Whiteboard in Teams meetings integration, ink grab and ink beautification are here!
Published Mar 28 2019 12:00 PM 121K Views
Microsoft

Microsoft Whiteboard continues to evolve rapidly. This month we are introducing Whiteboard integration into Teams meetings and two intelligent inking features. Whether you choose to participate from the meeting room or remotely, Microsoft Whiteboard in Teams Meetings (commercial preview) empowers meeting attendees from the same tenant to participate in the conversation, regardless of the device used. For quick and easy collaboration, the board is automatically shared with all meeting attendees. To enable Whiteboard in a Teams meeting, please turn on the Whiteboard web preview here.

 

104115_WHITEBOARD_IN_TEAMS_V07.gif

 

Ink grab, enables you to take a picture of your notes scribbled on a physical whiteboard and convert them into digital ink on the Whiteboard App. You don’t have to recreate your board from scratch and all of the information is captured. If you start an ad-hoc brainstorm session on the physical whiteboard, you can easily continue on the digital whiteboard and include remote collaborators in the conversation. Simply take a picture of the content and use ink grab to transform them into digital ink.

 

Bad handwriting? Don’t worry! Ink beautification increases the readability of quickly-jotted notes in the Whiteboard canvas, which analyzes handwriting and automatically replaces it with more legible strokes.   This feature increases collaboration, learning and ideation by addressing common reasons users tell us they find it difficult to use pen or ink.

 

109995_INK_BEAUTIFICATION_FOR_WHITEBOARD_V03.gif

 

Together, these intelligent inking features reduce the friction associated with collaboration. With the magic wand, your collaborators will be able to easily collaborate with you on your inking creations.  Ink grab and ink beautification are available in Win10 app, and ink beautification will roll out in the next iOS app update.

 

Provide your team with an infinite digital canvas by downloading Microsoft Whiteboard today.

44 Comments
Brass Contributor
What about regular users? Do these features come to customer whiteboard too?
Microsoft

What do you think of these inking updates @Deleted and @Mathew Gilbertson?

Brass Contributor

They look great @Anna Chu, very cool indeed.  Looking forward to being able to assign items from the whiteboard to action items in To Do!  

Copper Contributor

This is a good start, but we need the ability to add shapes and images at a minimum for this to be useful.

Brass Contributor

Why is whiteboard not part of Teams store? Not all Orgs Support Windows store ... :( like mine :((


@Itai Almog wrote:

Microsoft Whiteboard continues to evolve rapidly. This month we are introducing Whiteboard integration into Teams meetings and two intelligent inking features. Whether you choose to participate from the meeting room or remotely, Microsoft Whiteboard in Teams Meetings (commercial preview) empowers meeting attendees from the same tenant to participate in the conversation, regardless of the device used. For quick and easy collaboration, the board is automatically shared with all meeting attendees. To enable Whiteboard in a Teams meeting, please turn on the Whiteboard web preview here.

 

104115_WHITEBOARD_IN_TEAMS_V07.gif

 

Ink grab, enables you to take a picture of your notes scribbled on a physical whiteboard and convert them into digital ink on the Whiteboard App. You don’t have to recreate your board from scratch and all of the information is captured. If you start an ad-hoc brainstorm session on the physical whiteboard, you can easily continue on the digital whiteboard and include remote collaborators in the conversation. Simply take a picture of the content and use ink grab to transform them into digital ink.

 

Bad handwriting? Don’t worry! Ink beautification increases the readability of quickly-jotted notes in the Whiteboard canvas, which analyzes handwriting and automatically replaces it with more legible strokes.   This feature increases collaboration, learning and ideation by addressing common reasons users tell us they find it difficult to use pen or ink.

 

109995_INK_BEAUTIFICATION_FOR_WHITEBOARD_V03.gif

 

Together, these intelligent inking features reduce the friction associated with collaboration. With the magic wand, your collaborators will be able to easily collaborate with you on your inking creations.  Ink grab and ink beautification are available in Win10 app, and ink beautification will roll out in the next iOS app update.

 

Provide your team with an infinite digital canvas by downloading Microsoft Whiteboard today.


 

Iron Contributor

Is this available on macOS?

Microsoft

@Shaked_Benratzon Ink grab and Ink beautification are currently available for all commercial and education customers. We will roll these out to all O365 subscribers in the upcoming months.

Microsoft

Thanks @Mathew Gilbertson for taking a look at the update. The idea of assigning items from the Whiteboard to action items in To Do is something we're looking into :)

Microsoft

Thanks @joesstlouis for the feedback, can you please elaborate what capability are you looking for?

