The Whiteboard supports live multiplayer, multiple people can edit the same board at the same time, see each other's cursors, and watch changes appear instantly. This page covers the multiplayer experience and how to use it for remote design sessions.

What this page helps you do

Run a remote ideation session on the same canvas.
See who else is on the board with you.
Avoid the small frictions of multi-person editing.

How to start a multiplayer session

Anyone with access to the whiteboard can join.

For team members in the same workspace:

They open the Whiteboard from the sidebar (or from the game's page if it's a per-game whiteboard).
Their cursor appears on your canvas as soon as they load it.

For external collaborators (Pathfinder/Oracle plans):

Invite them to your team workspace as a Member or Collaborator (see Inviting and managing team members).
They sign in and open the whiteboard.

For one-off external guests (publishers, freelancers not on your team), use read-only share links, see Sharing and exporting. Read-only viewers can't edit but they can see the live canvas as you work.

What you see when others are present

Live cursors: each person's pointer appears on your canvas with their name. Cursors move in real time.
Selection highlights: when someone selects an item, their selection outline shows on your screen too.
Live typing: when someone types in a text box, you see the letters appear as they type.
Presence list: usually a row of avatars in the top corner showing who's currently on the board.

Click an avatar to "follow" that person, your canvas pans and zooms to match where they're looking. Useful when one person is presenting an idea to the rest.

Editing together

You can both work on different parts of the same board simultaneously without conflicts. The Whiteboard merges everyone's changes in real time.

Two people editing the same item at the same time (resizing the same shape, typing into the same text box) is more conflict-prone:

Last action usually wins.
Visible flickering as conflicting edits resolve.
Best practice: take turns, or work on different items.

For verbal coordination during a session, jump on a video call alongside the whiteboard. The voice/video happens elsewhere; Boardssey handles the canvas.

Patterns that work for remote sessions

A few session formats that work well:

Brainstorm round: each person grabs an empty area, writes 5 ideas on sticky notes for 3 minutes, then everyone reviews together.
Affinity sort: start with a wall of unsorted notes, then drag into clusters together. The act of moving notes is itself a discussion.
Decision tree: one person draws a tree on screen while others add branches and annotations.
Critique: designer drops their game's component layout in the centre; teammates annotate with the pen tool.

The key is that everyone's cursor is on the same canvas, you're not interpreting screenshots in a chat thread.

Comments and discussion

The Whiteboard doesn't have a built-in comment thread on each shape. For async discussion, use:

Sticky notes to leave thoughts.
Sidebar text labels with names to mark "Sam thinks: ..." conventions.
Boardssey notifications are not generated by whiteboard activity, so collaborators won't be pinged automatically. Tell them when you've made a change worth seeing.

When others have left

After everyone signs out, the board sits as the latest saved state. The next time anyone opens it, that's what they see. There's no concept of "my version" vs "their version", there's just one board.

Tips & common questions

The board feels laggy when many people are on it. Live multiplayer scales well to roughly 10–15 simultaneous editors. Beyond that, lag becomes noticeable. For larger sessions, have a "driver" share their screen and one or two people contribute, while the rest watch.

My change disappeared. Two cases: (1) someone else edited the same item at the same time and their change won, re-do yours; (2) the connection briefly dropped, your edits sync when it reconnects.

Can I see who made a specific change? Live attribution shows who's currently editing what. Historical attribution (who drew this stroke last week?) is not surfaced today, the whiteboard is treated as collective memory.

Can a guest viewer see my cursor? Yes, read-only viewers see live cursors and updates from editors. They just can't add or change anything themselves.

Is the board locked while someone's editing? No, the model is concurrent editing, not locking. If two people want to edit the same shape at the same time, talk it out.