Microsoft Whiteboard in Teams Adds Sticky Notes and Text, Improves Performance
Published Aug 05 2020 08:00 AM 287K Views
Microsoft

Whether you’re working remotely or in the office, your team can use Whiteboard to run effective meetings, brainstorm, plan and think creatively.

 

We’re excited to announce that some of the most loved Microsoft Whiteboard features on Windows 10 and iOS are now available to use in Teams and Whiteboard on the Web.

 

These new features make it easier than ever to keep the creative process moving forward virtually with your team or class.

 

Hero GIF for enterprise - all features showcased - image 1.gif

 

Let’s go through each of these features to give you a better understanding of the use cases for both Enterprise and Education.

 

Sticky notes

 

Sticky notes let you quickly add ideas and feedback to the canvas, especially if you’re using a device without a digital pen.

 

Sticky notes can be added through the toolbar or by right-clicking on the canvas to insert one in a specific place.

 

Sticy Notes - mkt strategy - image 2.png

 

Text

 

Text objects are a great way to add structure to the canvas, such as adding an agenda or details.

 

Text objects can be added through the toolbar or by right-clicking on the canvas to insert one in a specific place.

 

Text - Affinity Exercise - image 3.png

 

Select and move objects

 

You can move and re-order objects when organizing ideas, tasks or other content on the canvas.

 

Select and Move drag and drop - Product Launch Tasks - Image 4.png

 

Whiteboard’s Improved Performance

To support these new capabilities the Whiteboard web app has been completely rebuilt and is now faster than ever. This new foundation will allow us to bring more capabilities to Teams and the web, like the ones offered today on Windows 10 and iOS. And you can use the Whiteboard web app on any of your devices including PCs, Macs, Android and iOS devices by visiting http://whiteboard.microsoft.com.

 

Now let’s put it all together and go through some use cases across school and work:

 

Educational Institutions: Real-time visual collaboration in online classes, with control over when students can add to the Whiteboard


Visual collaboration tools can make meetings and teaching environments more effective and inclusive. Our updated Whiteboard features in Teams enable students who don’t have access to a touch or pen device to participate in whiteboarding sessions during Teams meetings. Plus, educators will also have the option to present the digital whiteboard without students having access to drawing on the board during class.

 

EDU GIF - Loop-Animation-EDU-Blog - image 5.gif

 

Enterprise Use Cases: Inclusive collaboration in the hybrid workplace

 

We are all in a new norm of working in a hybrid workplace. Though teams are not physically in person these days, there is still a need to be inclusive and collaborate via brainstorming and creative thinking sessions. We all have been in a meeting where we are using a dry erase board, adding sticky notes to a wall, and taking pictures of the material we write, draw, and discuss. We have brought the physical board to you via Whiteboard in Teams.  

 

Hero GIF for enterprise - all features showcased - image 1.gif

 

Additional Capabilities:

We are excited for you to start collaborating on Teams and Whiteboard on the Web! For more information on additional capabilities we have coming to Whiteboard, please see our Microsoft 365 Roadmap.

 

Please remember - you can continue to access all of Whiteboard’s feature-rich experiences – such as templates and hyperlinks – on the Windows 10 app and iOS app.

57 Comments
Steel Contributor

when will we be able to add a whiteboard to a channel tab, or is the future direction going to be to use a onenote tab instead?

Microsoft

@Dustin Halvorson An official Whiteboard tab app for Teams channels is in-progress. You can vote for this feature, add additional requests, or follow progress on Whiteboard's UserVoice here: https://whiteboard.uservoice.com/forums/930559-whiteboard-in-teams/filters/top Also, for more information on additional capabilities we have coming to Whiteboard, please see our Microsoft 365 Roadmap.

Iron Contributor

Andrea, have the technical details about teams with the new whiteboard implementation changed at all.  Specifically I am wondering about data being housed in regional (Canada for me) data centers as opposed to as US datacenter.

Brass Contributor

Don't see Roadmap for Whiteboard, as Whiteboard is not listed as a Product to filter from on the left of the page.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/roadmap?filters=Launched&searchterms=65072

 

 

Microsoft

@Murray Wall Thank you for reaching out, support for datacenters is on the roadmap and as soon as have dates we will of course share :). Please refer to our M365 Roadmap https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/roadmap to keep updated on additional features coming to Whiteboard!   

Brass Contributor

When will we be able to use whiteboard in a teams meeting with anonymous/external participants?  Currently this doesn’t work. Only org participants can see a shared whiteboard.  

Microsoft

@Mitch Beck Thanks for reaching out. Guest/external access within a Teams meeting is a top priority on the roadmap, it is currently active work in progress and coming soon within the next few months! Please stay tuned for further updates on this :)

Microsoft

@Murray Wall Details on where Whiteboard data is stored can be found in this support article: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/enable-microsoft-whiteboard-for-your-organization-1caaa2e...

