Jana Stockwell's avatar
Jana Stockwell
Active Contributor
7 months ago
Status:
Investigating

Interactive Drawing Feature is Lost in the New GoTo

The interactive/collaborative drawing feature from the old GoToMeeting is now completely disabled and is sorely missed by our company and our many collaborators worldwide — designers, fabricators, engineers. We cannot have functional conferences without this feature.

Before, multiple participants could draw simultaneously on an image/document shared by the presenter, each in a different pen color. Now only the presenter can draw on the presenter's own screen. It is a tremendous loss for what used to be a standout and unique application!

Please bring this back!

9 Comments

  • KateG's avatar
    KateG
    GoTo Manager
    26 days ago

    Hi MasterSimona

    I appreciate your feedback.  Improvements are coming, it's currently scheduled for release in the second half of the year. Thank you for your patience. I have shared your comments with the team. 

  • MasterSimona's avatar
    MasterSimona
    New Member
    29 days ago

    The new drawing option is not working, the other party are not seeing it, whether I share a document (on which I am drawing) as app or share the whole screen. Further, the current drawing tools are pathetic - I am sorry, after 6 months of GTM non making progress on this issue I am very frustrated - there is only the option of a "brush" where the small size is still huge. I am an architect and interior desigenr, this drawing tool if unusalble for my purpose. I am starting to loose my patience. I have been a costumer for 13 years, but if your app is loosing unique features and repalcing them with run of the mill, why should one stick with you? And Jana was pretty good, and very polite, at summing up the frustration that we are all feeling in this regard. Considering that it has been already 6 months and nothing as changed, perhaps it is time to move on. I do not have the time to play musical apps. If I move on, it'll not be termporarely, it'll be permanent. So I suggest GTM think well and hard if it wants to retain its costumers.

  • I have exactly the same issue.
    The drawing ability and share it with partecipants what one of the *TOP* resason why I loved GoToMeeting. I thought it was brilliant of GTM to have such option, a leg up on everybody else. I was constantly using the old version for that very reason.
    And now it is not there anymore!
    The new version is not efficent at all, it has a brush instead of a line, and the thinner you can make it is still huge. And as just as per 5 min ago, I wasn't able to use it at all because my partecipants were not seen what I was drawing, neither when I shared as app, or as entire screen.
    In addition, the couldn't see my pointer either. I am an architectural and interior design consultant and if these options are disabled, GoToMeeting is useless - mind as well I Facetime instead.
    GTM has eliminated one of the very things that made your product unique and great.
    Please bring it back.

     

  • Jana Stockwell's avatar
    Jana Stockwell
    Active Contributor
    7 months ago

    Thanks so much for your investigation and support Kate. Remote control doesn't solve this issue at all. The presenter needs control of the screen, while the presenter and all participants are enabled to draw collaboratively. Until this last update, we were still able to launch the old GoToMeeting App which enabled these features. We relied on these for hours every day. However, now the old desktop app (orange logo) will not even launch.

    As an art fabrication studio, we cannot properly QC projects via shared photos/diagrams and troubleshoot design changes without the ability to have all participants draw (and select their own pen colors for clarity). What was once a tremendously unique application is now common and indistinguishable from the others. What a huge loss.

    We hope this is reintroduced on a high priority basis before all visual professionals and others who relied on this service seek alternative applications. As our GoTo account administrator, I will be actively seeking alternatives within the week, as we cannot function without this.

     

     

  • KateG's avatar
    KateG
    GoTo Manager
    7 months ago

    RFast thanks for sharing your experience with the drawing tools. 

    Regarding Remote Control, the GoTo App supports remote control and Attendees can request control once the admin on your account enables the feature: How do I use Remote Control? 

  • Jana StockwellWe are in the same boat as you. Our simulation department absolutely relied on the drawing tools for collaboration while working offsite. They are currently (barely) working around this issue by taking screenshots and using the whiteboard feature, but this is obviously extremely cumbersome with 3D parts.

    KateGIt's asinine that GoToMeeting would lose longstanding functionality with a new version, especially since the 'team' has had well over a year to ensure that the new version would be at least functionally equivalent to the old version. Loss of the drawing tools combined with loss of remote control is forcing us to move to a different provider that is willing to actually support their users and their necessary use cases. I'm sure that losing our account will be no big loss to GoTo, but I sincerely hope that other larger account losses will require management to reconsider their commitment to those companies that keep GoTo in the black.

  • KateG's avatar
    KateG
    GoTo Manager
    7 months ago

    Hi Jana Stockwell Welcome to the GoTo Community.

    Currently the active presenter on the desktop app can use drawing tools, but our team is working on improvements to the feature, including allowing attendees to draw on the presenter's screen. We will update the Community as soon as they are available. In the meantime: 

    • You may want to check out Glenn's post here about how to use the Miro whiteboard, for group drawing. 
    • There is also a workaround that you may want to try until the feature is fully available: 
      • The Presenter can choose the Draw options: Size, Color, and Opacity for the attendee and then give the remote control to the attendee to draw on their screen share. 
  • Jana Stockwell's avatar
    Jana Stockwell
    Active Contributor
    7 months ago

    To recap, the unique feature, now lost, is summarized below:

    1. The presenter controls his/her own computer and shares images/docs on sceen (no remote control).
    2. The presenter enables all attendees to draw simultaneously on the images/docs shared, with each attendee using his/her own pen and color choice for clarity.