Microsoft Whiteboard Android (preview) application was recently released. Let’s take a look what is can do and what features it packs!
You may want to also refresh your memory with my earlier Microsoft Whiteboard articles:
- How to use Microsoft Whiteboard with guests in Teams Meetings
- How to: adding a Microsoft Whiteboard to a team channel as a tab
- The better and improved Teams Whiteboard
- How to use Whiteboard in Teams meetings efficiently II
Installation
Microsoft Whiteboard is easy to install to Android devices: just search for Microsoft Whiteboard in the Play store and start the installation.
Once the application is installed – which is pretty quick btw – you can open it & login to it with your Microsoft 365 account.
Finally you get to the privacy screen and can hit Let’s go!
Microsoft Whiteboard in Android app
The opening view is very familiar to Windows or Browser app at this phase. You can create a new Whiteboard or open a existing one.
In the UI we get the familiar web user interface
- Move
- 4 pends (black, red, green, blue)
- Eraser
- Text tool
- Notes
and on the top sharing + settings.
The user interface is very familiar on actual Whiteboarding:
In other aspects the brow.. sorry.. Android application works just like a browser application. And there is a reason for that since it is the browser application: Android application is running it as a browser application that has a app framing around it – as can be see in the top of the screen with URL in it.
So how does this impact you as user? It doesn’t at this point. I think they should have done this earlier – packaging the browser(web) Whiteboard as a application so it can be managed and opened easily. And I hope this is a sign that the web Whiteboard will be improved more – and those improvements will be available to several Whiteboards : Teams, web and Android at least.
Channel Whiteboard and Android app
Let’s add one Whiteboard to a channel and see how it differs:
Opening Teams in Android and navigating to the channel tabs we can see the Whiteboard there:
aaaaand we end up in the pure Browser version. At least it didn’t ask for a login since my mobile Edge was already signed into Whiteboard. But since the experience is the same it is not a big deal (I do lose a bit of screen in it though). Closing the Whiteboard gets me back to the main Whiteboard web screen where I can rejoin it normally.
Yes – I did write that Channel whiteboard to the note between two screenshots. When comparing Whiteboard web and app opening screen we can see the app wins in screen estate a weeny bit on the top and more on bottom. App is also more clear for end users (less distracting elements).
Microsoft Whiteboard Android app in Teams meetings
And for the final test: let’s try the new Whiteboard app in Microsoft Teams meeting. For that I wanted to join my both devices to the meeting. When adding my mobile into it you can choose to add it as a secondary device or do you want to transfer the call/meeting to that (ending the other client meeting in the process).
And what else is cool to see that you can use Live Reactions in Microsoft Teams meetings using Android mobile!
I think that both of those screens are pretty cool! I love to use Live Reactions in meetings and now I can use then even when I am in the meeting using my mobile. Of course you need to know to use … menu first. The transfer screen is very clear and helps users to switch between devices easily. So both of these rock! But let’s go back to the Whiteboard.
When Whiteboard is shared to the meeting (no, it doesn’t still work with externals in meetings- I just tried when taking these screenshots) it works very well in Teams Mobile. Yes – it is the web experience but it is running kind of inside Teams allowing you to work and participate in the Whiteboard using your mobile device. And mobile devices do have touch screens – using the mouse to draw into the Whiteboard is quite .. clumsy.
You can also open the Whiteboard app and select the meeting Whiteboard from there to work on it either during the meeting (perhaps they stopped sharing the Whiteboard) or afterwards. It works just like any other Whiteboard earlier.
Including the lack of “Other participants can edit” switch. It does not exist in Microsoft Whiteboard’s Android app (since it does not exist in the web/browser version either).
Conclusion
I did install the app to my use and do would recommend that you as well install Microsoft Whiteboard app to your mobile device (mobile/tablet). It makes it much more easier to open Whiteboard when you just open the app instead of opening browser and navigating to a URL. The features are the same as when using the Whiteboard via Teams or browser/web app.
I think it is quite a good call to use the same Whiteboard app (the web version) for Teams, Web and Android. When there are more updates to the web version it appears to all of them. Of course Whiteboard app in Windows (and in Surface Hub) is way more versatile and advanced) that there is a lots of catching up to do.
Looking at the Roadmap for Whiteboard we can see that additional content types ( Participants in Teams and on Web can now insert additional content types such as shapes and diagrams. ) is still scheduled for this month’s release and it means more features to Android Whiteboard as well because Microsoft Teams and Web get them. And more importantly the External access to Whiteboard in Teams meetings is keeping the release scheduling on this month as well.
| Feature ID | Description | Status | Last Modified | Release |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 66757 | Whiteboard: Additional content types | In development | 6.1.2021 | March CY2021 |
| 66759 | Whiteboard: External access in Teams meetings | In development | 2.12.2020 | March CY2021 |
| 66761 | Whiteboard: Per user licensing | Rolling out | 7.10.2020 | October CY2020 |
| 66763 | Whiteboard: Migrating previously created boards | In development | 2.3.2021 | March CY2021 |
| 66764 | Whiteboard: Locking content | In development | 31.8.2020 | June CY2021 |
| 66765 | Whiteboard: Attribution | In development | 31.8.2020 | June CY2021 |
| 66766 | Whiteboard: Additional facilitation features | In development | 31.8.2020 | June CY2021 |
| 66767 | Whiteboard: Storage in SharePoint Online | In development | 3.2.2021 | September CY2021 |
Finally: If you need to log in with a different account you can sign out from current one using top-right menu behind your initials.
Check out more blog posts about Microsoft Whiteboard:
Microsoft Whiteboard app (preview) was just released for Android. Take a look at it in this blog post I just read and wanted to share.
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Hi, Whiteboard per User licensing although is mentioned, released in Oct 2020, still not working, is there any delay
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It is stated as “Rolling out” so it might be available on some tenants and some don’t have it. I can see it in several of my tenants already (Checking out Licenses and Apps section in Active users management for a single user)
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