Microsoft

@Girish Shah Sorry for the issue, we've updated it so that Whiteboard now displays properly. Please try again :)

Deleted
Not applicable

Really cool new feature! Now we need to add it to the Teams Tab :)

Copper Contributor

Is it possible to add business process symbols to do a remote process analysis?  For example, have a circle for start or end process, a box for activities a triangle for decisions, etc.   Drawing those on the fly is a pain

 

Microsoft

@Deleted Great to hear you are enjoying the new features and thank you for the feedback :) - We are focused on providing our users with a great experience across Whiteboard and as we continue to develop and enhance features we will be adding more capabilities along the way, a Teams Tab is on the roadmap for the next few quarters.

Microsoft

@Jim Wade Thanks for sharing feedback :) - adding shapes such as you have mentioned are on the roadmap and we plan to have this capability soon. Please stay tuned for further updates on this and for the release of additional features as we continue to enhance the Whiteboard experience for our users.

Silver Contributor

@Jasmin_Rashid it would be really cool if there was a palette of icon shapes like we have in Visio that we could just drop into a whiteboard

 

Copper Contributor

When will Whiteboard be coming to Android (other than through a browser)?

Microsoft

@MikePearce - Thank you for reaching out, an Android app is on the roadmap for end of this year :)

Copper Contributor

How do I UNDO within the web app? Without that, it is too easy to erase thing permanently by mistake.

Thanks.

Brass Contributor

I love it! But the web app needs more attention because the windows 10 app has much more features.

Microsoft

@RBarch Thank you for reaching out and appreciate the feedback :) - Undo/Redo features are coming soon to the Web app in the next few months so please stay tuned for this, you can also keep a track of what additional features are in the works for Whiteboard on our M365 Roadmap link here https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/roadmap?filters=Whiteboard&searchterms=whiteboard

Microsoft

@Lars Roth Thank you for sharing feedback and thoughts :) - our top priority is to bring full feature parity to the Web app and in line with Win10/iOS experiences.  We will be releasing additional features iteratively at a much faster pace throughout the rest of the year and you can also track our roadmap here https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/roadmap?filters=Whiteboard&searchterms=whiteboard

 

 

Copper Contributor

I am a high school science teacher. Couple of days back we were having a PD on teams. As a biology teacher I want to draw and explain. During PD whiteboard was shared by one of the teachers suddenly without host controlling this(teachers are overwhelmed and anxious) and immediately everyone(All the teachers were excited) starting writing and drawing on it. How can the teacher control this?. Should we share the smart board and teach ( we are virtual ,but should teach from our classroom)as I don’t see how this can be done on whiteboard. -Thanks

Microsoft

@Aruna_sagar Whiteboard in Teams Meeting will soon add a "Present Mode" option to let you choose if you want to allow everyone to collaborate, or only the presenter. 

Copper Contributor

Great update - add shapes and connectors and it will be awesome for those who don't have pens.

Copper Contributor

hanks for reaching out. Guest/external access within a Teams meeting is a top priority on the roadmap, it is currently active work in progress and coming soon within the next few months! Please stay tuned for further updates on this :)

Copper Contributor

More colours for sticky notes... PLEASE 🙏🏾

Copper Contributor

We have been looking at a whiteboard tools and found MS Whiteboard suitable with one exception: flow charting.  We are in the process of re-designing many business processes and a tool for collaborating in real time on flow charts would be essential.  Are their plans to include a visio-lite type interface to MS Whiteboard?

Microsoft

@bil348 Thank you for reaching out - we do have plans to add in flow charting and it is on our roadmap for 2021 :)

Microsoft

@terrenceNokia Thank you for the feedback - we hope to add more colors for sticky notes this year :)

Microsoft

Q: When will this be available for "GCC", "GCC High", and/or "DoD" environments? 

Please clarify availability for these enclaves whenever you discuss improvements to Microsoft 365 "Commercial" environments.  GCC is required for law enforcement agencies (NYPD, LAPD, etc.) or financial departments (City Finance, City Retirement, Assessor Tax Collection, etc.) in the government, and not commenting on availability in GCC causes a lot of confusion and dissatisfaction.

Copper Contributor

@Jasmin_Rashid Great updates! The ability for Whiteboard to be more functional inside of a Team meeting is very welcomed.

 

Hoping a feature to stop everyone apart from meeting organiser to initiate a whiteboard comes in (I know this can be circumnavigated by making everyone an attendee..)

Copper Contributor

Is the whiteboard now supported with recording as well?

Copper Contributor

Hi, I would like to use this Whitboard, but I have a problem with login with my work email. The message I got was: "

Zaloguj

Niestety występują problemy z logowaniem.

 
AADSTS50020: User account 'anna.zakowska@inspiregroup.pl' from identity provider 'live.com' does not exist in tenant 'Microsoft Services' and cannot access the application '95de633a-083e-42f5-b444-a4295d8e9314'(Microsoft Whiteboard Services) in that tenant. The account needs to be added as an external user in the tenant first. Sign out and sign in again with a different Azure Active Directory user account.
 