Microsoft

@Ulf Lundqvist we're working to bring Whiteboard to all devices, including MacOS devices. Today, commercial customers can access the Whiteboard on a Mac via the Whiteboard web app that's currently in preview. We plan to roll it out to a broader audience later this year.

Copper Contributor

@Itai AlmogWe're looking for 2 main things in the whiteboard.  First we need ability to draw basic shapes on the whiteboard area.  We would also need the ability to import jpeg, png and pdf's into the whiteboard area that could be drawn on and saved to onedrive or locally.  I know some of these features are available in the desktop app, but not via Teams at this time.

Microsoft

Love inking and ink beautification.  Need ability to type as well as ink. This was used consistently in our team meetings in Skype and need to be back on par with that functionality to make it fully useful for our biz collab purposes.

Microsoft

Unfortunately the whiteboard isn't fully integrated into TEAMs from my experience.  Some times users must go to the store and download the white board before they can fully utilize the functionality themselves.  AND the inability to type diminishes the functionality of the Whiteboard.  When there are many users trying to collaborate and communicate, not being able to type makes the messages very hard to read.  :) Close and getting closer - improvements should be coming soon hopefully

Copper Contributor

Is there a time frame when the Android app will be available? And will that integrate Samsung stylus devices (Tab, Note)?

Brass Contributor

< No longer needed >

Copper Contributor

As a high school math teacher, we are looking to viable alternatives to replacing SMARTNotebook. This is a possibility, but as @joesstlouis said, there are some fairly simply implementations that are lacking (basic shapes, sketch-to-shape recognition, etc.) Hopefully the developer team will take this into consideration! Ideally, a fairly fluid OneNote-ish Whiteboard ;) 

 

Best,

Marc Coffie

Mathematics Teacher

Spencerport High School

Spencerport, NY

Microsoft

Any plans on adding a simple text tool? As a desktop user, this feels like a rather massive omission when mouse / touchpad is not ideal for adding text. :( A simple shape tool wouldn't be minded either, but text is truly a fundamental element that feels impossible as a mouse user.

Microsoft

@joesstlouis thanks for clarifying. Yes, these features are available in our Win10 and iOS apps. We will bring them to the web app (that's used in Teams) over time. PDF import is not available today, but it is something we're working on for all our clients.

Microsoft

@KalRose_711 @Matthew Sheets Thanks for the feedback! The Microsoft Whiteboard app does support the ability to type directly onto the canvas, click the plus button in the toolbar and select Text. We will bring it to the web app (that's used in Teams) over time, and you can always open the full client from Teams if you are on a Win10 or iOS device.

Microsoft

@ritar thanks for the feedback! Our first step was to make it very easy to add a whiteboard to any Teams meeting. Our focus now is to add additional capabilities such as the ones you see in the full client apps.

Microsoft

@Ruediger Pietrowski we're working to bring Microsoft Whiteboard to all devices, including Android phones and tablets. Today, commercial customers can access Whiteboard on Android via the Whiteboard web app that's currently in preview. We plan to roll it out to a broader audience later this year. We are also working on a full client for Android.

Microsoft

@mrcoffie thanks for the feedback. Yes, these features are available in the Win10 and iOS apps and will come to the web app over time. Would using the full client apps be an option for you?

Iron Contributor

When are we going to get Whiteboard on Android? Seems to be taking ages! (by that I mean as a standalone app, not linked to Teams etc.)

 

@Allan Clarke - Thank you for your comment. Android app is on our roadmap please stay tuned for further announcements!

 

Jasmin Rashid, Microsoft 

Copper Contributor

Some of our users have problems accessing the full app from the store due to misc store error messages.  When they are able to install the tool they provide very positive feedback.  The integration with Teams is great but it also be great if it was an app that you can access directly from the o365 waffle where the other common apps like word, ppt, excel are found.  This would make it much more accessible for teachers.

 

@Jose Segura - Thank you for you feedback and observation we always appreciate ideas where we can improve Whiteboard experiences :)

 

Jasmin Rashid, Microsoft 

Copper Contributor

@Itai Almog 

I have a couple of questions.

 

In iOS Teams app there is an icon on the side of the whiteboard to open in the Whiteboard app.  This doesn't seem to work, when is it expected to be enabled?  I'd like to be able to access the additional features in the app like ink to shape and writing beautification.



