Phone is better than text because phone gives you more information in the discussion. You can judge the other person's mood to some extent, get a feel for their energy level, their enthusiasm. Also quite often when someone says something in text, it can be interpreted multiple ways, and emotion in voice gives cues which way is intended. If they have mixed feelings on a topic, you're more likely to sense that. It's also easier to talk, so it's easier to quickly relate a funny story and generally bond.
It's also worth nothing that a Skype call is generally higher sound quality, so it conveys this additional information much better than a phone call these days, since phonecalls tend to be way over-compressed and muddy. It's also worth noting that a video call does all of the above better as well, because video offers an additional channel of information for reading people's emotions.
When it comes to business discussions, I find text a better format because then I have time to compose and re-read my messages, and re-read other participants messages to clarify the details.
[1] Consider reading a book like Influence by Robert Cialdini, Ph.D. which has all kinds of fascinating studies about how people act in surprisingly illogical ways based on what they write. The book cites a number of studies on this issue of irrational consistency, and how it is routinely exploited in situations ranging from sales to indoctrination.
Something like daily phone calls will help you build those relationships. It's not as good as face time, but it's a lot better than text.
Bingo.
If you just communicate in text, you don't have a relationship. You're just another fish in a sea of a ton of other emails/texts/IMs/etc. And trust me, everybody gets so many of them, they don't differentiate based on who sent it ... it's all just one massive blob of text.
Break through that. Be one of the few people who make voice contact and if possible, face to face. You then get upgraded to being an actual human being. Build a relationship.
Then when the shit hits the fan, and it always does, you won't get the axe. Also, it's not all negative ... when there's a windfall or a new project, you'll be remembered and they'll call you.
Always push for the most intimate form of communication available.
We're on IM almost constantly for a few hours, but we then mostly go into our caves to get stuff done.
I've found the phone (and video calls) are critical for feeling connected to your teammates.