Szczegóły dotyczące rozwiązywania problemów
Jeśli skontaktujesz się z administratorem, wyślij mu te informacje.
Kopiuj informacje do schowka
Request Id: 34dc5ae6-8414-43bd-bc64-6a6ca3322100
Correlation Id: 684faada-b285-4d0e-bc5c-a6ccadf05dff
Timestamp: 2020-10-16T11:10:20Z
Message: AADSTS50020: User account 'anna.zakowska@inspiregroup.pl' from identity provider 'live.com' does not exist in tenant 'Microsoft Services' and cannot access the application '95de633a-083e-42f5-b444-a4295d8e9314'(Microsoft Whiteboard Services) in that tenant. The account needs to be added as an external user in the tenant first. Sign out and sign in again with a different Azure Active Directory user account.
Zaawansowana diagnostyka: Włącz
Jeśli planujesz uzyskać pomoc techniczną dotyczącą problemu, włącz ten tryb, a następnie spróbuj odtworzyć błąd. Spowoduje to zebranie dodatkowych informacji, które pomogą rozwiązać problem."
Copper Contributor

Hello,

I would like to know if there is mind maps app available in Teams. Otherwise, is it planned to be added this feature in Teams?

Thank you

Copper Contributor

Whiteboard needs to be made available for Government clients. Folks are dropping using Teams for collaborating because Google Hangouts offers better collaboration tools. This is a huge gap.

Copper Contributor

We can't add photos :relieved_face: 

Copper Contributor

I am still waiting on 2 things:  An Android version and more important Lock zoom.  When will Lock zoom happen.  It is very disconcerting while teaching to have the zoom and screen move around on my surface computers. 

Copper Contributor

Hey Whiteboard team! I notice that you have still not answered Kurt's question from Sept 2020 about release for GCC. Although Whiteboard is now listed on the M365 Roadmap, there are zero release updates for GCC. What's up with that? Are you waiting until storage is moved to SPO and you have built in rights management and discovery for the product, or is there no plan to bring product to GCC ever?

Copper Contributor

HI

I am using the updated windows 10 and updated Whiteboard app.......but my app does not include the Ink beautification tool or Ink grab Images tool.

 

Please help me with how can I get these tools in my app.

Copper Contributor

@Anshu_Saini I'm no Whiteboard expert, but I do know that MS releases new features in a phased manner - not everyone will see new features at the same exact time. Have you checked the MS Roadmap to ensure your feature is GA for your platform and tenant type?

Copper Contributor

Roadmap link with filter for whiteboard: Microsoft 365 Roadmap | Microsoft 365

Copper Contributor

Using an authenticator app a must for Whiteboard on iOS?

Copper Contributor

It seems that since I installed Whiteboard my computer gets frozen. I cannot do anything but turn it off with the button. I had to uninstall it unfortunately. I will give it a second chance, as I haven't found a board like this since Jambiard or Zoom board...

Copper Contributor

When can I expect the whiteboard feature to be accessed by someone outside the organization. Without this feature, I'm handicapped.

Copper Contributor

@Jayalatha you can use whiteboard in classpoint. 

Copper Contributor

Hello! Is it possible to copy and paste within the same Whiteboard in the Teams or web version? Thank you!

Copper Contributor

Gibt es einen Unterschied zwischen Whiteboard in Teams und Whiteboard Standalone? Auf dem Firmen Gerät habe ich die Funktion "Dokumente" auf dem HeimPC habe ich sie nicht.

 

Vielen Dank im Voraus

Copper Contributor

hi i have been using whiteboard for a few months i used to be able to add pdfs, now with the new update i dont no how to add a pdf to white board. i have the new layout.

Copper Contributor

aminkhavari_0-1635751990561.png

hello

i need help with this

how can i fix it?

i have lots of data from my classes in my whiteboard...

Copper Contributor

when   can  read  and  write  pdf   in   whiteboard?

Copper Contributor

Hola

La nueva versión de la pizarra tiene innovaciones muy buenas, pero se eliminaron otras muy útiles.

Estos son son mis comentarios:

 

1.  Ahora no puedo cambiar la ubicación de la barra de la pluma, antes podía colocarla abajo o a los lados y ahora está fija arriba, ciertamente se puede cerrar, pero me resta espacio de trabajo y es incomodo cerrarla y abrirla cada vez que necesito más espacio.

2. La cuadrícula cuando la pizarra está en fondo color negro está más tenue, yo uso mucho el color negro de fondo para más comodidad visual de mis alumnos, pero ahora las líneas guías son muy tenues y se me dificulta escribir.

3. ¿cuándo estará disponible la regla? la extraño muchísimo, a diario la usaba y no encuentro sustituto para esto.

4. Tengo una duda, no se si debo realizar alguna configuración en mi equipo, pero mi lapicero se ha vuelto menos preciso con esta nueva versión.

Gracias por su atención.

 

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