My other question is specific to the whiteboard app on iOS.  Ink to shape is great but doesn't seem to neaten up a straight line.  Is this planned for a future release.  At the moment all the shapes look great but the lines don't have the same finish and generally detract from the overall presentation.

 

Many thanks


@AlanOld - Thank you for the questions. We are working on bringing full feature parity to the iOS Teams and Web experience. Please look out for future announcements on this and the Ink to shape feature is something that is on our roadmap :)

Jasmin Rashid, Microsoft 

Hi @Itai Almog RE: Whiteboard Teams integration. I can only access see an option to add a Whiteboard if I join the meeting from a web browser. If I join from the Teams desktop client, I don't have the option to add a Whiteboard. 

Should this be the case? 

 

@Darrell Webster - Thank you. Users can start a whiteboard using Teams meetings and then open that same whiteboard in a native application. 

 

Jasmin Rashid, Microsoft 

Copper Contributor

Dear all,

 

We want to test MS Whiteboard in our environment. However, when I try to click on GET on MS store, it gives me nothing. Could it be due to any policy restricting downloading the software?

 

if yes, is there any other way that I can download this Microsoft Whiteboard app from?

 

Any response will be greatly appreciated

@Itai Almog @Darrell Webster @Jose Segura 

@thesmilingguru - Thank you for your question. This indeed could be due to policy restrictions. We do allow an offline install via SCCM and Store for Business. Please refer to below links for further information on this.  Please do keep in mind if you go with offline distribution, you will be required to push monthly updates to the app manually to ensure the app is kept updated with the latest changes 

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-store/distribute-offline-apps

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-store/apps-in-microsoft-store-for-business#licensing-mode...

 

Jasmin Rashid, Microsoft





 

 

Brass Contributor

IMO Microsoft should consider including Whiteboard into windows10 by default like OneNote

 

@Julian Frank - Thank you, we appreciate the feedback :)

 

Jasmin Rashid, Microsoft 

Copper Contributor

I agree Julian. Either built in to Windows or available in Office 365

 

@Jose Segura - Thank you, we appreciate the feedback!

 

Jasmin Rashid, Microsoft 

Copper Contributor

@Itai Almog We have conditional Access policy in place for O365 exchange online (will effect OneDrive and Teams as well) with required Approved client app to access data. Due to which i'm not able to use MS Whiteboard app on my iOS device, as Whiteboard app is not Approved client app.

Is there any way we can use Whiteboard app on our iOS device with CA policy in place??

 

Thank you,

Avinash Reddy  

 

@AvinashReddy - Thank you for your question. We have recently released Conditional Access for iOS, this will now allow you to use Whiteboard! Please let us know if you run into any issues.

 

Jasmin Rashid, Microsoft 

Copper Contributor

Does anybody know how to add Whiteboard as a tab in MS Teams channels?

UseCase: Anyone in my project team should be able to edit the whiteboard (at least his section) right in time before the weekly sync meeting. Then the whiteboard is presented, discussed and edited in the online meeting. Imho, adding Whiteboard as a tab would be most convenient for the team.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

 

@CTadecco -Thank you for your feedback, you can pin any whiteboard as a URL in a Teams channel. Just copy the URL for the whiteboard. We’re working on making this even easier.

 

Jasmin Rashid, Microsoft 

 

Copper Contributor

Will a Wacom tablet work with the web version of Whiteboard?

 

@Luke Catlin - Thank you for your question, yes Whiteboard supports any input device that Windows supports.

Jasmin Rashid, Microsoft

 

Bronze Contributor

Hey@Itai Almog 

Would it be possible for you to share the future plans for the WhiteBoard on Teams? We all know that the version from whiteboard is old  and missing lot of features compared to the currently available whiteboard app on Win10. This might be cause of running Whiteboard web app version. But it is a bit shame to finally release the whiteboard for users, just to see that they do not want to use it. "We prefer Win10 whiteboard, even it is more complicated to use in Teams meetings."

 

@Petri X - Thank you for your feedback. We are currently working on bringing the Whiteboard Teams experience to full feature parity. Please look out for future announcements on this!

 

Jasmin Rashid, Microsoft 

Steel Contributor

Hi @Itai Almog our company wants to start using the Whiteboard Web App of Teams. We're replacing Skype for Business by Teams due to deprecation in 2021. The S4B whiteboard has an option to add & edit a Text box (primitive version of a Post-It). Unfortunately this feature is not available in the Whiteboard Web App. There's indeed an option to Open whiteboards from the Web App using the Windows 10 whiteboard (available in the MSFT Store) and as such we could benefit from the beautiful 'Add Note option' (which exactly mimics the functionality of a Post-It). I said could, because unfortunately we encounter authentication options when trying to login with our Enterprise credentials in the Windows 10 Whiteboard app. As such 2 questions:

  1. Have you ever come across a similar authentication challenge/problem?
  2. When can we expect a Whiteboard web app (hence also Teams Whiteboard) w/ more functionality? Could you share a link to the Whiteboard web app road map?

