Best virtual icebreaker games for remote team meetings
Creating a strong bond with your teammates builds better communication and trust. With more and more people working remotely, teams are finding virtual icebreakers can spark friendly, informal interactions online. This helps break down barriers between remote team members and create a more open and connected environment.
But reports suggest 65% of virtual teams have never participated in virtual icebreakers or trust building activities during meetings. That’s a lot of missed opportunities! So next time you’re running a remote meeting, why not introduce a virtual icebreaker game to liven the mood.
We’ve compiled nine of the best online icebreakers for virtual meetings. They’re all short, fun, and simple, so all you have to do is pick your favorite and load it at your next online Zoom meeting. The best part is, you can run these virtual games on Conceptboard and invite as many participants as you want. No additional tools needed!
Virtual icebreakers are quick, online team-building activities that help you connect with your remote team on a personal level during online meetings. It’s a great way for team members to get to know each other better and break from the monotony of the daily grind.
Advantages of our virtual icebreakers
Whether your team has just met or has known each other for years, using these short icebreakers before the start of a virtual meeting is a great way to boost spirits with some light-hearted fun.
Conceptboard’s online whiteboard is a great tool to start using these virtual icebreakers immediately. You can add comments on online sticky notes, upload images, embed videos and track everyone’s actions via live cursors that come with participant names!
Ask each participant to write down three statements about themselves on three sticky notes. Two should be true, and one of them is a lie.
Ask everyone to add a dot vote next to which statement they think is the lie.
Once everyone has voted, reveal the correct answer and give team members the chance to ask any follow-up questions!
When to use it?
This is a fun icebreaker for people who don’t know each other and have just been introduced. It’s a great way for individuals to showcase their fun, non-work related side!
How long does it take?
Allow five minutes for one round, with a bit of time for story telling!
Open the template with the pre-prepared questions and ask everyone to add their answers on sticky notes. Eg: What would you do with a million dollars?
Compare answers and find common themes.
Feel free to change the questions for each meeting.
When to use it?
This game is great for warming up a team before a weekly virtual standup meeting. It presents an opportunity for colleagues to interact in a casual way by asking fun, ice breaker questions.
How long does it take?
Keep the momentum going by setting just one or two minutes per question.
Choose one of the categories on the board: Your room, your pet; Something on your desk; your socks or shoes; or the view outside your window.
Ask everyone to snap a photo, or upload one from their computer and add it to the board and then let everyone share a story.
When to use it?
Use this game to prime your team for creativity before an online brainstorming session. Or make this a regular virtual icebreaker before your weekly meetings by picking a new topic each week.
How long does it take?
Give everyone five minutes to take a photo, send it through and upload it, and then another five minutes to share stories.
Pose questions to your team about their favorites such as: -Which skill or talent would you love to have? -What is the best way to eat pizza? -What sound or noise do you love?
Ask participants to put their colored dot next to the answer they choose, or add their own answers.
When to use it?
This is also a fun game for teams that have recently started working together online. It’s a great way to get team members (especially the introverts) to open up by asking them fun questions that break the ice.
How long does it take?
You should allow 5-10 minutes to get through six questions.
Create a new blank board and write the trivia question in a text box.
If you’re using multiple choice questions, provide four possible answers and ask participants to place their colored dot next to the correct answer. Or just add True or False as text boxes to the board.
For extra difficulty, leave it open to and ask everyone to come up with the answers in a text box on the board.
Or, take it up a notch and create small teams to battle against each other. They can chat on your team channel, then submit answers on the board. Keep a weekly tally and award prizes at the end of the month or year.
When to use it?
This game is perfect for a friday afternoon lunch trivia session! Divide the team into sub-teams for some fun, laughter and friendly competition!
How long does it take?
We recommend 10 trivia questions, which should take around 10-15 minutes.
6. Virtual scavenger hunt
How does it work?
The first person chooses their favorite icon from the icon cloud and copies it into the pink square.
Everyone else has to race to be first to find the icon and circle it. Repeat until everyone has had a turn.
When to use it?
Take a synchronized virtual coffee break with your colleague and try the virtual scavenger hunt. Two or three individuals can also play against each other simultaneously.
How long does it take?
It should be super quick, so allow about 30 seconds per person.
7. What, where, when?
How does it work?
Pop culture is always a good conversation starter. Simply ask everyone to share their answers to questions such as “What was the last TV show you binge watched?” or “Where is your dream holiday destination?
You’ll quickly find teammates with similar guilty pleasures to debrief with.
When to use it?
This is an extension of the trivia game only shorter. This can be used when sitting around a virtual water cooler!
How long does it take?
This one should only take five minutes for three questions.
8. Virtual water cooler
How does it work?
Mingle around the virtual water cooler to discuss the latest news.
Simply choose your favorite beverage, add your name to it to identify yourself, and let the conversation flow.
