Mural Online Whiteboard for Collaborative Meetings

What Mural is and how to get to it

Mural is a cloud-based visual collaboration workspace: a shared digital whiteboard where a team can add sticky notes, shapes, text, images and diagrams at the same time. It is used for workshops, brainstorming, retrospectives and planning sessions, usually while participants talk over a separate video call.

To open it, search for Mural by name, go to the official site, then sign in or create an account. Most people use it in a web browser. Desktop, mobile and meeting-app versions may also be offered, but which ones exist and what they can do depends on the current release, so check the official download or help pages rather than relying on a third-party list.

How the whiteboard works in a meeting

A board, often called a mural, lives inside a workspace and is saved on the provider's servers. Everyone with access sees changes in near real time, which is why the board can act as the shared visual layer of a remote or hybrid meeting.

It helps to separate the two parts of the session. The whiteboard handles visual content and structure. Your call tool handles camera, microphone and speaker. If people cannot hear each other or their video freezes, the cause is usually in the call app, the browser's device permissions or the network, not in the board itself.

Some things are stable concepts: boards, templates, sticky notes, sharing and permissions. Other details change between versions and subscription plans, such as facilitation tools (timers, voting, private or anonymous input), guest access rules, export formats and integrations with meeting platforms. Treat those as features to confirm for your account before you build a session around them.

Running a collaborative session step by step

• Prepare the board in advance: pick a template or lay out simple areas such as agenda, ideas, decisions and next steps.
• Decide on access: invite members of your workspace, or check whether a guest or visitor link is allowed under your plan and your organisation's settings.
• Test your devices before the meeting: confirm the right camera and microphone are selected in your call app and that the browser has permission to use them.
• Share one instruction at the start: how to add a sticky note, how to move around the board and where to put contributions.
• Use facilitation tools if your version provides them, for example a timer for silent brainstorming or a voting round to prioritise ideas.
• Close by capturing decisions on the board and, if needed, exporting or sharing it with people who were absent.

If you present the board through screen sharing instead of having everyone edit it, share a single browser window or tab rather than the whole screen. This keeps notifications and other windows private and usually makes text easier to read for viewers.

For image work, you can typically place photos, screenshots or sketches on the board. Large images can slow down loading for participants on weaker connections, so resizing or compressing them beforehand is a sensible precaution.

Integrations with common meeting and chat platforms have been offered, which can let people open a board without leaving the call app. Whether a given integration is available, and whether your administrator has enabled it, needs to be checked in your own environment.

Limits and related questions

Is Mural free? Plan names, free tiers and limits on boards or members change over time. Check the current pricing page and your workspace settings instead of assuming a particular limit.

Does it replace a video call? No. Treat it as a companion to your call tool. Audio quality, echo, camera framing and lag are handled by the call software and your hardware.

What about privacy and files? Board content, uploaded images and exports are stored and processed by the service under its terms and your organisation's agreement. Verify who can view or edit each board, whether links are public within your workspace, where data is stored and how deletion works before uploading sensitive material. Do not rely on general claims; check the provider's current privacy documentation and your admin's policy.

Why does the board feel slow? Common causes are a very large board with many images, an outdated browser, browser extensions that interfere with page scripts, or a congested connection shared with an active video stream. Closing unused tabs and reducing image sizes are low-risk first steps.

Can participants join without an account? This depends on the plan and workspace settings. Confirm guest or visitor access in advance so attendees are not blocked at the start of the meeting.