It’s clear what they see as Zoom’s biggest shortcoming: serendipity. Both Branch and With use the word “serendipity” in their one-line homepage descriptions, while Huddle opts for “spontaneity” and Gather promises that you’ll “bump into your colleagues.”

Why might the quality of ideas degrade when people collaborate remotely? My favorite explanation is that collaboration requires trust, and trust implies a kind of intimacy, and it’s hard to build true intimacy via Zoom and chat.