Microsoft Teams Is Getting This Handy New Whiteboard Feature

Microsoft has released a public preview of its collaborative Whiteboard inking app for Android devices and its Teams collaboration platform. 

Microsoft Whiteboard is a collaboration canvass app that was once just for visual communication between Windows 10 devices. Now it's making its way to Android devices and Microsoft Teams channels and chat in a public preview. 

Teams users can create a whiteboard that's linked to a Teams channel or chat, which Microsoft thinks will be useful for long-term projects and discussions. Members of a group, say in a school, a marketing department or engineering group, can update the whiteboard over time and use it to collaborate on projects. 

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There's a "+" button on top of Teams channels and chats for adding a new tab. From there, users can search for the term Whiteboard and enable a new Whiteboard. 

Microsoft has also published a preview of the Whiteboard app on the Google Play Store for Android devices. Microsoft released the Whiteboard app for iOS in 2018 with then new sticky notes and text objects. 

It's an app that might find a place for use in schools in today's remote classes along with Teams for tasks like sharing notes and sketching ideas or lesson outlines.  

"Designed for touch, type & pen, it lets you write or draw as smoothly as you would with ink, while adding text and sticky notes you can type/annotate on. It enhances teamwork by allowing all team members to edit and comment directly on the canvas in real time, no matter where they are. And all your work stays safe in the cloud, ready to be picked back up from another location or device," Microsoft explains in the app listing. 

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The addition of Whiteboard for Android devices and Teams rounds out Microsoft's plans to make it an app for collaboration across all platforms.  

People with Android devices need to be on Android 6.0 Marshmallow or later. Whiteboard for Android also requires login with a Work or School account.