Synchronous Vs. Asynchronous Communication: How To Make Remote Collaborations More Effective?

Communication is where it all starts. The ability to clearly convey your thoughts, ideas, and feelings to another person is vital in any relationship. It is one of the most important skills for any entrepreneur to have. It’s a key factor in maintaining a healthy relationship with your employees, customers, and other stakeholders.

We live in an ever-connected world, where our ability to communicate with each other is constantly expanding. Today’s businesses are adopting synchronous and asynchronous communication to reach their customers. We’re now capable of communicating by phone, email, Skype, Zoom, WhatsApp, and many other ways. However, which is better?

Businesses are Adopting the New Video Communication Technologies

Most of our communication nowadays happens digitally. For this, communication professionals require to innovate & adapt to the new video communication technologies, tools & management solutions. One of the solutions to manage internal & external communication & transfer the message clearly & securely is to use a video management platform. Many organizations are now adopting innovative technologies like an enterprise video management platform to increase their productivity with streamlined video communication.  

Synchronous Vs. Asynchronous Communication

“Synchronous” and “Asynchronous” are terms used in computing to describe how data is transferred. Synchronous communication is when both parties are online simultaneously and can send and receive messages immediately. Asynchronous means “in a different time frame” or “not at the same time.”

If you’re using any chat application for your business, you might be wondering which is better: synchronous or asynchronous communication? The best way to answer this is by taking note of the differences between synchronous vs. asynchronous communication. It’s important to know what these differences are so you can choose the best strategy for your business.

Let’s understand the concept in detail.

What is Synchronous Communication?

Synchronicity allows for reasoning and logic to take place; people can ask questions and get responses in the same moment.

Synchronous communication refers to a form of communication where both parties respond immediately. Phone calls, in-person meetings, live training sessions are very common examples of synchronous communication.

It’s a live-chat style of communication where both parties are typing messages in real-time. This can also be done via phone or video call.

What is Asynchronous Communication?

Asynchronous communication is simply any form of communication that doesn’t require the parties involved to be present at the same time. With the advent of email, most of us have become more accustomed to this form of communication.

Asynchronous communication takes place when the second party does not need to be present to receive and send information when you want to send it. The person receiving your message can then take their own time to read, watch or listen to it at a later point in time.

Emails, letters, and direct messages are very common examples of asynchronous communication.

Benefits of Asynchronous Communication

• The benefits of asynchronous communication are two-fold: it reduces the cost of conducting business and facilitates various cultures and languages.

• Asynchronous communication is the best option for multi-language companies because it allows for more effective translations.

• Asynchronous communication is also advantageous for businesses with a global footprint because it lowers the costs of conducting business in a more remote location.

• Asynchronous communication allows people to work at different times than their counterparts. It is a form of communication in which the time between messages is not constant. For example, if you send a text message to someone and they respond two hours later, that interaction would be considered asynchronous communication.

• Asynchronous, or delayed, communication is a form of communication that does not require time synchronization. This means that there is no urgency or pressure to reply immediately.

• Asynchronous communication is often used for business transactions because it does not require immediacy in response. This makes it much cheaper for both parties. It also covers many people who constantly travel or have families to balance.

• Lastly, asynchronous communication makes meetings more efficient because time zones are not an issue.

Difference Between Synchronous and Asynchronous Communication

In an asynchronous setting, the number of messages that can be sent at a time is infinite.

In a synchronous setting, there are limitations to the number of messages.

Synchronous communication is real-time conversing. With this type of communication, there is a constant back and forth between the two parties.

In asynchronous communication, the sender will send their message and wait for a response. It can sometimes be frustrating because it requires more patience, and many people get annoyed waiting (and waiting).

Related Article: How to Use Recorded Zoom Meetings and Webinars as Video-On-Demand?

Using Videos to Boost Employee Productivity - Case Study

To understand this, let’s look at one of the examples of our customers. 

NEC Networks & System Integration Corporation (NESIC) is Japan’s leading IT solutions provider and reseller. The corporation was facing a major challenge regarding online meetings, webinars,
and training on Zoom and MS Teams.

These meetings were taking up employee time, reducing their productivity. NESIC decided to shift to an asynchronous work style. With VIDIZMO EnterpriseTube, the employees were encouraged to watch recorded clips of meetings, training sessions, and other corporate videos in a secure way.

