You don’t need to post anything to anyone to run good remote team building. Every idea below works with what your team’s already got: a laptop for the video call and, for some of them, a phone. Nine are free and you can run them yourself. Six are hosted Wildgoose activities, for when you’d rather someone else ran the session.
Each one comes with how long it takes, the group size it suits and why it works when people aren’t in the same room. If you’re planning for 100 people or more, our guide to virtual team building for 100+ people goes further into breakout rooms and running things at scale.
Free ideas you can run yourself
1. One-question check-in (free)
Open a meeting with one easy question everyone answers in a sentence, like “What’s the best thing you’ve eaten this week?” or “What are you looking forward to this weekend?” Go round the call in a fixed order so nobody has to decide when to jump in. Keep it light and skip anything personal.
Time: 5 minutes. Group size: 3 to 12, or answers in the chat for bigger calls. Why it works remotely: on a video call it’s easy to sit through a whole meeting without speaking. This gets every voice heard once before the agenda starts.
2. Desk show and tell (free)
Everyone grabs one thing within arm’s reach that’s got a story behind it, whether that’s a mug, a photo or a plant that’s somehow still alive, and gets a minute to explain it. There’s nothing to prepare and nothing to buy.
Time: 10 to 15 minutes. Group size: 4 to 12, or breakout rooms of 4 to 6 for bigger teams. Why it works remotely: you see a bit of the life behind each camera, and it gives colleagues something to ask each other about later.
3. Two truths and a lie (free)
Each person shares three facts about themselves, and everyone else guesses which one’s made up. Run it in breakout rooms of four or five so it doesn’t drag, and tell people up front that work-safe facts are fine.
Time: 10 to 15 minutes. Group size: any, in rooms of 4 to 5. Why it works remotely: it’s quick, it needs no setup, and everyone leaves knowing one surprising thing about the people in their room.
4. Virtual coffee roulette (free)
Pair people at random for a 15-minute video chat with no agenda. You can match people by hand from a spreadsheet, or open random breakout rooms of two or three at the end of a team call. Give each pair one starter question in case it goes quiet.
Time: 15 to 20 minutes. Group size: any, in pairs or threes. Why it works remotely: remote teams lose the chance conversations that used to happen by the kettle. This puts them back in the diary, and it suits people who’d rather chat than play a game.
5. Online drawing game (free)
If you’ve got 20 to 30 minutes, send everyone a link to a free browser game like Skribbl.io or Gartic Phone. One person draws, the rest guess, and nobody needs to be any good at drawing.
Time: 20 to 30 minutes. Group size: rooms of 6 to 8, with extra rooms for bigger teams. Why it works remotely: it runs in the browser, so there’s nothing to install, and terrible drawings get a call laughing fast.
6. Shared team playlist (free)
Start a shared playlist in whichever music app your team’s already using, or a simple list in a doc, and ask everyone to add one song with a line about why they picked it. At the next team call, play ten seconds of each and guess who added it.
Time: a week to collect, 15 minutes to play. Group size: 5 to 30. Why it works remotely: people add their song whenever it suits them, so it works across time zones, and the guessing round gives the call something to talk about.
7. Week-long photo challenge (free)
Post a daily prompt in a Slack or Teams channel for a week: your lunchtime view, something blue, the oldest thing in your kitchen. People post a photo whenever they like, and you pick a winner on Friday.
Time: a couple of minutes a day for a week. Group size: any. Why it works remotely: nobody has to be online at the same time, so it’s one of the few ideas that works for a team spread across time zones.
8. Five-minute teach-in (free)
If you’ve got three willing volunteers, ask them to each teach the team something in five minutes that’s got nothing to do with work. It could be how to fold a paper plane, a phrase in another language or the rules of a sport nobody else follows. Swap in new volunteers each month.
Time: 20 minutes. Group size: 5 to 30. Why it works remotely: people choose their own topic, so it suits colleagues who’d rather talk about something they know than take part in a game.
9. DIY team quiz (free)
Write 20 questions in a Google Form or a slide deck, split everyone into teams in breakout rooms and have one captain per team submit answers. Add one round about the team itself, like “whose desk is this?” using photos people sent you beforehand.
