Freeform is an all-new app available starting today, included in the latest versions of iOS, iPadOS, and macOS. Freeform helps users organize and visually lay out content on a flexible canvas, giving them the ability to see, share, and collaborate all in one place without worrying about layouts or page sizes.
Users can add a wide range of files and preview them inline without ever leaving the board. Designed for collaboration, Freeform makes it easier than ever to invite others to work on a board together. Users can even collaborate with others while on a FaceTime call. Freeform boards are stored in iCloud, so users can stay in sync across devices.
“Freeform opens up endless possibilities for iPhone, iPad, and Mac users to visually collaborate,” said Bob Borchers, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, in a statement. “With an infinite canvas, support for uploading a wide range of files, iCloud integration, and collaboration capabilities, Freeform creates a shared space for brainstorming that users can take anywhere.”
A Canvas Built for Creativity with Easy-to-Use Tools
Freeform is the perfect whiteboard experience for gathering inspiration and ideas all in one place. The infinite canvas expands as content is added to the board for unlimited flexibility when working with many files or collaborating with others. Users can seamlessly move around the board with support for built-in gestures.
The app offers a variety of brush styles and color options to sketch ideas, add comments, and draw diagrams. iPhone and iPad users can draw anywhere on the canvas with their finger, and with support for Apple Pencil, Freeform makes it easier than ever to sketch ideas on iPad while on the go.
Freeform supports a wide range of files, including photos, video, audio, documents, PDFs, links to websites and map location links, sticky notes, shapes, diagrams, and more. iPhone and iPad cameras can even be used to insert an image or scanned doc directly into the board. With a full shapes library, Freeform gives users over 700 options to choose from, allowing users to change the color and size, add text, and even create and save personalized shapes.
Users can drag and drop content onto the board from other apps including Files and Finder, and with built-in alignment guides, it is easy to keep the board organized. With Quick Look, users can preview content with a double tap without ever leaving the board, and multiple video files can play at the same time to create a dynamic view. Content like images and PDFs can be locked into place on a board, and collaborators can then annotate on top of or around the object — making Freeform the perfect tool for sketching ideas on top of floor plans for a home renovation project, or for coaches to map out plays on an image of a basketball court.
A Collaboration Space
Whether a user is working at a desk or on the go, Freeform is incredibly useful for standalone projects or when collaborating with others. With the ability to work with up to 100 collaborators in the same board, Freeform creates a shared space for creativity when working on group projects or even planning a vacation with friends.
Freeform takes advantage of the new collaboration features in Messages, which lets users invite others to a Freeform board by simply dragging it into a Messages thread. All members of that thread will be automatically invited to the boards and can begin collaborating immediately. When someone makes an edit, activity updates will show up at the top of the Messages thread.
With FaceTime built right into the app, users can start a FaceTime call within Freeform by tapping the collaboration button at the top right of the screen. All collaborators can view others’ contributions as they add content or make edits with fast-sync capabilities and iCloud integration. Freeform boards are synced across iPhone, iPad, and Mac, and users can invite others via a link or email, and even export a board as a PDF or take a screenshot.
Availability
Starting today, Freeform comes free on every iPhone, iPad, and Mac supporting iOS 16.2, iPadOS 16.2, or macOS Ventura 13.1.
MacDailyNews Take: There are so many possible uses for this app!
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Freeform is a giant piece of poop. Has no one not noticed you cannot “SAVE A FILE” with it? It can only save your work to a giant PoS database file. Not a single tech person bothered to note, hey, you cant safe an f’n file of your work out?
Also, it’s a giant rip off of the UI of the Vibe whiteboard, yet worse!
Seriously, how bad a tech ‘journalist’ do you have to be to fail to f’n notice freeform cannot save a file?
Apple software just keeps getting more and more crappy. And with the total abject failures of the tech press, no one calls them on their s**t.
You are nuts – I have several freeform docs that I can open at any time.. This is the same as the notes app where you can have several. Pretty cool app and so easy to drag any document type into.
Youre wrong. I DARE YOU. SAVE A FILE TO YOUR DESKTOP. TRY IT. I”LL WAIT. AND IN THAT SAVED FILE, PLEASE TELL ME TO GO GET BENT. SAVE IT AND EMAIL THAT FILE. OH YOU CANNOT. YOU CAN ONLY SEND A LINK FOR PEOPLE TO ACCESS THE FILE WHICH IS MASHED INTO A DATABASE.
You literally cannot save a file of your work out to the desktop. You can only export a non editable PDF.
USELESS GARBAGE DESIGN.
It’s user hostile. It’s keeping my data hostage.
@zombie -It exports a vector pdf file. You can do anything you like with that. Not sure what other file format you could want. I don’t really have a use for this software, because I already have loads of pro apps that can do the same thing, but it’s not crap.
Useless. It’s an export. You cannot SAVE a file, open it up later, and work on it. It is ridiculous to try to apologize for it missing some feature.
This is actually WORSE than not having copy/paste. I’ll have to continue to use Keynote.app as lame scratch pad version of this, because at least I can save a file on my Mac to work on it later.
Agree 100%. If you cannot save a file and come back to work on it later with your team of collaborators, pretty much useless. Imagine a bunch of people all making changes and additions at the same time in real time, how do you keep up with an instant gratification clusterfsck?…
It’s a cloud-based decentralized collaboration tool. “Saving” a “file” locally breaks the model. The whole point of this and lesser competitors like Google’s Jamboard and Miro, is that they’re never “finished” never “saved”
“they’re never “finished” never “saved”
Yes Zombie, “Useless”…
Already deleted it
I’ve just tried and and for my 2c worth, I think it’s great. First iteration.
I use Concepts & this will do a lot of what I use that app for.
I really like the idea of Freeform but I fear like most of Apples apps what you see is what you get and almost all you will EVER get. Not sure why Apple doesn’t like to continue to develop and improve its applications but once they finish them they tend to just leave them alone wither away into obscurity. Notes and maybe FinalCut are the only apps in recent memory where I have seen them continue to improve them beyond bug fixes and minor updates. And yes I am still butt hurt over Aperture…
Clumsy to operate – it draws a line and you then have to alter it, rather than just drawing it in the first place, and, yeah, you needed to click a few things to even find a line to use…. Not sure what I’d ever use this for. I must be obsolete.