With collaborative annotations, attendees in a Teams meeting can draw, add notes and more on the presenter’s screen. Annotations are live, so as each person adds to it, the changes are visible to everyone.
It uses the Whiteboard functionality, however the background will be a snapshot of the presenter’s screen. To use annotations, you need to first open the Share tray within the Teams meeting and select the screen/window to share.
On the screen being shared, the presenter should move the mouse to the top of the screen to bring up the toolbar. Then, click on the Start annotation (pen) icon. The presenter will have to option to select whether all attendees or only the presenter have the ability to annotate.
The screenshot below shows what the experience looks like for an attendee, if annotations are turned on for everyone. Attendees can use the Whiteboard tools (reactions, sticky notes, laser pointer, text boxes and pens) to illustrate the presenter’s screen. While in annotation mode, the presenter will not be able to move the shared screen until the annotation mode is closed.
This feature is currently available in Teams meetings for to Teams app desktop users- collaborative annotations are not an option if you are joining the meeting via web browser. The annotations will be saved as a Whiteboard file in the presenter’s OneDrive, if they need to access it again. The saved file does not however contain the background of the presenter’s screen.
Rishona Elijah 