Time: 30 to 45 minutes, plus a couple of hours to write and mark. Group size: 8 to 50, in teams of 4 to 6. Why it works remotely: competing in small teams gets quieter people talking, and you can make it about your company in a way an off-the-shelf quiz can’t.
Hosted Wildgoose activities
These six come from our range of hosted virtual team building activities. They run over Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet or whichever video platform you already use. Everyone plays on their own phone in our Mobile Adventures app while they talk to their team on the video call, and a Remote Host briefs the group, keeps the energy up and runs the wrap-up. There’s no courier, no packaging and nothing to store afterwards. Prices are UK prices.
10. Water Cooler (hosted)
A short, relaxed session of light-hearted games, quick-fire trivia, polls and conversation starters. It’s the easiest one on this list to slot into a meeting you’re already having.
Time: 15 or 30 minutes. Group size: 15 to 300. Price: £12 per person + VAT with the host included, and a £240 + VAT minimum. Why it works remotely: it’s built to break up the working day, so it fits at the start of a team meeting without needing its own slot. See Water Cooler.
11. Connect (hosted)
You’ll answer questions and complete challenges in small teams, then get shuffled into new teams for the next round.
Time: 30 or 45 minutes. Group size: 15 to 300. Price: £12 per person + VAT with the host included, and a £240 + VAT minimum. Why it works remotely: the reshuffle means people meet colleagues outside their usual team, which helps with new starters and with teams that don’t often work together. See Connect.
12. Trivia Challenge: The Original (hosted)
Teams of 4 to 6 answer trivia questions and complete photo and video challenges in the app, racing to score the most points before time runs out. You’ll finish with a hosted results reveal.
Time: 45 minutes. Group size: 8 to 300. Price: £12 per person + VAT with the host included, and a £240 + VAT minimum. Why it works remotely: it’s simple to join and easy to play, so everyone’s involved without a complicated setup. See Trivia Challenge: The Original.
13. Escape: Art Heist (hosted or self-managed)
A virtual escape room. Your team’s been framed for a gallery crime, and you’ve got to search for clues, crack codes and solve puzzles to clear your name before the clock runs out.
Time: 60 or 90 minutes. Group size: 5 to 300. Price: £12 per person + VAT plus a £250 + VAT Remote Host, or run it yourself with the self-managed option. Why it works remotely: the puzzles need everyone’s input, so it suits teams who’d rather solve a problem than play a party game. See Escape: Art Heist, or read more about how a virtual escape room works.
14. Murder on the Train (hosted or self-managed)
A 1920s murder mystery. A body’s been found on a train crossing Europe, and teams review witness statements and search the carriages for clues to name the killer before the last stop.
Time: 90 minutes. Group size: 5 to 300. Price: £12 per person + VAT plus a £250 + VAT Remote Host, or run it yourself with the self-managed option. Why it works remotely: it’s slower and chattier than a quiz, which suits quieter groups who like to talk a problem through. See Murder on the Train.
15. The Insiders: Virtual Edition (hosted)
A Traitors-inspired game. One team’s secretly briefed to work against everyone else, and across three rounds the rest of the group votes on who they suspect, building to a final vote and reveal.
Time: 90 minutes. Group size: 12 to 300. Price: £12 per person + VAT plus a £250 + VAT Remote Host. Why it works remotely: the suspicion and voting keep everyone involved right to the end, and nobody has to perform for the camera. See The Insiders: Virtual Edition, or read whether The Traitors makes a good team building activity.
Planning for December? Escape: Festive Edition is a 45-minute virtual escape room with the host included, and Around the World: Festive Edition takes teams through festivals and traditions from 18 countries. Our guide to virtual Christmas party ideas for remote teams has more.
How to choose the right idea
A 5-minute meeting opener. Go for the one-question check-in (1). If you’ve got 15 minutes, try two truths and a lie (3), or book a 15-minute Water Cooler (10) if you’d like someone else to run it.
A 45-minute social. Choose a drawing game (5) or a DIY quiz (9) if you’re happy to run things yourself. Allow 50 to 75 minutes if you’d like to do both. If you’d rather have a host, Trivia Challenge: The Original (12) or Connect (11) takes care of it.
100 people or more. Pick anything that splits people into teams of 4 to 6, so nobody’s lost in a gallery of 100 faces. Our hosted activities take up to 300 people in one session.
