Microsoft Whiteboard is one of the most underused features in Microsoft Teams, yet it can completely transform how your team brainstorms, plans, and communicates visually. Whether you are running a remote sprint planning session, walking a client through a concept, or running a workshop with colleagues across the country, Whiteboard gives everyone a shared digital canvas to draw on, annotate, and build ideas together — all without leaving Teams. This guide walks you through everything you need to know, from opening Whiteboard during a meeting to exporting your finished canvas when the session ends.
\n\n\n\nWhat Is Microsoft Whiteboard?
\n\n\n\nMicrosoft Whiteboard is a freeform digital canvas that allows individuals and teams to sketch ideas, add sticky notes, insert shapes, and collaborate visually in real time. It is a standalone Microsoft 365 application in its own right, available on Windows, iOS, and Android, but it is also deeply integrated into Microsoft Teams — which is where most people encounter it first.
There are two distinct ways to use Whiteboard within Teams. The first is during a meeting, where you can open a shared Whiteboard that all participants can draw on simultaneously. The second is as a persistent tab inside a Teams channel, where the whiteboard stays in place between meetings and continues to be editable by channel members over time. Both modes use the same underlying application, and both save automatically to your Microsoft Whiteboard cloud storage.
\n\n\n\nMicrosoft Whiteboard is available to anyone with a Microsoft 365 subscription, including Business Basic, Business Standard, and enterprise plans. Your organisation’s IT administrator must have Whiteboard enabled in the Microsoft 365 admin centre — if you cannot see it, that is usually the first place to check.
\n\n\n\nHow to Open Whiteboard During a Teams Meeting
\n\n\n\nUsing Whiteboard in a live Teams meeting is straightforward. Once the meeting is underway, follow these steps to share a whiteboard with all participants.
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- Join or start your Teams meeting as normal. \n\n\n\n
- In the meeting controls toolbar at the top of the screen, click the Share button (the arrow pointing upward into a rectangle). \n\n\n\n
- In the sharing panel that appears, scroll down until you see the Microsoft Whiteboard option. \n\n\n\n
- Click Microsoft Whiteboard to open a new blank canvas. \n\n\n\n
- The whiteboard will open on screen for you, and all meeting participants will be able to see and interact with it in real time. \n
Everyone in the meeting — not just the presenter — can draw, type, and add content to the whiteboard simultaneously. This makes it ideal for collaborative sessions rather than one-way presentations. If you are looking for more traditional presentation options, you may also want to read our guide on how to present a PowerPoint in Microsoft Teams.
How to Add Whiteboard as a Tab in a Teams Channel
\n\n\n\nIf you want a whiteboard that persists beyond a single meeting and is accessible to your whole team at any time, adding it as a channel tab is the better option.
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- Navigate to the Teams channel where you want to add the whiteboard. \n\n\n\n
- Click the + (Add a tab) button at the top of the channel, next to your existing tabs. \n\n\n\n
- In the tab gallery that appears, search for Microsoft Whiteboard and select it. \n\n\n\n
- Choose whether to create a new whiteboard or open an existing one from your Whiteboard library. \n\n\n\n
- Give the tab a name and click Save. \n
The whiteboard will now appear as a permanent tab in that channel. Any channel member can open it and add to it at any time, whether a meeting is in progress or not. This is particularly useful for ongoing projects, where you want a visual workspace that evolves over weeks rather than one that disappears after a single session.
\n\n\n\nThe Main Whiteboard Tools
\n\n\n\nOnce you have a whiteboard open, you will find a toolbar along the left-hand side of the canvas. Here is a quick overview of the main tools available.
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- Pen and ink: Draw freehand lines and annotations directly on the canvas. You can choose from different colours and stroke thicknesses. \n\n\n\n
- Shapes: Insert pre-drawn shapes including rectangles, circles, arrows, and connectors. Useful for flow diagrams and process maps. \n\n\n\n
- Sticky notes: Add colour-coded notes to the canvas, just like physical Post-it notes. Each note supports a short text entry and can be moved around freely. \n\n\n\n
- Text: Insert text boxes anywhere on the canvas for labels, headings, or longer annotations. \n\n\n\n
- Images: Upload images from your device or paste them directly onto the canvas. \n\n\n\n
- Templates: Start from a pre-built layout rather than a blank canvas. More on this in the next section. \n\n\n\n
- Reactions: Place emoji reactions on the canvas to respond to content or highlight areas without interrupting the flow. \n
Using Whiteboard Templates
\n\n\n\nOne of the most time-saving features in Microsoft Whiteboard is the library of built-in templates. Rather than building a structured workspace from scratch, you can start with a pre-designed layout that fits your session type.
\n\n\n\nTo access templates, click the Templates button in the left toolbar. This opens the template gallery, which includes layouts for common use cases such as brainstorming, sprint retrospectives, kanban boards, and mind maps. Select the template you want and it will be placed directly onto your canvas, ready to fill in.
\n\n\n\nTemplates are particularly effective when you want to give a meeting some structure straight away. A retrospective template, for example, will already have columns for what went well, what did not, and what to try next — so your team can start adding sticky notes immediately rather than spending the first ten minutes setting up the layout.
\n\n\n\nCollaborating in Real Time
\n\n\n\nWhiteboard is designed for simultaneous collaboration, and it handles multiple contributors smoothly. Each person’s cursor appears on screen with a colour and their name attached, so you can always see who is adding what and where they are on the canvas.
