The Freeform app from Apple is now out with the iOS 16.2 update. It is an infinite whiteboard/canvas kind of app that combines...
- some of the intuitive and rock solid formatting tools from the iWork Suite
- the iOS Apple Pencil scribbling features I have come to love in Apple Notes
- some of the recent collaboration updates from Apple's operating systems
Like many of Apple's apps, it is nice for most people but if open canvas apps are something you need particular features from, I wouldn't count on Apple's version to do everything you want.
MacStories has a good review of it (see below).
Freeform Leverages the Freedom and Flexibility of a Blank Canvas - MacStories:
Freeform is a brand new iPhone, iPad, and Mac app from Apple that lets users create multimedia boards on an infinite canvas that include text, images, drawings, links, files, and more. It’s an ambitious entry into a crowded category of apps that take overlapping approaches, emphasizing everything from note-taking to collaborative design to whiteboarding.
As is so often the case with Apple’s system apps, Freeform falls squarely in the middle of the landscape of existing apps. Freeform isn’t going to replace apps that are deeply focused on a narrow segment of apps in the blank canvas category. Instead, Freeform is targeted at a broader audience, many of whom have probably never even considered using this sort of app. For them, and for anyone who has felt constrained by more linear, text-based ways of exploring ideas, Freeform is a perfect solution.
At first blush, Freeform’s spare interface may give the impression that it’s a bare-bones 1.0 release, but that’s not the case. The app is easy to use and impressively feature-rich for a new release. So, let’s dig into the details to see what it can do.