Mixed time zones. Choose something people do in their own time, like the shared playlist (6) or the week-long photo challenge (7). For a live session, find the hours where everyone’s working day overlaps and keep it to 30 or 45 minutes.
People who hate cringe games. Skip anything that puts one person on the spot. Coffee roulette (4) and the teach-in (8) are just conversation, and puzzle formats like Escape: Art Heist (13) and Murder on the Train (14) give people a problem to solve together rather than something to perform.
Do you need to post kit for remote team building?
No. A well-designed remote activity should run entirely through a video call and, at most, an app on people’s phones. If a supplier’s “virtual” experience still involves a box of props turning up at every home address, that’s an in-person format bolted onto a video call, not one built for remote teams.
A lot of virtual offerings started life as in-person activities that were adapted when remote work became the norm. The easiest way to adapt a puzzle box or scavenger hunt kit is to keep the kit and add a video call on top. It works, but it inherits every problem physical kit has, spread across dozens of home addresses instead of one venue.
What does posted kit cost you?
Here’s what the headline price often leaves out.
Shipping. Every participant needs their kit to arrive before the session. That means lead times, courier costs and a real risk of a late or missing delivery ruining the day for whoever didn’t get their box.
Storage and reuse. Kit that’s shipped out once is rarely used again. It either gets thrown away after one session or sits in a cupboard, which is a cost and, more and more, a sustainability question organisers get asked about internally.
Setup time. Someone has to package, label and send kit to every participant’s address. That’s admin time on top of the activity itself, before anyone’s played anything.
Does going kit-free make it less engaging?
Not in our experience. What you’re enjoying in a good virtual activity is the same as in person: real-time competition, a live leaderboard and tasks people have to think through together. It doesn’t come from unwrapping a box. Photo and video challenges, live scoring and breakout-room teamwork all happen on screen, so the feeling of a shared team activity comes from people seeing and reacting to each other.
What should you ask before booking?
Ask whether anything needs to be delivered to participants before the day. If the answer involves shipping addresses, lead times or a returns process, you’re booking an in-person activity with a video call attached. For teams that work from home, that matters more than it might seem, and even more if your team spans several countries and shipping becomes a customs question as well as a logistics one.
Remote team building FAQs
What are fun team building activities for remote teams?
Quick ones that get everyone talking early work best: a one-question check-in, desk show and tell, two truths and a lie in small breakout rooms, or a free online drawing game. For a longer session, a team quiz, a virtual escape room or a murder mystery gives small teams something to work on together. None of them need anything posted out.
What are the best virtual team building activities for remote teams?
The best ones split people into small teams of 4 to 6, give them a shared goal and bring everyone back for a single scoreboard. That could be a DIY quiz you run yourself or a hosted game like a virtual escape room, a murder mystery or a Traitors-style game such as The Insiders. Pick by the time you’ve got: 5 to 15 minutes for an opener, 45 to 90 minutes for a proper social.
What types of online team building activities work well for companies?
Quizzes and trivia, escape rooms and puzzle games, murder mysteries, icebreakers that reshuffle teams, and things people do in their own time, like a week-long photo challenge or a shared playlist. Companies with big or spread-out teams tend to get more from formats that run in breakout rooms and work on any video platform, with nothing to ship or install.
What online team building works for companies that don’t want cringe games?
Choose formats with a clear goal and no solo performing. Puzzle-based activities like a virtual escape room or a murder mystery have people solving something together, and coffee roulette or a five-minute teach-in is just conversation. Avoid anything that asks one person to sing, dance or act alone on camera.
Are there free remote team building ideas?
Yes. Check-ins, desk show and tell, two truths and a lie, coffee roulette, drawing games like Skribbl.io and Gartic Phone, a shared playlist, a photo challenge in your team channel and a DIY quiz in Google Forms are all free. You’ll only spend the time it takes to set them up and run them.
How much does a hosted remote team building activity cost?
Our hosted virtual activities are £12 per person + VAT in the UK. Shorter formats like Water Cooler, Connect and Trivia Challenge: The Original include the host with a £240 + VAT minimum. Longer ones like Escape: Art Heist, Murder on the Train and The Insiders add a £250 + VAT Remote Host.
Wildgoose’s virtual team building runs through the Mobile Adventures app alongside your video call of choice, with nothing shipped to participants beforehand. Get in touch with the Wildgoose team.
