What’s the difference between Synchronous and Asynchronous communication?

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Synchronous vs. Asynchronous

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The ways in which we communicate have changed.

Our digital communications of today are rapidly transforming our collective preferences for modern communication mediums. Email, video conferencing, text messaging and chat have all enabled much of the world to transition work, school, and almost everything else online seemingly overnight due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic having caught the world by surprise the early part of 2020.

In a very short period of time, we’re evolving even more and into a new trend in digital communications that is on the rise: asynchronous communication.

Digital communication technologies can be separated into two types: Synchronous and Asynchronous communication.

Synchronous Communication Happens Live With No Delay

It is a two-way communication in which participants converse with each other in real-time..

Examples of Synchronous digital communication:

  • Virtual meetings over Zoom, WebEx, GoToMeeting and other telecommunications platforms
  • Live online classes via video conferencing technology
  • Open discussion sessions such as “office hours”
  • Live events, webinars, and communications delivered with video conferencing software
  • Slack chats, threaded discussions, VOIP and video calls (when parties are engaging in real-time)

Asynchronous communication is characterized by a lag between sending and receiving messages

A back-and-forth of exchanges with a delay between messages or one-way communication that can be received by an audience at their convenience. Asynchronous communication also includes live streams and broadcasts that are delivered in a one-to-many setting (I.e. Facebook live streams) with a slight delay of a few seconds, just like a live television broadcast..

Examples of Asynchronous digital communication:

  • Email
  • On-demand video messages
  • Pre-recorded video lessons and training videos
  • Recorded meetings
  • One-to-many live streaming
  • Project management solutions such as Trello and Asana
  • Collaborative file sharing solutions such as Google Suite, Microsoft 365, and Dropbox
  • And again, Slack (when people respond in a timely, but not immediate manner), as well as other workplace chat apps.