7 Best Microsoft Teams Apps for Team Building (In-Depth Look)

7 Best Microsoft Teams Apps for Team Building (In-Depth Look)

It can be difficult for remote teams to build camaraderie, because there are naturally fewer in-person interactions, and they’re missing the fun team building activities that are inherent to an office environment (e.g., playing games, discussing the latest TV series and movie hits at lunch, going to fun events together, etc.) 

In order to increase camaraderie in a remote environment, many folks turn to a Microsoft Teams app for team building. 

We’ll start this article by showing you how Geekbot — our free team building app for Microsoft Teams — lets you send fun team building questions in Microsoft Teams (e.g., “What food puts you in the best mood?” or “Who was your childhood hero?”). These types of questions spark fun conversations and help teammates become better acquainted with each other’s hobbies and personalities. 

Then, we’ll cover six other team building apps for Microsoft Teams, so you can make the best decision for your specific needs. 

7 Best Microsoft Teams Apps for Team Building

  1. Geekbot
  2. Trivia
  3. Polly
  4. Karma
  5. LEAD.bot
  6. fikaTime
  7. Kudozza

Note: Geekbot is free for teams with up to 10 active participants. For larger teams, pricing is $2.50 per active user on the annual plan and $3.00 per active user on the monthly plan. Click here to create a free Geekbot account.

Geekbot

#random standup template example

Geekbot is our free tool that helps you run asynchronous standups, retrospectives, polls, and other remote check-ins in Microsoft Teams.

We’ll discuss these use cases later, but for now, we’ll show you how to use four Geekbot templates for teammates to spark fun conversations and get to know each other better:

  1. The “Pizza Toppings” Template
  2. The “Monday Watercooler” Template
  3. The “Friday Screenshot” Template
  4. The “Today I Learned” Template

First, here’s a very brief overview of how Geekbot works: 

  • You choose fun team building questions for teammates to answer, like “What’s your favorite breakfast?” or “What’s the best place you’ve ever been to?” 
  • Geekbot sends these questions to the teammates you selected via a Microsoft Teams DM. 
  • Their answers are posted in a selected channel, which encourages lighthearted discussions and friendly debates.

Note: Click here to create a free Geekbot account and follow along with the article.

#1: The “Pizza Toppings” Template

Example of pizza topping questions.

This template helps improve team culture and camaraderie through random team building questions, like:

  • What do most people not know about you?
  • If you could be anyone else for a day, who would it be?
  • Do you prefer smooth or crunchy peanut butter?
  • What makes you feel nostalgic?

As of this writing date, there’s a set of around 200 team building questions that Geekbot picks at random and sends to team members on Friday after lunch. 

But since all Geekbot templates are fully customizable, you can add, edit, or remove any question or change the schedule depending on your needs (e.g., Monday morning instead of Friday afternoon).

#2: The “Monday Watercooler” Template

Monday Watercooler example in Microsoft Teams.

This template prompts for water cooler-style chats that typically happen after the weekend. 

By default, Geekbot sends the following three questions on Monday mornings:

  • What did you do this weekend?
  • What’s something that you’ve read in the last week?
  • Any upcoming activities/vacations/conferences planned? 

As with the previous template, you can change these questions or have them sent at a different day and time.

#3: The “Today I Learned” Template

#today I learned template

This template encourages team members to share “What did you learn today?”.

Since this is a broad and open-ended question, you can make it more specific, e.g., “What’s the most valuable skill you’ve learned throughout your career?” 

This can result in unexpected answers, like “Good communication” or “Knowing when to take breaks”, which prompts others to chime in and start a discussion. Plus, this question is a great way for more experienced team members to help others with useful career development knowledge.

You could also edit the question so it’s more personal in nature, e.g., “What’s a fun fact you’ve discovered recently?”. Someone could reply with “Crocodiles are more closely related to birds than they are to snakes and lizards”, and spark a playful conversation about the topic. 

#4: The “Friday Screenshot” Template

Example of sharing an update via an image.

This template prompts you to “share an image for the team to enjoy before the weekend”. 

