The new features in Flow 2
People all over the world love using Flow to take notes, sketch ideas and enjoy total creative immersion. Available now is the biggest update to Flow since it was launched last year and we think you’re going to love the new features: realtime collaboration, vertical documents, pencil case and more.
If you’re already a member, these updates are available to you today under your current subscription. Just update to version 2 from the App Store. If you are new — download the whole Moleskine Studio and enjoy a free trial of all three of our acclaimed apps: Actions, Timepage and Flow.
Here’s what you get in Flow 2:
Realtime Collaboration
With Flow 2, multiple people can work on the same document at the same time from separate devices wherever they are in the world. It’s an incredibly innovative and fresh way to collaborate, in a time when we all need it most. We had electricians who needed their bosses to confirm where to drill the holes for light switches — so they took a photo onsite, collaborated in the document and their boss was able to show them exactly where to install them. Ten-year-old cousins who haven’t (and probably won’t) see each other for months wanting a new way to ‘play’ together online. An author who had to make remote changes to her book cover concepts to send to her publisher. They asked. We delivered.
Here’s how it works:
- Tap the collaboration button on any document and share the link with who you want to collaborate with
- You’ll get notifications when someone is editing
- You can use FaceTime picture-in-picture so you can chat while you collaborate
- For bigger groups, you can broadcast your collaboration via Zoom
Vertical Documents
From the time when we first released Flow we’ve had requests for vertical documents. The infinite canvas is often lauded as a favourite feature and now you can now scroll top-to-bottom, or side-to-side. Choose your own adventure.
Pencil Case
Our goal with Flow is to help our users achieve total creative immersion — something that is getting harder and harder to achieve in the digital age. We want Flow to disappear when you’re using it, so we invented Pencil Case mode to give you the ability to move your tools away from your iPad screen entirely and put them on your iPhone.
In a nutshell, it gives you an even blanker, blank canvas. So you can really immerse yourself in your work, without the clutter of tools on your screen.
How does it work?
You simply place your iPad and iPhone side by side, open Flow on both of them and through magic (or rather some very clever coding) your tools are teleported to your iPhone.
Images
We had so many people asking for images and it takes Flow to the next level. Our customers wanted to upload photos of their living rooms so they could mock up furniture. They wanted to grab screenshots of potential book cover art so they can make easy corrections. They wanted to plot maps so they could easily plan travel routes. There are endless creative possibilities with images in Flow.
Here’s what you can do:
- Add images to your document from Photo Library or Files (including iCloud, Dropbox, Adobe Creative Cloud, Box, OneDrive, Google Drive, Amazon)
- Take photos directly in Flow and then draw on top of them
- Paste images from your clipboard, even from your other devices like Mac using Universal Clipboard
- Drag and drop to grab images from other apps
- Use the Lasso Knife tool for rotating, resizing and moving your image
- Duplicate images to save you from adding the image again
- Change the opacity by using the long press menu
Also in Flow 2
All new sync engine — Performance and stability are better than ever thanks to our all new sync engine, built from the ground up.
Flow on iPhone now opens documents in read-only mode so it’s easier to navigate without accidentally drawing. Tap and hold the pen icon to open your tools.
Clipboard — copy lasso selections to your clipboard and paste into other Flow documents. If you have universal clipboard enabled, you can paste an image directly onto your Mac or other iOS/iPadOS device in any app.
Download Flow 2 here or the whole Moleskine Studio including Actions and Timepage here.
If you want to read up on all the nitty-gritty, check out the Flow User Guides.
Hearing about all the ways you use Flow is inspiring — if you’ve made something you’d like to share with our team or have any questions — let us know!
