There's a version of async communication that works really well. Messages land when people are ready for them. Nobody has to drop what they're doing to join a call. Information reaches people in Berlin and Singapore without anyone setting an alarm.
Then there's what most distributed teams actually have: Slack channels with 847 unread messages, a Notion wiki that hasn't been touched since Q3, and a weekly all-hands that half the team attends from different time zones at inconvenient hours.
The tools exist. The problem is matching the right tool to the right type of message - and understanding why some formats fail even when teams use them correctly.
What "async" actually means
Async communication means the sender and receiver don't need to be present at the same time. That's the definition. But a lot of tools that call themselves async build in urgency by design.
Slack is async in theory. In practice, the notification model, the visible online indicators, and the cultural expectation of fast replies make it feel closer to a real-time tool. Nobody sends a Slack message and expects a response in 48 hours.
True async communication is self-contained. The receiver can engage with it on their own schedule, without the message losing context or creating social pressure to respond immediately. That's a much higher bar than most tools meet.
The main formats and what they're actually good for
Documents and wikis (Notion, Confluence)
Good for: reference material, decisions that need to be searchable, anything someone will need to come back to.
Bad for: communication that needs to land emotionally, updates that require context to understand, anything where you need to know the person read it.
The problem with documents isn't the format - it's that most teams use them for communication that needs a different format. A product strategy doc is a good use of Notion. A weekly update buried in a Notion page is not.
Video (Loom)
Good for: walkthroughs, demos, showing something that's hard to describe in text.
Bad for: anything that needs to be skimmed, searched, or consumed in the background. You can't listen to a Loom while walking to lunch.
Loom has become the default async video tool for good reasons - it's fast to record and fast to watch. But video requires attention in a way that other formats don't. It's a sit-down-and-watch format, which limits when people can consume it.
Audio and internal podcasts (Internal Cast)
Good for: leadership updates, company news, onboarding content, anything where voice builds context and trust.
The specific advantage of audio over video is background consumption. A 5-minute episode covering the week's product updates can be listened to during a commute, a walk, or lunch. It doesn't require a screen. It's also faster to produce than video once you have a workflow - paste your update, review the script, generate audio.
For distributed teams in particular, audio creates a sense of presence that text can't replicate. Hearing a voice - especially a cloned voice from an actual team member - makes an update feel like communication rather than documentation.
Project management (Linear, Asana, Jira)
Good for: tracking work, coordinating tasks, creating accountability.
Bad for: general communication. People check their project management tool for tasks assigned to them, not for company updates or context about what's happening across the organization.
What format fits what message
This is the practical question. Here's a rough guide:
| Message type | Best format |
|---|---|
| Weekly leadership update | Audio episode |
| Product launch announcement | Audio episode + written summary |
| Policy change | Document (searchable) + audio explainer |
| Technical decision record | Document |
| Onboarding content | Audio series + document reference |
| Task assignment | Project management |
| Quick question | Slack or email |
| Demo or walkthrough | Video |
The mistake most teams make is using one format for everything. Slack for announcements that should be documents. Documents for updates that would land better as audio. All-hands calls for information that could go out as a 4-minute episode.
Why the format mismatch matters
Research on internal communication consistently shows that message format affects retention. A 2021 study published in the Journal of Business and Technical Communication found that employees recalled significantly more from audio and video formats than from text alone, particularly for information delivered in a narrative structure.1
The retention gap compounds over time. Teams that receive information in formats they actually consume end up better aligned - not because they're smarter or more engaged, but because the information actually reached them.
Where to start
Pick one recurring communication that consistently gets ignored. A weekly update nobody reads. A Notion page that's always out of date. An all-hands recording that 40% of the team skips.
Try producing it in a different format for a month. If it's a text update nobody reads, try audio. If it's a video nobody watches, try a written summary.
The goal isn't to add more tools. It's to match format to message so information stops getting lost before it reaches the people who need it.
Internal Cast is built specifically for the audio side of this - turning written content into private podcast episodes for your team. Start with a free trial if audio is the format you want to test. If you're thinking about RSS distribution, here's how that works.
References
- Friess, E. (2021). "The Effect of Modality on Information Retention in Workplace Communication." Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 35(2). https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1050651920973992 ↩