Online meetings have become a very normal part of most people’s workdays with more and more teams split across multiple locations. It almost feels like the era of the centralized HQ is behind us. There are elements of face-to-face meetings, however, that haven’t translated quite so well to the virtual world. The whiteboard is one of those areas, but as with most digital alternatives if we can get used to using virtual whiteboards then the possibilities will go way beyond anything you’ve ever written or read on a whiteboard. In this context then, let’s take a look at some of the interesting updates Microsoft is planning to implement on its whiteboard app.
Microsoft Whiteboard is available on Windows, iOS, MacOS, and Android meaning everybody on your team will be able to collaborate no matter where they are. Microsoft has taken to the Microsoft 365 Roadmap to reveal details about upcoming features it is adding to Whiteboard to help facilitate easier and better teamwork among geographically dispersed teams. Let’s go through them now.
The first impressive feature is the ability to embed online videos onto the digital canvas, which will be coming to Teams and Surface devices in September 2022. September will also bring an update that will give you the ability to add clickable links onto the whiteboard also. The other September update of note is the ability to track who is adding what to the digital canvas.
Then in November, Whiteboard users will be able to add comments onto the whiteboard, as a more effective way of communicating about what is taking place. Users will also gain the ability to follow a particular user’s input in November too. Then in December a Timer feature will be added to the app to help users more easily run timed exercises.
These updates will bring a new world of capabilities to the Whiteboard app and open up some really interesting possibilities for virtual meetings from now on. We never thought we’d say this, but we are excited to see what meetings will be like in 2023 and beyond.
In other Microsoft news, Microsoft Teams will soon have its very own Facebook social network inside the app.