Tx & brgds.

 

@Eric Deferm -Thank you for the detailed context here. 1. We’d be happy to take this offline to help with your authentication challenges as well as take you through our roadmap.  2. We are currently working on bringing full feature parity to the Web app so please look out for further announcements on this :)

 

Jasmin Rashid, Microsoft 

Steel Contributor

Hi @Jasmin_Rashid , tx for your response. In the mean time we succeeded in solving the authentication issues. It was a matter of adding/defining the public  Win 10 Whiteboard app to our business store > https://businessstore.microsoft.com/en-us/store 

Microsoft

@Eric Deferm -Thank you for the update great to hear you were able to solve the issue. 

Copper Contributor

I am using teams through the app on an iPad Pro. Can I use the whiteboard during a teams call?

 

@Sue_J - Thanks for reaching out. You are able to use Whiteboard (Web app) during a Teams call.  The Whiteboard for the web (and in Teams meetings) allows users to create and join boards, create and erase ink, and view sticky notes and images that others have added. It is optimized for ink, pen and touch capable devices. We are actively working to enable more features in web. Please see this article for more info on this. 

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/use-whiteboard-in-microsoft-teams-7a6e7218-e9dc-4ccc-89aa...

Jasmin Rashid , Microsoft 




 

 

Brass Contributor

I currently have an iPad Pro as my only device to access teams. I am an educator and due to Covid 19 our school decided that teams was the safest and best way to do online teaching. My only problem is that with the iOS teams app during a conference call i cannot use a whiteboard. It would be nice if to have that option in the mobile iOS version. Also some of the web settings like choosing WHICH screen you want to share should be brought across to the app as well. I have a hard time broadcasting my screen and having even being able to see everything on my device. Like on the web version I want the option to decide which screen I want to share on the iOS app. Also if uploading from  oval file storage can be added and not only one drive it would be nice. 

Microsoft

@Tanya_Peters - Thank you for reaching out, we appreciate the feedback!

Whilst we don't support starting the Whiteboard in Teams from an iOS device at this time (it's on our roadmap), another option now is to just use Whiteboard iOS app, and screen share it in Teams Meeting, while also sending a share link to the board into the Teams Meeting chat so others can open it up.
Or someone else on the call can start the Whiteboard from a non-iOS device first, share link, send in Teams chat so iOS user can launch it. Hope this helps :)

Thanks

Jasmin

Brass Contributor

@Jasmin_Rashid  Thanks for your swift response. I also realised there is an audio problem with the iOS teams app. If I share my screen to play a video or audio clip during a call, the listeners are unable to hear the audio even with headsets. They are able to see the video but not hear any audio. If I convert and download the audio to share in the video call session, when I click on OneDrive it shows all my folders as empty or the file does not upload to the video call. I can only share files from one drive to the teams chat. 

Microsoft

@Tanya_Peters Thanks for the extra context here. This seems to be a Teams related issue and not Whiteboard, I have therefore flagged it with the 'Teams' team so thank you for bringing this to our attention :)

 

Jasmin

Copper Contributor

I am evaluating Whiteboard, its position in the Office 365 functionality landscape and how viable it is.

The desktop app has some great features (some in preview) while the web version seems a bit basic still.

 

How active is the development?

Do you know if the roadmap is up-to-date?

I'd e.g. love to see

  • a clearer integration to Teams allowing whiteboards to created for a channel and/or be displayed as a tab
  • embedding/integrating whiteboard to SharePoint or other webs
  • organising whiteboards in some way

I'm ready to be amazed.

Copper Contributor

How to change pen size ?

Microsoft

@lars_hoog Please check out https://whiteboard.uservoice.com for some more recent feature specific roadmap updates for Whiteboard on all platforms. In general we are working hard to improve the Whiteboard Web and Teams versions heavily at this time, so expect many new features soon.

 

@How_to_change_pen_size On Whiteboard for Windows 10 or iOS, simply click the pen icon to get an expanded menu with size options. This functionality is coming soon to Whiteboard Web and Teams. 

Co-Authors
Version history
Last update:
‎Jul 14 2021 04:37 PM
Updated by: