You have a message you need to send to a teammate. Your first instinct is to send an email, so you start to draft one — only to end up sinking half an hour into writing a large wall of text as questions like, “Am I being clear enough?” and “Should I include another screenshot here?” swirl through your mind.
You ditch the email and opt to set up a video call instead. “If I can share my screen,” you think, “this will only take a few minutes, tops.” But after taking a quick look at your teammate’s calendar, you realize they don’t have any free time until next week. Asking to spontaneously hop on a call simply isn’t an option.
What do you do?
Enter video messaging, which combines the expressiveness of video with the convenience of instant messaging.
At Loom, our mission is to empower everyone in the global workforce to communicate more efficiently and effectively wherever they are. We believe that video messaging is key to accomplishing our mission.
Here’s how you can use video messaging at work for more expressive and convenient communication.
What is video messaging?
Video messaging is an asynchronous form of communication that involves the exchange of short videos.
Video messaging works in a similar way as instant messaging (exchanging short text messages), but instead of relying on typing out your thoughts, you can capture your facial expressions and voice to deliver your message and give it a human touch. And since you talk faster than you type, you can deliver your message more quickly with video messaging compared to when you default to instant message or email.
Unlike a video meeting, video messaging doesn’t require your recipient to be present to consume your message. In other words, you can express nuanced and complex ideas whenever it’s most convenient for you — no need to bog your day down with endless context switching or feel pressure to articulate your ideas in real time.
With Loom, you can record your face and screen together with our desktop app or Chrome extension, and you can record your iPhone screen with our iOS app. Once you’re done recording, you can instantly share your video with a link without taking up any storage space on your computer.
Loom videos are meant to work where you do — we currently integrate with Gmail, Slack, Notion, Jira, and Github. You can also save your video in a Team Library to facilitate collaboration even if you're on a remote team. No need to worry about file sharing!
Further reading:
email is a failed state. time for a coup. — Culture Study
Our Work from Anywhere Future — Harvard Business Review
Covid-19 has forced a radical shift in working habits — The Economist
There’s No Going ‘Back To Normal’ — There’s Only Adapting To the New Paradigm — The Loom Blog
When to use video messaging at work
Asynchronous communication is beneficial no matter what type of work setting you’re in — in-office, remote, or a combination of the two.
Sometimes an email captures exactly what you need. Other times call for a face-to-face meeting or a Zoom meeting. But for everything in between, a video message is the perfect medium to deliver your thoughts.
With video messaging, you can:
Prevent bottlenecks to better manage projects.
… and practically anything else you can think of. Today alone, I used video messaging to walk through a project proposal for my manager, introduce myself to new team members, and ask someone a question. It felt pretty good to do all of that without having to type anything or schedule a single meeting just to push my work along.
No matter your role, video messaging can be used anytime you need to communicate with someone. The use cases are truly endless. (Head over here for some inspiration on how teams everywhere use Loom).
If you use Loom for video messaging at work, you don't have to be afraid of your video message disappearing into a virtual black hole. You will receive a notification when your recipient has viewed your message and even see how much of your video they viewed, and can see detailed Engagement Insights on your video share page. They can also leave emoji reactions, time-stamped comments, and video replies to keep the conversation going.
Loom: Keeping you on the same page no matter when or where you work
Effective communication isn’t just a nice-to-have skill — it’s what fuels high-performing teams. With video messaging, you don’t have to compromise between respecting everyone’s time and adding a human touch to your message.
Next time you’re choosing between emailing or video conferencing, try recording a loom instead. Chances are it’ll become your preferred way to communicate at work.