Teams Whiteboard

[Greg McKenna]

Microsoft has been running a TV add featuring a whiteboard in the add. In fine print it indicated the whiteboard will be available soon. Is there any information on the Teams whiteboard and/or availability? 

[#2]

Greg, you might be thinking of Microsoft Whiteboard available for the Surface Hub?

[#3]

Per the roadmap here: https://skypeandteams.blob.core.windows.net/artefacts/Skype%20for%20Business%20to%20Teams%20Capabili... Whiteboard functionality is coming to Teams Q2 2018

[#4]

Is there a list of Whiteboard functions planned for 2Q2018? The TV add showed live video, live mobile screes, calculations, document and powerpoint editing, multiple elements on a canvas, etc.

[#5]

here is a link to a portion of the Microsoft TV commercial featuring whiteboard ( without audio ) : http://drops.oritor.com/GFgL8W

[#6]

That's Onenote, the Windows 10 native version, Teams for video and chat, and the new 3D stuff in PowerPoint ..

[#7]

Good info, thanks for sharing this link!

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@Michael Holste wrote:
Per the roadmap here: https://skypeandteams.blob.core.windows.net/artefacts/Skype%20for%20Business%20to%20Teams%20Capabili... Whiteboard functionality is coming to Teams Q2 2018

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[#8]

WhiteBoard is showing as Preview (https://products.office.com/en-us/microsoft-whiteboard/digital-whiteboard-app) the add is really nice, sadly still only PC when so much of the benefit of Team is its platform independence. We'd really like the storyboarding development capacity it appears to offer

[#9]

Does anyone know how (or can) it integrate with Microsoft Teams?  We don't have a Surface Hub, but could benefit from using a whiteboard in Teams.

[#10]

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@Greg McKenna wrote:

Microsoft has been running a TV add featuring a whiteboard in the add. In fine print it indicated the whiteboard will be available soon. Is there any information on the Teams whiteboard and/or availability? 

Possible Solution: InVision Freehand

As best I can tell, Microsoft has settled on integrating InVision Freehand as their Whiteboard solution for Teams. It requires at least one member of a team to register with InVision. However, does offer a free usage level but the registration is necessary to create a board. Once created, anyone on the team can collaborate on the board. 

A Whiteboard drawing session can be added along the top of any Channel conversation. Look for the header tabs (Conversation, Files, Organization, Activity, etc). User the "+" link to add a tab. From the subsequent dialog, you can find all the integrated solutions; InVision Freehand is among them. 

I've spent several hours over the last few days auditioning various Whiteboard utilities. As with so many things of this sort, each one lacks at least one feature found in others that you wish it had. 

I like the Microsoft Whiteboard app for Windows 10 because it will allow for use of mouse or drawing tablet. However, it's major weakness is that once you create a shape object, you can't resize it. You can only move it around; and that with some difficulty. With that in mind, out of all that I've tried, InVision Freehand truly is among the easiest to learn and use. I'm planning to introduce it to my team this week. 

Good luck, all. 

[#11]

Howdy!

So, I've been trying to find some clarity on a roadmap item which led me here. I cannot understand why Microsoft would pick a third-party service to handle the Whiteboard feature in meetings, rather than their existing Whiteboard app. 

Am I missing something here? Is there another effort to integrate the REAL Whiteboard app with Teams?

Reference roadmap item: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/roadmap?featureid=24183

Thanks!
Victoria

[#12]

Everything I have is speculation based on moderate research at best. I have seen no official word on anything related to the whiteboard beyond the existence of this integration with InVision. I agree that going with 3rd-party seems odd when they have one. Perhaps, the decision was as simple as, "It's easier to integrate with an existing product than to devote time and resource to improving the in-house version."

It may also come down to effort vs impact. Until it can be determined that there is enough demand for the Whiteboard feature, it simply makes more business sense to link an outside vendor and then evaluate the response. Perhaps we'll know more when the 2019 roadmap is finalized.