Even at the times when we stop talking, put our headphones on and work away on something, it's because the conversation has reached the point where everyone is on the same page and we know how to collaborate. And the work we do at this point will feed the next conversation.
Out of discussion come action points. Out of action come discussion points. It's the circle of life.
So if we want good collaboration, we need good conversation tools.
The easiest way to have a conversation is to put people in a room. But the best conversations are those with the most contributors. You hit scaling problems even before you reach the biggest room, because of the limitation of sound waves as a medium. The best conversations have been carried on for thousands of years through written words.
There is a cost to holding a conversation over text. It's easy enough for anyone to begin, but is nonetheless a discipline to be learned and mastered.
In return for this investment there is significant reward. Participants are encouraged to think before they speak. Tangents can be explored without derailing the original topic. There is less danger of a conversation being dominated by 1 or 2 loud voices.
If your primary form of collaborating is a to-do list, your team will probably be missing a lot of context. They will see what you are doing, but not necessarily understand why.
Talking about your thoughts, approaches, and rationale behind your decisions, will not only give your collaborators valuable insight, it is also an opportunity to check yourself and distill your own understanding.