeting,’” she said. 

That last situation in particular—an overlong stream of one-sided typing—can be a sign that what you need to say would be better as a video, for the sake of both time and clarity. Screen-recording programs can help you efficiently communicate complex instructions, integrate visual information where helpful, and convey non-verbal cues that offer necessary context. 

Our picks for the best screen-recording programs of the six we tested:

  • Dropbox Capture is our overall pick for its ease of use, video quality, and recording features. Users do need to have a free or paid Dropbox account to use this tool, but the Dropbox Capture app is separate from the file management software. 
  • Loom is our pick for Chrome users looking for a tool that integrates seamlessly with their browser. Although Loom lacks some of the features that Dropbox Capture has, users make few compromises in terms of overall user experience and video quality. 

Read our full review here.

The best inclusive-language tools for ensuring your messages aren’t off-putting to coworkers 

Without the real-time feedback and additional context available in face-to-face conversations, written communication adds a layer of risk for language that might unintentionally offend or harm colleagues. Even well-worn workplace terms many consider routine may carry unintended baggage, as Charter columnist S. Mitra Kalita noted in a column unpacking recent LinkedIn and Duolingo research about workplace jargon. Give yourself a safety net for catching offensive language that may fall through the cracks by using a tool dedicated to making your writing more inclusive. 

Our pick for the best inclusive-language tools of the six we tested:

  • Inclusive Language Checker, a site developed by the social-impact agency Whole Whale, is our pick for individuals who want to make their writing more inclusive across varied use cases. Users can check a variety of formats—copying text directly to the website, entering a URL, or uploading a PDF—and see the sourcing for each recommended wording change, with links to resources that provide additional context.

Read our full review here, including a rundown of our top pick for institutional needs: TalVista, an HR-focused platform that helps users workshop their hiring materials.

The best audio-transcription tools for when you need the information in the meeting, but not the meeting itself

Harvard Business School professor Tsedal Neely, author of the book Remote Work Revolution, recommended in a Charter interview that teams evaluate communication methods with a concept called “social presence” in mind: “So I’m calculating when I have to talk to someone, how much intimacy is needed here, how much conveyance and convergence do we need to achieve here?” she said. “Some communication actually requires zero social presence.”

And some communication requires social presence of some, but not of others. For people in that latter category—those who need the information shared in a meeting, but wouldn’t necessarily add to or benefit from being in the room live—reading transcribed recordings after the fact can be a more efficient use of time. Some of our picks, including Rev, also provide an AI summary feature to help pull out the most important takeaways from long transcripts.

Our picks for the best audio-transcription tools of the six that we tested:

  • Sonix, tied for best in class with Fireflies on pure transcription, has extremely high accuracy, almost perfect recognition of distinct speakers, and correct spelling of many proper names without a dictionary.
  • Fireflies has extremely high accuracy, superb differentiation of speakers, an AI meeting summary, and a comparatively low price point for significant monthly usage.
  • Rev’s automated service is only a degree or two below its peers, with excellent transcription and speaker recognition—and for those spending endless hours on Zoom, the unlimited transcription can be a substantial price advantage.

Read our full review here.