iOS 16.2, iPadOS 16.2, and macOS Ventura 13.1 Betas Introduce Freeform App

[MacRumors]

With the macOS Ventura 13.1, iOS 16.2, and iPadOS 16.2 betas provided to developers today, Apple has introduced the first version of the Freeform app that was first introduced at the Worldwide Developers Conference.

Freeform is a digital canvas app that is designed to let iPhone, iPad, and Mac users work together collaboratively in realtime. Multiple people can contribute images, notes, scribbles, documents, web links, PDFs, and more, with content added visible to everyone.

Apple's Freeform app is designed to work with the Apple Pencil on iPad, and it can be used with FaceTime for visual feedback between Freeform participants.

Article Link: iOS 16.2, iPadOS 16.2, and macOS Ventura 13.1 Betas Introduce Freeform App

 

[dantracht]

More interested in giving this a try than stage manager.

 

[antiprotest]

Is this based on the Notes app or is there something fundamentally different?

 

[Chrjy]

Freeform - essentially Apple’s answer to Miro or similar. They have probably seen all their UXers using Miro and thought they should develop their own version.

Miro is awesome for fast collaboration and I don’t know of any UXers who don’t use it. Probably be a few iterations before Apple can compete with Miro though. Our design team uses Miro everyday…be lost without it.

 

[dlewis23]

More interested in giving this a try than stage manager.

I am very interested in this app also. I hope it performs well.

 

[lazyrighteye]

Of all the features of iOS 16, this, for me, holds the most interest.
I leverage Notes, daily, on my iPad mini 6 (with Pencil 2). It's proven a really powerful aspect of my current workflow. I'm curious to see how/if Freeform might fit within, or replace, that Notes-based workflow.

 

[CarAnalogy]

It’s always interesting to see the sample data Apple puts in their promotional images. Apparently everyone that uses an iPad for work is a community organizer or other nonprofit.

 

[sorgo †]

Who needs the Metaverse when we get a virtual bathroom stall, for free?! 😍

 

[kobberrød]

More interested in giving this a try than stage manager.

Totally! I think this is almost the feature that I’m most excited about.

 

[Isengardtom]

Interested to see what this experience will be like

 

[tobybrut]

Is this based on the Notes app or is there something fundamentally different?

It's a shared whiteboard where everyone invited can work on any part of the whiteboard simultaneously.

 

[milcovului]

Hey Guys, do you think Freeform would be made available also for MacOS Monterey? We have a bunch of older laptops at the office which will not get Ventura. Thank you

 

[Cromulent]

I might have to dig my Apple Pencil 2 out of my draw for this.

 

[guzhogi]

Curious to see how this will work in a school setting

 

[JippaLippa]

Freeform is the classic great app/service I have no one to use with...

 

[widestload]

So this is basically Apple’s answer to “Mural” which seems to have taken my workplace by storm recently for online workshops etc. wonder if they will get any comeback from even putting “mural project” right in the middle of their promo material for it.

 

[antiprotest]

I wonder if it keeps track of who contributed what to the board, because I might want to prank people with ding dongs and such.

 

[Chrjy]

This isn’t particularly anything new. If you want to try some others that are very similar and have been in the market a while check out any of the following which are all the same principle.

These digital whiteboards mainly came about because of COVID as it was far more challenging for employees to collaborate, and these helped to bridge that gap.

Miro

Stormboard

Mural

Lucidspark

 

[guzhogi]

I wonder if it keeps track of who contributed what to the board, because I might want to prank people with ding dongs and such.

Reminds me of Google Docs, Sheets, etc. I'll have to see if Google's version of this ("Jams") has this.

 

[fwmireault]

Great news for the four people that will use it!!

 

[Mr. Dee]

I can't think of any use case for this. But I'm sure others will. macOS is starting to be more about feature bloat. I wouldn't be surprised if by the middle of the decade it will have its Mac OS 9 moment requiring a re-write.

 

[BWhaler]

It’s always interesting to see the sample data Apple puts in their promotional images. Apparently everyone that uses an iPad for work is a community organizer or other nonprofit.

Insightful comment. I wonder if they do this so as not to apprear to directly compete with apps in their App Store.

 

[guzhogi]

I can't think of any use case for this. But I'm sure others will.

Probably brainstorming ideas. For education, could also be used to show concepts.

macOS is starting to be more about feature bloat. I wouldn't be surprised if by the middle of the decade it will have its Mac OS 9 moment requiring a re-write.

I agree. Several features for the sake of features. I can totally understand breaking some of these off into their own apps. Okay, sure, whatever. That seems like a better option. But putting it all into the OS seems too much. I've said it before, I'd like to see Apple take a year off between major releases, and rewrite all of macOS, iOS, and its other OSes in Swift and SwiftUI from the ground up. It's their new, big programming language so use it. Merge the code between the OSes where possible so the developers don't have to reinvent the wheel for every OS. And go back to the older X.Y.Z versioning systems where X releases are major rewrites, Ys are new features but still roughly the same, and Zs are bug fix releases.

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

Now this app's gonna be great. Nice to have a new iWork app after all these years, being a free Apple version of Office 365's digital whiteboard.

 

[Manatee]

This is the feature I’m really looking forward to. I wonder how much it will affect my use of my favorite iPad app, Notability, which I’ve been using every day at work for years.