Microsoft Whiteboard is a digital canvas available for free across multiple platforms including Windows, Android, iOS, Mac, and Teams. The tool enables people to work in collaborative online environments by allowing them to create and visualize their ideas on a single digital whiteboard. Microsoft regularly adds features to Whiteboard and it has recently revealed a range of new capabilities coming to this piece of software soon.
On its Microsoft 365 Roadmap portal, the firm has outlined several enhancements coming to Whiteboard in the coming weeks and months. We have tabulated them below along with their descriptions, platforms, expected general availability (GA) dates, respectively, for your convenience.
| Feature | Description | Platforms | Tentative GA Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Embedded Online Video | Users can insert a video URL and have the video appear directly on the canvas. | Teams and Surface Devices | September 2022 |
| URL support | URLs inserted into Whiteboard will become clickable links. | Desktop, Teams and Surface Devices, Web, Education | September 2022 |
| Attribution | Participants in Teams and on Web can see who added content to the board. | Web, Desktop | September 2022 |
| Commenting | The ability to add comments on a whiteboard to aid in discussion with board participants. This will include a comments pane to see all comments on a given whiteboard. | Desktop, Teams and Surface Devices, Web | November 2022 |
| Follow | Users will have the ability to invite users on a whiteboard during a Teams meeting to follow their viewpoint as they navigate and interact with the canvas. | Desktop, Teams and Surface Devices, Web | November 2022 |
| Timer | Adding a timer to Whiteboard to help enable users to run timed activities, such as a timed brainstorm. | Desktop, Teams and Surface Devices, Web | December 2022 |
The aforementioned capabilities sound quite nifty on paper and will likely be appreciated by those who heavily utilize the digital canvassing software.
That said, it is important to note that the general availability dates are tentative in nature so there"s a possibility that they might slip or that some of the features may not arrive at all.