App Library on a 10th-generation iPad.
Hannah Stryker / How-To Geek

Freeform is a free collaborative whiteboard instrument for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Place shapes and textual content containers, draw, and import different media with the intention to brainstorm and plan tasks. Collaborate with others in realtime by sharing your boards with as much as 100 individuals.

Apple now contains an app referred to as Freeform on the iPhone, iPad, and Mac. So what precisely does this app do, what’s it good for, and may you delete it?

What Is the Freeform App on iPhone, iPad, and Mac?

Freeform is a free whiteboard app designed for thought technology, planning, and collaboration. This primary-party Apple app is obtainable for the iPhone, iPad, and Mac however didn’t present up till the iOS 16.2, iPadOS 16.2, and macOS 13.1 updates in late 2022.

Freeform for macOS 13

Freeform contains instruments for putting textual content containers, shapes and geometry, stamps, sticky notes, plus pen and pencil instruments. You can too insert photographs from Recordsdata, internet hyperlinks, doc scans, digital camera captures, or media saved in your Images library.

Use the Freeform App

Freeform makes use of what Apple calls “boards” as infinitely scaling canvases, with a grid background which you could toggle on and off. You should utilize the instruments on the high (iPad and Mac) or backside (iPhone) of the display so as to add textual content, drawings, categorized shapes, and different media.

Use the tools to place items in Freeform for iPhone

These objects are vector-based, which signifies that they are often resized and moved round with out dropping high quality, not like rasterized media reminiscent of images that lose high quality if you happen to enlarge or zoom in an excessive amount of. Drawing instruments are solely obtainable on touchscreen gadgets.

Handwritten note in Freeform for iPhone

Faucet or click on and drag to reposition and resize objects. Gadgets will be edited after you have positioned them, together with drawings that seem as objects like another. Right-click or faucet then use the “…” context menu to entry extra controls like the flexibility to maneuver these objects backward or ahead within the stack, lock them in place, change colours, duplicate, and extra.

Edit and rearrange items using the Freeform context menu

Use the “Share” button so as to add different collaborators to your board. You’ll be able to have as much as 100 individuals on a single board, working in real-time on a single mission. You’ll be able to share a single board with an entire chat group, and you’ll modify permissions together with who can edit, who can invite, and disable link-based invitations throughout the invitation course of.

Freeform syncs over iCloud so any boards you create or modifications you make ought to seem throughout gadgets. Can’t discover the Freeform app? Be sure you’ve updated your iPhone, iPad, or Mac to the newest software program launch from Apple. You’ll discover this below (System) Settings > Normal > Software program Replace.

RELATED: How to Turn Your iPad Into a Drawing Tablet

Some Instance Makes use of for Apple Freeform

Apple has designed a toolset that lets you brainstorm and get all types of concepts down on a canvas that ought to seem on your whole gadgets. These are nice for creating easy temper boards, spider diagrams, and mindmaps for creating concepts on a private or collaborative scale.

When you’re artistically inclined you need to discover the included drawing instruments ample for developing with sketches, tough outlines, and proofs of idea. This arguably works finest with a stylus like the Apple Pencil on an iPad, and it’s a far cry from drawing apps like Procreate.

Place stamps in Freeform for macOS

As a collaborative instrument, Freeform has some severe potential. When you’ve invited others to share your boards you’ll be able to collaborate in real-time, full with baked-in FaceTime integration (click on or faucet on the collaboration button then hit the “Audio” or “Video” buttons to get began).

The app is even perfect for collaboration on an area stage, like when your MacBook is linked to a projector in a gathering. The board can later be printed or shared with another members that want entry to it. You can too export a board as a PDF for archival or sharing with shoppers or those that don’t have a appropriate gadget.

Don’t Like Freeform? Delete It

Freeform comes preinstalled on iPhone or iPad, however you’ll be able to delete it if you happen to don’t need it. On an iPhone or iPad faucet and maintain the app icon then hit “Take away App” adopted by “Delete App” when prompted. You’ll be able to’t delete Freeform from macOS.

When you’ve deleted the app and need to get it again, you’ll be able to reinstall it once more from the App Store. In search of a substitute for Freeform that works throughout working techniques? Try Microsoft Whiteboard instead.


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