Twist

Twist comes from Doist, the fully remote company behind Todoist. The team built Twist because they were a distributed workforce across dozens of time zones, and real-time chat tools were quietly destroying their ability to do deep work. Twist launched in 2017 as their answer: a messaging app where async is the default, not the exception.

What Makes Twist Special

Threads are the core unit. Instead of a fast-scrolling channel feed where context evaporates, every conversation in Twist is a titled thread inside a channel. You open a thread, read the whole discussion top to bottom, and reply when you've actually thought about it. Nothing disappears upward. A decision from three months ago is right where you left it.

There's a separate "Messages" area for quick one-to-one or small-group conversations, which keeps the threaded channels clean. Notifications are calm and batched. There's no pressure to be "online." For a team spread across eight time zones, that's the whole value proposition — work moves forward without everyone needing to be awake at once.

Day-to-Day Experience

It feels slower than Slack, and that's intentional. You write more considered messages because the format invites it. The interface is clean and uncluttered. Search works well across all that organized history. Integrations exist but the directory is modest.

The Honest Trade-offs

Twist is niche. If your team thrives on real-time back-and-forth, Twist will feel sluggish and oddly quiet. There's no native video or voice calling, so you'll still need Zoom or similar. The integration ecosystem is small. And adoption requires genuine buy-in — half a team using it async while the other half wants instant replies just creates friction.

Who Should Choose Twist

Fully remote and distributed teams working across many time zones, async-first companies, and teams that have consciously decided real-time chat is hurting their focus. If you're trying to build a calmer, more deliberate communication culture, Twist is one of the only tools designed from the ground up for exactly that.