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New Microsoft Whiteboard App

Steel Contributor

For those who may not have seen, there is a new version of Microsoft Whiteboard currently available in preview. It was released a couple of days ago into the Microsoft Store.

 

It's available for Surface Hub, but more importantly, also Windows 10 devices! We've been testing it for a couple of days and, suffice to say, it's FREAKING AWESOME!

 

Our favourite things so far:

 

  • Co-authoring between any device
  • Whiteboard collections in one place, so no need to save different boards to OneDrive
  • Nice new gestures when using pen actions, like the eraser dynamically resizing depending on how fast you erase
  • Gridlines while resizing
  • Sticky notes and stacks are pretty cool
  • Did I mention co-authoring between any device?

You do need an Office 365 account to use it, and you'll need to turn it on in your tenant (from the Admin settings) to use it. But **bleep**... this is so so good! Our users are actually excited about getting their hands on this... never quite seen hype for a work product before, but it's there this time!

35 Replies

@Daniel Hudson and @Nydia Cavazos, I really like this new Whiteboard App!  I like that you can find easily the previous Whiteboard apps and open and continue as well as using it on other Windows 10 devices.  I do have one question that a couple of users asked me and that is where are the whiteboards you create stored?  We know where we can access and love it, but curious where they are stored?  Executive of HR was one and security was a concern.  Thanks!!!

Hi Jeffrey. The Whiteboard website says that data is currently stored in the US, presumably on Azure. The data itself is not user accessible, so it's only view-able from within the app itself at the moment.

@Daniel Hudson, thanks for the information.  This is helpful for them!

Do we have any ETA on when this will be officially available?

No, but we can make some guesses.

 

The last major update for Surface Hub was to 1703 in May 2017.

 

This years Spring update hasn't shipped jut yet, but probably will in a couple of weeks as 1803. So maybe there will be a Surface Hub update a couple of months after that?

 

Will that update contain the new whiteboard by default, and remove the preview label is anyone's guess.

We got the new Whiteboard App Preview and deployed it to a few users, but the links to "Invite via email" and "Copy invite URL" don't work.  It prompts for the users to sign into Office 365 even though they already are signed into Office 365 with their Office 365 work accounts. Their Exchange Online and Skype For Business Online work fine.  Only this Whiteboard app doesn't recognize they are signed into Office 365.

 

If you click on the link to "Sign up," it sends you to an Office 365 Home edition page.

https://products.office.com/en-us/office-365-home-a

 

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The feedback link doesn't work at all.  If you click on it, it does nothing.

I opened a support ticket in the Office 365 Admin portal and they transferred me to  Windows desktop home support which transferred me to Pro business support (who would require payment to troubleshoot).  Nobody knows who supports issues with this app.

Yes, we enabled the Whiteboard app preview in the Office 365 Azure portal.

How can we get these login issues fixed?

Who supports this?

Sharing with the whiteboard app preview isn't working for anyone in our organization.  Even the feedback link doesn't work so I can't even report it.

I posted details in this thread in another post a couple weeks ago and got zero response.

Is there another place we post issues about this app and get the developer to either fix it or explain why it isn't working and whether it will work soon or if we should just give up and uninstall it?

@Kalimanne J Microsoft Whiteboard is currently a preview, when your admin enabled it in your tenant they accepted a set of preview terms, I would suggest you check this for support.

 

The preview is due to end sometime soon, at which point you can request support through your admin centre in the same way as any other product.


@Steven Collier wrote:

@Kalimanne JMicrosoft Whiteboard is currently a preview, when your admin enabled it in your tenant they accepted a set of preview terms, I would suggest you check this for support.

 

The preview is due to end sometime soon, at which point you can request support through your admin centre in the same way as any other product.


I don't see anything for support.  There is a feedback button in the app, but it also doesn't work for us.

How can they know when something isn't working when we can't contact anyone to let them know?  What is the point of a preview if you can't report issues to them so they can correct them?

Checked this earlier today and the Feedback button was working fine on my Surface Hub, bringing up the Feedback Hub.

The issue is with the preview app running on Windows 10 PCs, not the Surface Hub.  My screenshots are not from a Surface Hub.  We don't have the preview installed on a Surface Hub.

From a PC, the sharing features don't work for us and we also can't use the feedback link. 

Since, we can't use the feedback link from the Windows app, we need another way to reach whoever supports this app and can help us troubleshoot the issue.

We also need to know what the full system requirements are.  For instance, does it only work for certain types of Office 365 commercial accounts?  Does the preview app work for GCC accounts etc?

 

Now that the new Microsoft Whiteboard App is out of preview, is there a way to make it the default Whiteboard app or is there a new Windows 10 Teams build coming out that as part of the build changes that app to default?  Thanks in advance!

The content released yesterday say that instructions will come later to enable this.

 

I'm guessing but I think it'll be after the next update that's due later this month. This Windows Teams build allows the OS to be more disconnected from the collaboration apps, for example that's why it's needed to make the new Teams app default.

Thanks @Steven Collier, I'm looking forward to an update build and this becoming default.

You can find all the information about it here.

