Now in public preview: Collaborative Annotation

[Kaushal Mehta (LYNC)]

Description

Annotation—powered by Microsoft Whiteboard—helps you collaborate on things, like a design or presentation, while sharing your screen in a Teams meeting.  

Flighting status

Started flighting. Available to everyone in public preview by June 3, 2022.

 

How to enable

 

Turn on and use annotation 

While you're sharing your full screen in a meeting, select Start annotation  in the meeting controls at the upper-middle area of your screen. 

The red outline around the shared screen will turn blue and all participants will see the Microsoft Whiteboard toolset at the top of the shared screen. Everyone in the meeting can begin annotating right away, and the red pen tool is selected by default. 

To begin annotating, choose one of the tools in the Whiteboard toolset--like Sticky notes--and start typing or drawing on the screen. 

Note: You can take screenshots during the meeting if you’d like to reference the annotated content later. The ability to screenshot annotation for Mac is coming soon. 

Annotation settings 

Collaborative cursors show the names of every participant in the meeting by default. Anyone in the meeting can turn them off. To turn them off: 

1. Select Settings
2. Turn off the toggle next to Collaborative cursors.  

Turn off annotation 

As the presenter, you can turn off annotation for all participants by selecting Stop annotation  in the meeting controls at the upper-middle area of your screen. 

Note: If you need information about enabling the public preview itself, see “Enable the public preview for Teams” below.

 

Microsoft 365 workloads and dependencies

Product, workload, or area	Dependency (Yes/No)	If yes, version requirements and other dependencies
Exchange	No	---
Sharepoint, files	No	---
Skype for Business	No	---
Outlook add-in	No	---
Azure AD	No	---
OneDrive	No	---
Office		---
Whiteboard	Yes	Whiteboard required to be enabled (default)+

⁺ For whiteboard to be enabled, please ensure -IsWBFluidEnabled is set to $true from Set-SPOTenant cmdlet https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/sharepoint-online/set-spotenant?view=sharepoint-p...

Supported clients and platforms

Windows 10	macOS	iOS	Android	Linux	Chrome	Firefox	Safari	Edge	Internet Explorer
Yes	Yes

* Web users can view and annotate but cannot start annotations when sharing their screen
** iOS and Android users can only participate in an annotation session started by another presenter

 

Supported scenarios across Teams client endpoints

Client type (Device)	User can share content & start Annotations	Viewer can see Annotations	Viewer can annotate on shared content
Desktop (Win)	Yes	Yes	Yes
Desktop (Mac)	No (ETA July 2022)	Yes	Yes
Web	No	Yes	Yes
Mobile/Tablet	No	Yes	Yes
MTR-w	N/A	Yes	No
MTR-W with touch	N/A	Yes	Yes
MTR-A	No	No	No
Surface Hub	No	Yes	Yes

Known issues

• Public Preview release does not have the ability to save annotated content in-app. You can take screenshots during the meeting if you’d like to reference the annotated content later. The ability to screenshot annotation for Mac is coming soon.
• Recording doesn’t capture annotated data.
• You cannot use annotation in window sharing (only available in desktop sharing)
• If you don’t see the option to use annotation in a meeting, you may have "Disable GPU hardware acceleration" enabled. In a future version of this feature, we will be removing this limitation. For now, please use the steps:
  • In the upper-right corner of Teams, select Settings and more > Settings > General. 
  • Under Application, uncheck the box next to Disable GPU hardware acceleration (requires restarting Teams).

 

Enable your Teams client for the public preview 

1. First, IT admins need to set an update policy that turns on Show preview features. Learn how at Public preview in Microsoft Teams - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Docs.  
2. Users then choose to join the public preview individually. See Get early access to new Teams features - Office Support (microsoft.com) for instructions. 

Send us your feedback 

Got feedback on features in the public preview or other areas of Teams? Let us know straight from Teams via Help > Give feedback.  

Thank you,

Preview Team, @Emily Kirby 

Quality & Customer Obsession, Microsoft Teams

[#2]

@Emily Kirby

Hi all, in the first I was happy when I read the announcement and thought finally, especially for the feature of collaborative cursors. 

But then I evaluated it the first time in the preview. Will the feature stay in the state, that a screenshot of your shared screen is taken once you start the annotation feature, and all users are only annotating that frozen, static picture? Expectation would have been that it allows annotation and collaborative cursors on your live shared content. With just using a screenshot the feature is boring.

also, a colleague of mine is receiving such message on this laptop with windows 10:

"This device does not support annotation"

[#3]

Hi @MatthiasRodler ,

Thank you for trying out the feature and for the feedback!

For the click-through experience, ie. the "screenshot" of your screen, we are hoping to add this in a future version of collaborative annotation. 

Regarding the error message your colleague is seeing, I think it may be due to the "GPU setting" being checked. Can you have them take a look and see if that's it? We just added this limitation to the public docs as well. Thanks!

Troubleshooting

If you don’t see the option to use annotation in a meeting: 

1. In the upper-right corner of Teams, select Settings and more > Settings > General. 

2. Under Application, uncheck the box next to Disable GPU hardware acceleration (requires restarting Teams). 
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/use-annotation-while-sharing-your-screen-in-teams-876ba52... 

[#4]

Trying this out right now and while i agree with one of the other commentors having it stuck to one screen is limiting but can still be a useful tool.

One question i did have though is i was just doing a live test since putting a Surface Hub and a windows desktop teams client on public preview. When i did a whiteboard share in a meeting i was curious about the MTR which was not on public previews did not show annotations - i assume all devices must be on preview? Also this group may know in the same scenario above the MTR not on public preview could not share in the whiteboard as well it now says it was not supported.

Please advise. Thanks!

[#5]

I've tested this, and it doesn't look like the laserpointer is visible to the other participants. Only to the person doing the actual laser-pointing... bug?

[#6]

@mikepiff I saw the same thing in my testing did laser pointer on surface hub but did not see it on the PC that started the share.

[#7]

Having it live would be nice, or at least a quick keyboard shortcut to turn it on or off. I would also like to allow people viewing the screen to be given the ability to start the annotation. I know you want this all the time, but we do a lot of code pairing over teams, and this could be very helpful when trying to point something out to the presenter.

[#8]

Thanks Microsoft! I've been waiting for this feature since 2020. Gotta give you a heads up though - many external Teams users have issues collaborating via Whiteboard/Annotations.

[#9]

Has this rolled out for Mac yet???

[#10]

It is essential that this feature be enabled for live content sharing, not just the current screenshot annotation function. Until that feature is rolled out, Zoom will continue to be our primary meeting client for design collaboration.

[#11]

We are using the new Collaborative Annotation feature 

Several of our users are having a problem when someone started to annotate, the main Team’s screen goes black/blank until they stop annotation mode. Others on the call could see the annotations. We have already confirmed that the "Disable GPU hardware acceleration" is unchecked. We have also tried signing completely out of teams, quitting the app and restarting, but no luck. We have confirmed that Teams is up-to-date with latest release.

Again, this is not all users, just some, so it does not seem to be a global setting.

[#12]

One advantage of using Zoom for collaboration is that both the host and participants can start annotations on shared content. However, in Microsoft Teams, only the presenter has the ability to start annotations, which can create barriers to collaboration. Additionally, the presenter must know how to share their entire desktop instead of just a single window, and enable collaborative cursors to allow participants to easily point out items of interest. These added steps can interrupt the flow of collaboration and lead to frustration for all involved. A solution to this issue could be to allow participants to request the collaborative cursor without having to enter annotation mode. This would streamline the collaboration process and allow everyone to focus on the intended discussion without unnecessary interruptions.