Microsoft Whiteboard Designed for Hybrid Work

It was introduced Microsoft Whiteboard with the goal of bringing people together for visual collaboration, working across a variety of devices and ecosystems, including Microsoft Teams.

Over the past 18 months, as many people have moved to work remotely, we’ve learned that clients needed virtual tools to creatively solve problems with others. To help people succeed in a more flexible work environment, we’ve reinvented the Whiteboard experience to help our clients work collaboratively, wherever and whenever they want.

Today we are pleased to announce an all-new Microsoft Whiteboard: the Visual Collaborative Workspace in Microsoft 365, designed for hybrid work.

With recent innovations in the Microsoft Whiteboard, we’re excited to unveil better hybrid work and collaboration experiences whether or not we’re physically together in the room. To that end, our innovations focus on five key areas: guided collaboration, new types of content, new user interface, improved ink experience, and expanded Microsoft 365 integration.

Facilitate real-time collaboration

Collaboration that just works is critical to the new Whiteboard experience, and we’re introducing a number of new features to make this a reality. Collaboration Cursors help you be remote but feel like you’re working in a group, showing you where and what other collaborators are doing on the whiteboard. Get people’s attention while sharing your best ideas with the new Laser Pointer. Reduce distractions while guiding users through ideas with Follow Along. And finally, get started easily using the most common scenarios like troubleshooting, planning and workshops, and our wide range of new Templates. Together, these features improve collaboration, engage all participants, and lower hybrid work barriers, no matter where you are.

Boost your creativity with rich, interactive content

Rich content-based collaboration is a key part of the new Whiteboard experience. This allows everyone to contribute in the way that best suits their idea, device type or personal preference. Combine shapes, lines, text, and ink to create Collaborative Diagrams. Make connections, annotate and iterate together and across multiple content types with our new Insert Image and Documents feature. Organize related thoughts, ideas or solutions into an auto-layout grid with Notes Grid. Provide lightweight, contextual feedback through a variety of engaging and fun reaction icons Reaction Stickers. Collaboration between applications, bringing Fluid Components, such as tables or to-do lists. Yes, you can still use Whiteboard to paint, but all these new features turn Whiteboard into a rich visual collaboration workspace that allows you and your team to be more creative working together.

Experience the unified look and feel of modernity 

With the introduction of so many new collaboration features and content types, we’ve created a new user interface to support our growing capabilities. Our new Fluent Toolbar adds a modern visual update to our expanded set of collaboration tools. The new Creation Gallery provides a highly discoverable, intuitive and responsive layout on devices as large as a Surface Hub and as small as a phone. See who’s always collaborating with you on the new Top Bar. The new Whiteboard offers a unified user experience across all devices, operating systems and platforms. Ultimately, Whiteboard’s new user interface emphasizes what matters most – people and content – ​​so you can do your best work.

Maximize creativity with ink for everyone

Digital ink is an important part of the whiteboard, whether you use it to express your own ideas or to comment and annotate on the ideas of others. The new Whiteboard is empowering everyone, whether you have a pen or not, to take advantage of the unique visual expression capabilities that ink can offer. Improved Mouse Inking smoothes out ink, making it easier than ever – for those with a mouse or trackpad – to visually collaborate on ideas that are difficult to put into words. Pen Support for Whiteboard in Teams allows you to paint automatically or get the unique benefits of using a pen like the one with the eraser on the other end. Draw shapes quickly and watch them straighten out automatically with Shape Recognition. Unleash your team’s imagination and creativity with Rainbow & Galaxy Ink.

Seamlessly integrate with Microsoft 365

The new Whiteboard is now integrated into even more areas of Microsoft 365 to more seamlessly fit into existing workflows. Whiteboard is now available on Teams Channels & Chats, great for collaborating on ongoing projects and long-term discussions outside of meetings. The new Share Content experience in Teams Meeting lets you easily launch a collaborative whiteboard for everyone in the meeting, with just one click. Prepare or reuse whiteboards across multiple Teams Meeting meetings with the new Open Existing Board functionality. Search and discover whiteboards on Office.com and SharePoint and take advantage of OneDrive for Business’s advanced content management features.

We hear from customers every day that while the future of work may be evolving, one thing remains clear: it’s never been more important for people to be able to collaborate effectively wherever and whenever they want. We’ve created the all-new, work-focused hybrid Whiteboard experience to address this need, so both remote and in-person participants can visually collaborate on the same digital screen. To get started, try the new Whiteboard today. To learn more, visit the Whiteboard product page or read the Frequently Asked Questions.

Tags: Microsoft, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Whiteboard, hybrid work