Freehand from Invision for Web

What Freehand is good for

Freehand (part of the InVision suite) is a lightweight, shared whiteboard built into the InVision prototyping environment. It’s intended for quick sketching, diagramming, and brainstorming with teammates in real time without the overhead of more complex workflow tools.

Getting started

From the Projects dashboard in InVision you can create a new Freehand session. That launches a blank canvas where you can:

• draw freehand with a variety of pen and shape tools
• add text blocks and upload images to the board
• arrange and annotate assets as you prototype ideas

The interface is geared toward speed and simplicity, so you can start visualizing concepts immediately.

Real-time collaboration features

Freehand makes it easy for multiple people to work together:

• Invite others by generating a shareable link via the Share control
• Join from any device and either observe or actively present the session
• Click a participant’s avatar to follow their cursor and view their actions live

These features create a responsive, collaborative environment suitable for quick iteration and group reviews.

Strengths and trade-offs

Freehand shines when you need an uncomplicated space for sketching with collaborators. It removes much of the friction of setup and is easy for existing InVision users to adopt quickly.

However, that simplicity also means it doesn’t include some of the advanced functionality found in InVision’s more feature-rich collaboration tools or in dedicated design platforms.

Alternatives worth considering

• Dedicated whiteboarding and workshop platforms (e.g., Miro, MURAL) for heavier facilitation or boards with many integrations
• Full-featured design/prototyping tools (for tighter design handoff and component reuse) such as Figma or Sketch
• Simple sharing via email or cloud storage (Gmail, shared folders) when you only need to distribute static files quickly

When to choose Freehand

Choose this tool for fast collaborative sketches, quick alignment sessions, and lightweight brainstorming—especially if your team already uses InVision. For longer-term design systems, complex prototyping, or advanced collaboration needs, evaluate one of the alternatives listed above.