 

Also our resident Surface Hub engineer @Yoav Barzilay has a blog post about it here.

 

Only disappointment so far is the inability to export to OneNote file format (which gives out users Ink to Text conversion on their laptops after the meeting) and inability to email the Whiteboard to users (which is a HUGE oversight and will require us to completely retrain our user's habits as literally everyone in our org emails Whiteboards after meetings).

 

Edit: Also, can we PLEASE get some additional pen colours, or even a custom pen that can select any colour?!

Thanks @Daniel Hudson for the information and @Yoav Barzilay's blog post.  There is a Whiteboard Uservoice that I found today and exporting and pen options are listed and so you can upvote these here.

Fantastic, I had no idea there was a Uservoice for this! I wish Microsoft would publish a complete list of all their uservoice sites in one place!

@Daniel Hudson, I agree, I wish they'd post a list.  I searched for it after I read the blog post and fortunately found it.

Slightly off-topic, but I've found quite alot of them, so here's a list!

Office Apps
========
Microsoft Outlook: https://outlook.uservoice.com/
Microsoft OneNote: https://onenote.uservoice.com/
Microsoft Excel: https://excel.uservoice.com/
Microsoft PowerPoint: https://powerpoint.uservoice.com/
Microsoft Access: https://access.uservoice.com/
Microsoft Word: https://word.uservoice.com/
Skype for Business: https://www.skypefeedback.com/

Office 365
=======
Office 365: https://office365.uservoice.com/
Microsoft SharePoint: https://sharepoint.uservoice.com/
Yammer: https://yammer.uservoice.com/
Microsoft To-Do: https://todo.uservoice.com/
Microsoft Planner: https://planner.uservoice.com/forums/330525-microsoft-planner-feedback-forum
Microsoft PowerApps: https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/PowerApps-Ideas/idb-p/PowerAppsIdeas
Microsoft Flow: http://feedback.getflow.com/forums/214911-flow
Microsoft Teams: https://microsoftteams.uservoice.com/forums/555103-public
Microsoft Forms: https://microsoftforms.uservoice.com/forums/386451-welcome-to-microsoft-forms-suggestion-box
Microsoft Bookings: https://outlook.uservoice.com/forums/314907-microsoft-bookings
Microsoft Stream: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Microsoft-Stream-Ideas/idb-p/StreamIdeas
Microsoft Power BI: https://ideas.powerbi.com/forums/265200-power-bi-ideas

Other Microsoft Apps
==============
Microsoft Whiteboard: https://whiteboard.uservoice.com/forums/909292-public
Microsoft Intune: https://microsoftintune.uservoice.com/forums/291681-ideas
Microsoft Azure: https://feedback.azure.com/forums/34192--general-feedback
Office Lens: https://officelens.uservoice.com/
1 best response

Accepted Solutions
best response confirmed by Daniel Hudson (Steel Contributor)
Solution

Hi Ron/Everyone

 

Looks like we've got an update coming out today that enables opt-in for the new Whiteboard app:

 

Oct 18th, 2018 —update for Team edition based on KB4462939*  (OS Build 15063.1418)

This update to the Surface Hub includes quality improvements and security fixes .

Key updates to Surface Hub, not already outlined in Windows 10 Update History , include:

  • Skype for Business fixes:
    • Resolves Skype for Business connection issue when resuming from sleep
    • Resolves Skype for Business network connection issue, when device is connected to Internet
    • Resolves Skype for Business crash when searching for users from directory
  • Resolves issue where the Hub mistakenly reports “No Internet connection” in enterprise proxy environments.
  • Implemented a feature allowing customers to op-in to a new Whiteboard experience.

 

Looking at the Whiteboard page for Surface Hub, it seems it's been updated, but I'm not sure if this corresponds exactly with the update today:

 

How can I roll out the new version?

The new version of Whiteboard can be rolled out to Surface Hubs with an MDM setting that will be available by the end of the year.

If you wish to opt in sooner, you can enroll the device in the Windows Insider Program. The Release Preview ring provides an option to receive fixes, applications and drivers only. This will get slightly faster updates of Whiteboard and other apps.

To opt into Whiteboard using Release Preview:

  • On your Surface Hub, go to Settings > Update & Security > Windows Insider Program, and click Get Started.

  • Follow the steps to opt the device into the Windows Insider Program, making sure to choose Just fixes, apps and drivers. Within 24 hours, you should see the new Whiteboard app as the default.

  • If you have previously installed the new Whiteboard app on the device, you should uninstall it.

 

So on one hand, we have an update saying they've implemented a feature to allow us to opt-in, on the other the Whiteboard page is saying we need to enroll in the Insider Programme for just fixes, apps and drivers to get the new app, and that the MDM setting will be coming later this year.

 

Currently nothing on the Surface Hub Admin Guide.

 

Given this has only just hit the relative sites, ChangeWindows hasn't even picked up on today's CU release yet, and nothing from Jen in the Windows 10 subreddit, I'll give it a few days and see if we get a consistent message in the admin guide confirming how to roll this out properly, either whether the MDM setting is actually there, or if the update today just allows for the Insider Programme to roll it out. Fingers crossed it's the former!

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