Asynchronous audio can be an effective way to share information and messages with your team. You can use the built in functionality in your instant messaging tool or use a specialised tool like Yac. The advantage of async audio is that you can convey the tone and emotion in your voice along with your message. This isn’t a freebie though. Here are a few things to consider.

1. Accents are tough to comprehend when they’re audio only. Be mindful of this constraint.

2. If the message is long and complex, it’s tough for recipients of the message to respond to specific sections of the audio. Mentioning a timestamp and sharing a comment is more fiddly than just commenting inline on a Google doc.

3. It’s also tougher to skip to specific sections of the audio, unless you add timestamps. This may then require special tools and content creation skills.

That being said, there are cases where async audio can be handy.

• Unidirectional content, such as a podcast or an FYI message.

• Content that you’d like the recipients to consume passively - say, while driving or when working out.

• Content with a short shelf life such as a broadcast message to a large number of people, where you don’t expect people to interact with specific parts of the message.