You could share an image of a meal you’ve cooked, beautiful photos of nature, and so on.  

But, the image doesn’t necessarily have to be a photograph. For example, you can use this template on Friday afternoons and have team members share the best meme they’ve seen this week. Then, people can react to the meme they think is the funniest and discuss it in a thread. 

You can even go a step further and offer a small reward for the team member who gets the most votes, like lunch on the team after the weekend. This can be a great way to introduce a game-like element to your team building activities.

Tailor Each Template to Your Needs

Again, Geekbot templates are easily customizable, which means you can:

  • Edit, add, or delete questions. Plus, there’s no limit to the number of questions you can send. 
  • Decide on which date and time the questions are sent to teammates. For example, you can set up Geekbot to send team building questions automatically every Friday at 4:30 PM in the user’s local timezone (so you don’t have to manually do so every week). 
  • Send the questions in each teammate’s local timezone. Say there are teammates in Austin, Tokyo, and Sicily who are using the “Monday Watercooler” template to encourage fun conversations after the weekend. If you’re working out of Austin and send these questions at 9:00 AM your time, teammates in other time zones may get them at an inconvenient hour (e.g., midnight). To avoid this issue, you can set the “Timezone” setting to “User’s local timezone”, ensuring everyone gets the watercooler questions at 9:00 AM on Monday in their local timezone.
Select user's local timezone.

Geekbot Bonus: Run All Kinds of Asynchronous Remote Work Check-Ins

As we’ve mentioned, Geekbot is more than a team building app for Microsoft Teams — it can also help you run asynchronous:

At the time of this writing, Geekbot has 170,000+ happy users who use it to run various remote work check-ins. You can find our reviews on Capterra, Crozdesk, G2, and Trustpilot.

If you feel that Geekbot fits your needs, you can create a free account here. It’s free for teams with up to 10 active participants. For larger teams, pricing is $2.50 per active user on the annual plan and $3.00 per active user on the monthly plan. 

Trivia

Virtual team building through Water Cooler..

Trivia is an app that helps you build camaraderie and a strong team culture. It can be used to send out trivia questions and play games (like Pictionary and word puzzles) in Microsoft Teams and Slack. You can also use it to run polls and create custom quizzes for your team.

Polly

Goodbye surveys. Hello Polly.

Polly is an app for running polls in MS Teams, Slack, and Zoom. You can use these polls to increase camaraderie by having teammates vote on their favorite hobby, movie, or music album, for example. 

Karma

True bonding for remote teams.

Karma is a bot that helps you evaluate team performance and celebrate achievements in Microsoft Teams. The bot celebrates the best-performing team members (based on the goals you set) and awards them Karma coins. Team leaders can then set custom rewards for team members who accumulate a certain amount of Karma coins, e.g., 5 Karma coins for a large pizza.

LEAD.bot

LEAD

LEAD.bot helps remote team members build connections with their colleagues, as well as people in other teams and departments. The bot works by matching two individuals on a bi-weekly or monthly basis for different tasks, like casual chats or peer-learning sessions. These pairings are also useful for introducing new team members.

fikaTime

Help your team feel more connected through coffee chats.

fikaTime is a wellness bot that helps teams build more meaningful connections via casual coffee chats. It works similarly to LEAD.bot, as it pairs different employees for coffee breaks every week, which helps teammates get to know each other better, create relationships, and foster a better work culture.

Kudozza

Kudos within Microsoft Teams.

Kudozza is a Microsoft Teams app that helps you improve team culture by showing appreciation for people’s achievements. Depending on the situation, you can simply acknowledge team members with a simple text message or create longer kudos with attention-grabbing visual elements.

Create a Free Geekbot Account 

Geekbot is free for teams with up to 10 active participants. For larger teams, pricing is $2.50 per active user on the annual plan and $3.00 per active user on the monthly plan. 

Click here to create a free Geekbot account.

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Frequently asked questions

What are the benefits of using a team building app for Microsoft Teams?

A team building app for Microsoft Teams helps teammates build stronger personal connections, and it’s especially advantageous in a remote environment.

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