Mural.co, for when our team is doing collaborative brainstorming. It's not quite a whiteboard, but excellent for mapping out ideas via e-stickynote, etc.
Mural is great for collaborative work/brainstorming/etc. Not sure how it would work with drawing, though.
I’ve been using Grapic because it lets me draw and sketch, as I always do, in my notebook and then easily share it in a meeting. I find it much more immersive than online whiteboards. Sometimes a remote colleague with access to a real whiteboard share that as well!
Oh wow that's such a cool idea! I’ll have try that because sometimes paper really is the easier way to sketch out an idea.
I started using Miro a couple months ago (I'm full time remote) and it has quickly become one of my favorite tools. Highly recommended!
Thanks for the tip! I've always been a sucker for a physical whiteboard but maybe this'll help take it's place for the next few months.
Totally second that! Was waiting for someone to mention Miro, I've also demo'd it with a large touch screen television and it's awesome as a remote collaboration tool.
The closest setup I can think of would be Figma + Wacom tablet.
The main benefit I get from a whiteboard is having the ability to quickly express and iterate on ideas that are hard to express through language. I struggle to see how this would work without having a way to draw on a digital canvas everyone else can also see and contribute to.
Good point. Someone sent me this https://screen.so/ which also seems like a good alternative
We have been using Miro for a couple of months to organize daily meetings and some remote retrospectives. Only complaint is that it takes some time to start up for large boards. I've been wanting to try out https://whimsical.com/, curious if someone here has had any experience with it.
+1 for using Miro. It’s amazing for anything that’s a complicated process and requires flow charting. Less good when it comes to casually jotting thoughts down though
Whimsical is great for its flow charting and mind mapping features. Super easy to use and friendly interface. Not sure how it would work for a shared whiteboard, though.
Great point—the Zoom whiteboard also works on iPads and Android devices to draw with your finger or stylus. And on phones, you could also share your screen and draw in any app you want for a one-way whiteboard if you don't need others to draw too.
Could be a normie one but we use Freehand by Invision to brainstorm ideas. If you are familiar with control key when screenshot, you can paste it straight in your freehand.
I've used this before, and I love how simple/easy especially in single-player mode. But, in terms of replacing the real-time collaboration of a whiteboard session, it doesn't quite get there for me...though, so far nothing really has!
Another vote for Miro. It's a very accessible tool that can be easily taught in just a few minutes. I use it often for collaborative remote sessions. I've participated in groups as large as 40 simultaneous users without confusion or tech issues. The "guest pass" pricing on their consultant package is cost effective for ad-hoc collaboration across multiple teams/projects/clients.
Mural has been my go to. Great remote collaboration tool all around, including whiteboarding. A few on our team have started using Whimsical and like it, too.
There's a new app from the creator of Screenhero, Screen, that I'm curious to try. It just launched this week, and much like Screenhero is built to share anything on your screen, but designed to be fast and have a persistent shared virtual screen, with video calls for real-time work and persistent notes otherwise. You can collaborate on the same apps—so, say, use any drawing app on anyone's computer as a fake whiteboard—or can draw on its built-in whiteboard.
Looks like an interesting take on the whiteboard idea, along with a few other things.
Loved Screenhero, was sad that Slack didn't manage to fold in its best features to their product. Hope Screen can pick up where it left off.
On the iPad side, I'll go for a bit of self-promotion by mentioning my product, Muse. It doesn't (currently) have any collaboration capabilities but some of our users use Zoom screenshare (typically via Airplay or connecting to Quicktime mirroring) as a way to get a space to scribble with their Pencil.
Some solid apps I've tried on the iPad that have native/multi-writer collaboration include Pixelboard and Explain Everything.
We excessively use freehand from invision. I Believe there is a free version of freehand. Freehand works great for us because the design team shares comps into the conversation, and the dev team collaborates on flows and possible technical blockers in the design before the group starts coding. Realtime collaboration promotes change within the design cycle faster and more effectively, instead of sending PDFs with the comps and flow diagrams.
I really like Google Presentations as a quasi whiteboard - everyone gets edit rights - and you can share and build together.
Miro and freehand by Invision are the ones we use almost on a daily basis.
I'm curious what hardware most people are using for this.. I've tried using Miro on my phone but the screen size just wasn't enough to be useful, although the app looked solid
Do most people use an iPad, other tablet, laptop w/ touch screen, something else?
Wow would have never imagined the ReMarkable would have screen mirroring! Is it wireless or via the USB cable?
Was just saying in another discussion that the ReMarkable would be super tempting to me as a writing machine if it supported bluetooth keyboards.
We've been experimenting with Google Jamboard. We certainly aren't buying the hardware because it's silly expensive, but for those with an iPad, we've enabled it on our domain, and it's pretty great with Apple Pencil, and good to share with teams in a Meet chat. Works well, most folks have an iPad to use it, and gets the job done. Bonus is it can be emailed out to the team afterwards.
Sorry that's a bit of a workaround. We've been on a hangout and just shared the window of a jamboard (chrometab) in a Meet call, while folks have used a jamboard on their devices. Crude, but gets the job done?
To clarify, it's a download from the App Store and is an app for iOS and Android. Those w/o an iPad can follow along on screen or even on their phones.
I've been wanting to try Board VR on Oculus for a while now. But it has yet to be ported to Oculus Quest (the only one I have). Once I get Oculus link set up I'll be able to give it a go.
I have read positive reviews about it though and it looks somewhat useful. I'm interested in seeing how VR effects remote work moving forward.
That could be neat. Whiteboards could definitely be a useful VR—or honestly AR, where you're projecting a fake whiteboard on any surface in a room—work application.
I'm using a XP-PEN Artist 13.3 Pro graphics display tablet with Zoom Whiteboard + Onenote doesn't have any issues.
ShareTheBoard! Closest thing to remote whiteboarding there is. Still in beta but already helpful for facilitating brainstorming in remote/hybrid teams.
Looking for a better way to plan remote meetings across time zones, and keep up with events. What software is doing that best today?
This is super random – I just realized that I met the Mural team back in 2012 (they were a customer of a startup I was working for)...awesome to see they seem to have been super successful since then. I'm going to check this out!