When to use it?
Some of the best ideas at work are generated when casually chatting with colleagues in the break-room. The virtual water cooler is a great substitute for the physical version.
How long does it take?
Give around five minutes for pre-meeting conversation, or set up a separate weekly virtual watercooler meeting.
9. Scribble corner
How does it work?
Simply encourage everyone to scribble anything that’s on their mind.
You can set a topic, or let the creativity flow.
When to use it?
A quick sketching session is a great way to relax and channel one’s creativity. Try this after a work sprint to de-stress.
How long does it take?
Make it a race to see who can complete the best drawing in two minutes, or simply allow five minutes of free scribble time while everyone gets settled.
Ready to get started?
All nine of our fun virtual meeting icebreakers are ready to use immediately. Simply click on the links and they’ll open in a Conceptboard whiteboard so everyone can collaborate together in real-time. No lame trust exercises here!
To get started, invite all team members to join theConceptboard icebreaker board by sending them a link to the board. You can use the people icons at the top of the board to assign colors to each member.
You can simultaneously run a phone call to talk or run the meeting as a video call using Conceptboard’s built-in Conferencing tool (the phone icon in the top right) or on another similar video conferencing tool such as Zoom, and ask everyone to open the Conceptboard page at the start of the meeting to play the virtual icebreakers.
Write participants names on the colored icons, so they know which color they are. Whenever a participant wants to answer an icebreaker activity, they should useonline sticky-notes or place dots according to their color.
You can also duplicate the icons and allocate more colors if you have more than seven participants.
We suggest that you pick one or two ice breakers per meeting, and put a time limit on each activity so as not to take up too much of the meeting time!
We’d love to hear which one is your favorite, let us know in the comments below. Or if you’ve got any more great icebreakers you use with your virtual team, we’d love to hear them too!
Find out why Conceptboard is the future of work by signing up for afree 30 day trial now.
Thanks for your feedback- all these games can be played virtually on Conceptboard, simply invite all participants to join the template board by sending them a link (https://app.conceptboard.com/load/icebreaker-template), and they’ll be able to interact with the board in real time, adding sticky notes or comments, or chatting in the chat box. You can simultaneously run a phone call to talk or run the meeting as a video call using Conceptboard’s built in Conferencing tool (the phone icon in the top right) or on another similar video conferencing tool such as Zoom, and ask everyone to open the Conceptboard page at the start of the meeting to play the icebreakers.
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Hi Abida, once you open the template you can double click on the icon, select duplicate, and it will place a new icon, then select the color you want to change it too. Thanks, Kat
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26 Comments. Leave new
Great, thank you very much
All great in a classroom or meeting room – how do these work virtually?
my exact question.
I was going to use a padlet for the Two Truths and a Lie Icebreaker.
How would you do that?
Jamboard through google would be a great option
Thanks for your feedback- all these games can be played virtually on Conceptboard, simply invite all participants to join the template board by sending them a link (https://app.conceptboard.com/load/icebreaker-template), and they’ll be able to interact with the board in real time, adding sticky notes or comments, or chatting in the chat box. You can simultaneously run a phone call to talk or run the meeting as a video call using Conceptboard’s built in Conferencing tool (the phone icon in the top right) or on another similar video conferencing tool such as Zoom, and ask everyone to open the Conceptboard page at the start of the meeting to play the icebreakers.
I’ll add some extra info in the post now, thanks.
How many players can play at the same time? Is there a maximum? I’m look at 30 players.
Hi Claudia, we recommend up to 50 participants on a board to maintain optimum performance levels, so 30 would be fine. Have fun!
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Sorry for this but how do I duplicate the people icons and add more color??
Hi Abida, once you open the template you can double click on the icon, select duplicate, and it will place a new icon, then select the color you want to change it too. Thanks, Kat
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Great post!
Having attended a few online icebreakers recently and not being inspired by them, I decided to go away and create my own :-)
https://www.thinklinks.cards/
Hopefully it will be helpful to some.
These are great ideas! And here’s a slack bot that has 720+ icebreaker questions: http://ibtwebsite.herokuapp.com/
This is the right blog for anybody who would like to find out about this topic.
You know so much its almost tough to argue with
you (not that I personally would want to…HaHa).
You definitely put a new spin on a topic which has been discussed for ages.
Excellent stuff, just great!
Thank you very much for this post. I love it
So. Is it VR technology right?. How can I play it with my phone?
Thank you very much
I really enjoyed these icebreakers, especially the cool virtual water cooler!!! Added your great activities to our list at https://www.oakinnovation.com/free-training-icebreakers
Thank you again for these great examples to the icebreaker collective.
Very insighful, thanks a lot for the fresh ideas!
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Thank you
I can adapt a few of for my meetings since the person who usually takes care our ice breakers is under the weather