We also have a remote team in different timezones. What we do instead is just the slack version of a "stand-up". Everyone writes whenever they start what they did yesterday as bullet points, what they will do today and if there are any blockers or important reminders. Doesn't take 5min of each ones time, keeps everyone in the loop and helps managers intervene if some other sprint task needs to be prioritized instead. Cost-benefit seems to be fine for us. Sure, you will still get the example mentioned, but that is still low cost after all. You can always reply in threads if something needs more detail.