Microsoft unifies Whiteboard experience across Windows and iOS

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 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.