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- Follow a participant’s view: If you want to see exactly what another collaborator is looking at, click their avatar at the top of the screen to snap your view to theirs. This is helpful when someone is walking the group through a specific part of the canvas. \n\n\n\n
- Lock objects: To prevent accidental edits, you can right-click any object and choose to lock it. Locked objects cannot be moved or edited until unlocked again. \n\n\n\n
- Laser pointer: Select the laser pointer tool to draw temporary lines on the canvas that fade away after a few seconds. This is ideal for pointing things out during a presentation without leaving permanent marks. \n
If you regularly run visual meetings, it is also worth exploring how Whiteboard works alongside other collaborative features in Teams, such as Together Mode, which can help create a more engaged and immersive meeting experience for remote teams.
\n\n\n\nSaving and Exporting Your Whiteboard
\n\n\n\nYou do not need to worry about manually saving your whiteboard — it saves automatically and continuously to the Microsoft Whiteboard cloud service. Even if the meeting ends or your browser crashes, your content will be there when you reopen it.
\n\n\n\nTo access a whiteboard after a meeting ends, open the standalone Microsoft Whiteboard app (on Windows, iOS, or Android) and sign in with your Microsoft 365 account. All whiteboards associated with your account will appear in the app’s library, including those created during Teams meetings.
\n\n\n\nIf you need to share the whiteboard with someone outside of Teams, or simply want a static snapshot, you can export it. Click the Settings menu (the three dots or gear icon) and select Export. You can save the canvas as a PNG image or as an SVG file, which preserves the vector quality of shapes and text if you need to scale it up.
\n\n\n\nWhiteboard on Mobile and the Standalone App
\n\n\n\nMicrosoft Whiteboard is not limited to the desktop Teams client. The standalone Whiteboard app is available for iOS, Android, and Windows, and it syncs automatically with any whiteboards you have created through Teams. This means you can sketch out ideas on a tablet with a stylus, pick up the same whiteboard on your desktop during a meeting, and then review it on your phone afterwards — all without any manual syncing.
\n\n\n\nOn touch-enabled devices, Whiteboard is especially powerful. The pen and ink tools feel natural with a finger or stylus, and pinch-to-zoom lets you navigate large canvases easily. If your team does a lot of visual work, it is worth encouraging members to install the standalone app so they have a dedicated, full-screen experience rather than working through the Teams interface alone.
\n\n\n\nCommon Whiteboard Problems
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- Whiteboard not loading or showing a blank screen: This is usually a browser or client cache issue. Try refreshing the Teams client, clearing your cache, or switching from the web client to the desktop app (or vice versa). \n\n\n\n
- Whiteboard missing from the Share menu: This almost always means that Whiteboard has not been enabled by your organisation’s administrator. An IT admin needs to enable Microsoft Whiteboard in the Microsoft 365 admin centre under Settings > Org settings > Microsoft Whiteboard. \n\n\n\n
- Guest access limitations: External guests joining a Teams meeting may have limited or no access to edit a whiteboard. Guests can typically view the whiteboard but cannot always draw on it — this is a security setting controlled by the tenant admin. \n\n\n\n
- Whiteboard tab not visible to channel members: Check that they have access to the channel and that the Teams client is up to date. Older versions of the Teams client can occasionally fail to display newly added tabs until after a restart. \n
For issues related to screen sharing generally, our guide on how to share your screen in Microsoft Teams covers the sharing panel in more detail, which can help you identify whether the problem is specific to Whiteboard or affects sharing more broadly.
\n\n\n\nFrequently Asked Questions
\n\n\n\nCan external guests use Microsoft Whiteboard in a Teams meeting?
\n\n\n\nIt depends on your organisation’s settings. By default, external guests can view the whiteboard but may not be able to edit it. If your organisation has enabled guest editing in the Microsoft 365 admin centre, guests can participate fully. If collaboration with external participants is important to you, check with your IT administrator about adjusting the guest permissions for Whiteboard.
\n\n\n\nDoes the whiteboard save after the meeting ends?
\n\n\n\nYes. All whiteboards created in Teams save automatically to the Microsoft Whiteboard app tied to the meeting organiser’s Microsoft 365 account. The whiteboard is accessible after the meeting ends by opening the standalone Microsoft Whiteboard app or by revisiting the channel tab if one was set up. You do not lose the content when the meeting finishes.
\n\n\n\nCan I use a stylus with Microsoft Whiteboard in Teams?
\n\n\n\nYes. On touch-enabled Windows devices, such as a Microsoft Surface, a stylus works very well with Whiteboard. The application is pressure-sensitive on supported hardware, which means your drawing strokes can vary in thickness depending on how hard you press. On iOS and Android, an Apple Pencil or compatible stylus also works with the standalone Whiteboard app for a natural handwriting and drawing experience.
\n\n\n\nHow many people can collaborate on a whiteboard at the same time?
\n\n\n\nMicrosoft Whiteboard supports up to 300 simultaneous collaborators, which is more than enough for virtually any team meeting or workshop. In practice, very large groups work best when the facilitator assigns specific areas of the canvas to different people or sub-groups, to avoid everyone drawing on top of each other. For most team meetings, you are unlikely to run into any practical limit on the number of contributors.
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