Here’s what they have to say about VIDIZMO:

If you’re curious about the organization’s challenges, the solution provided & its impact; you can read the complete case study:

How VIDIZMO Helped NESIC to Boost Employee Productivity

Synchronous vs. Asynchronous Communication Examples

Most of our communication nowadays happens digitally.

In most scenarios, communication experts are responsible for building & cultivating a positive environment within the company & also with the stakeholders. Communication experts usually work in the corporate sectors, marketing departments, performing arts, public relations, & other similar industries. These people require exceptional expertise to help executives find their voices & make sure that businesses communicate effectively with their staff, vendors, and associates.  

Digital Synchronous Communication Examples:

• A virtual meeting over any video conferencing platform like Zoom

• Influencer live streams

• Live interviews

• Coffee break conversations or quick meetings on your colleague’s desk

• Live training videos

• Online video classes

• Video calls with people engaging in real-time

• Group discussion via Slack chats when everyone is present & active

• Live webinars

• Hosting live events for product launches

• Live Q&A sessions Live premier (it can be via social media, e.g., Facebook live)

Digital Asynchronous Communication Examples:

• Emails

• On-demand video streaming

• Pre-recorded training sessions

• Text messages (via WhatsApp or any other app), Slack or other chat applications (with delayed response)

• Communications via project management solutions like Asana, Jira, Monday, Trello, etc.

• Live streaming (one-to-many)

• Social media posts & forum discussions

• Video recordings

• File sharing solutions for team collaboration like Dropbox or Google Suite

• Screenshots with markups or documents with comments

How to Embrace Asynchronous Communication for Remote Work?

The advantages of asynchronous communication are that you can use it conveniently, and there is usually no time limit to reply. The disadvantages are that it is easy to forget about the conversation, and it requires more effort to stay focused on the discussion because there is no immediate response.

How about combining both types of communications resulting in a dynamic duo to rule the post-pandemic world of remote collaboration?

The covid-19 pandemic has changed the way people communicate & collaborate. Most people are working remotely, which has increased the concept of video-enabled communications.

Ever been to a work meeting, sitting there & thinking it could have been an email?

We all have been there!

But emails also have limitations. The message isn’t conveyed properly & chances of missing the main point of the discussion are high. The same goes for live video calls.

Instead of having a live video training every time a new employee joins or sending lengthy emails to deliver the message to the team, consider recording work meetings & maintaining the record of your video recordings.

Asynchronous Video Communication is the Future

Asynchronous video meetings are the recorded version of synchronous videos (live streams). Video conferencing solutions like Zoom and Microsoft Stream are great for conducting synchronous meetings. But they lack the capabilities to provide a secure video management platform for your recorded sessions.

Using an enterprise video management platform with a video conferencing tool gives you the power to make your meetings valuable assets.

An enterprise video management solution integrates with video conferencing tools like Zoom, Microsoft Stream, etc., to auto-ingest your recorded meetings.

If you’re looking for a more secure enterprise video management platform that provides you

• enterprise-grade security,

• private video streaming capabilities,

• AI-powered insights & transcriptions,

then VIDIZMO is the perfect solution for all your asynchronous video communications.

Gartner recognized enterprise video platform, VIDIZMO, offers a secure YouTube-like video portal for secure internal video streaming. Synchronous or asynchronous videos are more than video conferencing.

Here are a few features you’ll be getting with VIDIZMO:

• Securely & centrally manage & deliver your videos

• On-demand video streaming

• Responsive, lightweight, & indexable video player

• Index and quickly search videos in a large library

• Videos are accessible to intended audiences only

• Get AI-generated analytics on how your content is consumed and what to improve

• Upload and share all kinds of videos and other digital media in different formats

• Optimize content delivery on your internal network by caching videos

• Engage audiences with interactive videos by adding quizzes, surveys and more
  
  

• Data protection at every state, at rest (AES-256 bit encryption), in transit (additional AES-128 bit encryption), & in use (only be decrypted using the VIDIZMO player)

And a lot more.

Wrapping It Up

Communication is where it all starts. The ability to clearly convey your thoughts, ideas, and feelings to another person is vital in any relationship. It is one of the most important skills for any entrepreneur to have. It’s a key factor in maintaining a healthy relationship with your employees, customers, and other stakeholders.

There are numerous ways to communicate, and some are more effective at getting your message across than others.

Video communication, especially asynchronous video communication, is now essential. And manage your video recording at a large scale securely is also crucial for organizations these days. 

Contact our team today if you’re looking to improve your productivity with a secure enterprise video management platform like VIDIZMO. If you have any questions about the platform, please let us know.