At WWDC 2022, Apple's Craig Federighi introduced a new form of collaboration that is integrated directly into Messages and Facetime. It lets you easily work with a number of other users in an original document. This integration is built right into the share sheet and works with a number of apps.

Everybody in

According to Federighi, collaboration usually starts in Messages. If you're working on an off-site adventure plan, you might have different people that all want to work on the same document. In the past, when you shared a document, you were sharing a copy and everyone would have their own work. Now, with collaboration, you can share the original document with the group and they can all work together on it. This group functionality works in Files, Keynote, Numbers, Pages, Notes, Reminders, and Safari. Apple will also allow third-party applications to take advantage too. Notifications of changes being made are sent to the top of Messages so you can keep track of what's happening.

In Safari, you can share a tab group, so people can all look at the tabs at the same time. Plus, you can see in real-time who is looking at what tab or who is making additions to documents. As new tabs are added, they automatically sync with the entire group.

Sharing is caring

Collaboration can be kicked off through Facetime or Messages as part of the share sheet. When you open a document's share sheet during an active Facetime call, you'll get the option to Collaborate.

Apple also offered a sneak preview of a new app called Freeform, which is basically a collaborative whiteboard. It offers the versatility of the tools offered in Notes, but all collaborators can use them. The drawing space can be expanded as needed by scrolling around, and you can use pinch-to-zoom to zero in on areas for more detail. The new app is coming later this year.