Here comes Freeform, Apple’s app for brainstorming

We had already seen this summer during the usual developer preview at the WorldWide Developer Conference, the WWDC. During the presentation of macOS Ventura, the operating system that after an initial public and developer beta phase became available to everyone starting last October, the arrival of a new app, colorful and “strange”which would be available for free “later this fall”.

We are still technically in autumn, although the snow has arrived in Northern Italy, and on time Apple presented Freeform, its free app for brainstorming group or alone, with the latest software update from iOS 16.2, iPadOS 16.2 and macOS Ventura 13.1.

What’s this

Freeform is what is technically defined as a whiteboard app, i.e. an application for mobile devices or for the desktop that simulate a whiteboard, allowing users to draw, write and collaborate in real time. These apps are often used for presenting ideas and concepts in meetings or as part of online learning. Many of these tools also offer advanced features such as the ability to insert images, shapes and other graphics to make presentations more engaging and interactive.

Apple, which has also always made its own computer software, has decided to add to its productivity and entertainment software suite (the one made up of Keynote, Pages, Numbers, but also Photos, GarageBand, iMovie and the note app) a more modern application designed natively for online collaboration. This must be, at least in Apple’s intentionsan advantage over its other apps to which the collaboration function was added later but never became very popular.

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How does it work

Freeform can be used alone or in collaboration with others. It is conceptually similar to cloud apps and services like Prezi (for online presentations) or Canva (for online design) with a difference: the goal is simply to have a large shared blackboard available on which to draw, write, put images, make arrows and connect the pieces of an idea. From this point of view it is more like the blackboard of a group of scientists or advertisers.

Warning, this very visual style of creativity (both scientific and humanistic) is not for everyone. The goal is not to make presentations or lay out some kind of designbut create a space to mess around, write, go freewheeling alone or with others, in a way more similar to the visual associations typical of a mind map than to the rigour, for example, of a system of lists and lists.

Apple has used all its talent to create this app and make it easy to use and suitable for those who already know a little about the company ecosystem. Apple has in fact introduced into Freeform a series of tools common to its devices: the brushes and pencils also present in Notes and drawing apps, the selectors to add images and shapes present inside Keynote, the post-its and text insertions that come from other experiences, and even the management of files and animations. Not to mention that collaboration can be done between multiple users and you can of course create multiple boards within Freeform.

Shapes, stylized images, strong and lighter colors, various effects are available. Objects, text and images can be moved “in front” and “behind”, exactly like with Keynote, but there are no real layers like in Photoshop for example. And that’s a good thing, because in this way the app remains simple and useless. But the true superpowers of Freeformwhich as we have already said is not an app for drawing but for sketching sketches of ideas and notes on a sheet, are others.

Superpowers and some tricks

How do you use such an app? Apple developers built it following a minimalist philosophy: simple tools allow you to do even very complicated things. In this case, projects.

Alone to get ideas

Freeform is not an app for taking notes, preparing presentations or creating layouts. But it allows you to rearrange, for example, a series of objects and take notes, indicate changes, mark a possible route.

As seen in the movies, Freeform could be used by a detective to relate a suspect to a variety of other people and items of evidence, or to prepare for a wedding or to take notes for a home renovation (which objects to use, which modifications to make), to prepare for a trip, perhaps to imagine a carnival disguise or the decor of a room for an end of year dinner. You can start jotting down a few ideas on the iPhone, use the iPad on the go with the Apple Pencil, and then finish up with the Mac on a bigger screen at home or in the office.

With Facetime

Collaboration is not just based on sharing a workspace, as happens with Google Docs for example, but it is also integrated into Apple’s video chat software, i.e. Facetime. In a call, even in a group, it is possible to share not only documents to be shown (presentations, text, spreadsheets) but also a Freeform whiteboard on which all participants can intervene.

In the classroom

Such an app used on a teacher’s Mac or iPad connected to a screen or projector allows you to show the evolution of the topics that touch each other and individual students can enter the shared space from their iPads and contribute, at the request of the teacher, with answers, images and drawings.

Among colleagues

The app is built from the ground up for collaboration – it’s cloud and multi-user by definition. You can use Freeform to collaborate with workgroups even in very distant environments.

In conclusion

One of the superpowers of this app is the integration with the Apple environment and the flexibility of seemingly simple tools but actually very complete.

If you use your iPad/Mac to archive work images, Freeform becomes a very powerful visual tool for put all your thoughts on digital paper related to a project or a particular idea. It’s not for everyone, you have to be people who think in a more “visual” way, obviously use at least one iPad with Apple Pencil, probably the best pairing for the use of this app which on Mac is still a bit sacrificed by the lack of touch on the screen. However, you can create spaces for typed text even using the Mac or iPad keyboard.

The first version of the app is quite complete and functional: there are a couple of things that need to be understood right away. The first is that iCloud usage feature must be turned on if you want to be able to share whiteboards on your devices. And besides, sharing a whiteboard with other people is a bit laborious as well goes through the Messages app or by email. The advantage, however, is that you can see in real time who is connected and using the app in your team.

The app is simple and completea version of Notes enhanced for drawing and collaboration but is linked to a single ecosystem, there is no web version (so Windows, Android and Linux users cannot participate) and finally it requires a very visual approach to creativity. Apple’s only real shortcoming is not providing usage patterns or how-to videos about what things can be done.

However, online especially on YouTubesmall communities are springing up that share experiences, tricks, tips and explanatory videos not so much for using the app, which we repeat is really very easy, but on the type of projects to use it for. However, for someone who isn’t the visual type, looking at the Freeform whiteboard is like looking at a blank page for someone with writer’s block: an insurmountable obstacle.