Microsoft unifies Whiteboard experience across Windows and iOS

Microsoft Whiteboard on iPhone XS Max
Microsoft Whiteboard on iPhone XS Max (Image credit: Dan Thorp-Lancaster/Windows Central)

What you need to know

  • A new version of Microsoft Whiteboard is rolling out to Windows and iOS.
  • The updated Whiteboard supports inserting documents and includes over 40 templates.
  • Microsoft recently added support for personal accounts for the Android and web versions of Whiteboard.

A new version of Microsoft Whiteboard (opens in new tab) is rolling out to Windows and iOS. The update unifies the user experience of Whiteboard across devices and brings several new features to the service. Whiteboard now supports new shapes, more reactions, and over 40 templates. The update is rolling out gradually, and it should be completed by December 2021.

Templates allow people to start collaborating quickly. When people's workflow follows a similar structure from day-to-day, they can create a template. This saves time as they don't have to manually set up the Whiteboard app each time they use it.

Earlier this year, we spoke with Ian Mikutel, principal product manager of Whiteboard, about the new Whiteboard experience. Mikutel shared how Microsoft came up with the idea for templates and how the product evolved to surpass physical whiteboards in many ways. He also highlighted the benefit of inserting documents into Whiteboard, "a lot of users just love the fact that I can drop a PowerPoint slide, I can pretty soon [put] a Fluid table that has the same data … It's actually putting multiple content types right next to each other."

Microsoft also recently added support for personal Microsoft accounts on the Android and web versions of Whiteboard.

Sean Endicott
News Writer and apps editor

Sean Endicott brings nearly a decade of experience covering Microsoft and Windows news to Windows Central. He joined our team in 2017 as an app reviewer and now heads up our day-to-day news coverage. If you have a news tip or an app to review, hit him up at sean.endicott@futurenet.com (opens in new tab).

5 Comments
  • just tried this on the ipad. why is the inking so weird? it feels like someone is pulling away the ink coming out of the pencil-- i know it sounds weird but thats how it is 🙄
  • Never tried it on an iPad but it works well for me on surface devices
  • Finally it allows now personal MSA. So far working okay with Galaxy Note, but it doesn't automatically switch to pen when I use the S-Pen, so I think the pen digitizer detection isn't there still and not as very smooth to perform though. But writing/drawing with a pen is actually quite smooth, just the UI and general interaction of tools is laggy.
  • Have no idea why I might use it. Lol maybe if I was a football coach
  • How about iPadOS? MS does know that is different, right?