Microsoft Teams Annotate Issues Across Desktop, Web, and Mobile Participants

Question

Hello,

I am using the Microsoft Teams desktop app on Windows and experiencing several issues with the Annotate feature during meetings.

These issues occur when I share either my entire screen or an individual application window and then enable Annotate.

The behavior varies depending on the platform used by meeting participants:

1. Participants using the Microsoft Teams desktop app on Windows

There are no issues. The Annotate feature works as expected for both me and the participants. Annotations appear in the correct positions and are displayed consistently across our screens.

2. Participants using Microsoft Teams in a web browser

Participants cannot see or use the Annotate feature at all. They cannot see the annotations I make, nor can they create their own annotations.

3. Participants using the Microsoft Teams mobile app

The Annotate feature is available, but several serious issues occur:

Misaligned annotations: When I circle a word in a shared PDF, the circle appears in a completely different position on the participant's phone screen. The same issue occurs in reverse: when a participant circles a word, the annotation appears in different positions on their screen and mine.

Annotations move and change size unexpectedly: When I move my mouse, all the annotations I have made appear to move along with the cursor on the participant's phone screen. They also automatically zoom in and out, making it difficult to follow the content accurately.

Collaborative cursors remain visible: Even after I disable the "Collaborative cursors" option, participants using the mobile app can still see the cursors and names of other meeting participants.

These issues significantly affect the meeting experience, especially when I use Teams for online teaching and need to highlight specific words or passages in PDF documents.

I have already tried the troubleshooting steps suggested in the following Microsoft Q&A discussion, but unfortunately, none of them resolved the issues:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5789579/screen-annotations-appear-misaligned-for-presenter

Could you please help me investigate these issues and advise me on how to resolve them?

In particular, I would appreciate clarification on the following questions:

1. Are these known limitations or bugs in Microsoft Teams?
2. Is there a workaround or a configuration that would allow annotations to work correctly across desktop, web, and mobile platforms?
3. If these are software bugs, is Microsoft aware of them, and is a fix planned for a future release?

I hope Microsoft can investigate these issues and provide a solution as soon as possible, as the Annotate feature is an important tool for online teaching and collaboration.

Thank you for your time and support. I look forward to your response.

Best regards,

Answer 1

Hi @Anh Le

Based on Microsoft’s current documentation, the Annotate feature is documented for the Teams desktop and mobile apps. However, I could not find clear official information confirming whether the same functionality is fully supported or expected to work in the Teams web browser. 

Because the available documentation does not clearly cover the web browser experience, I would not want to incorrectly confirm whether this behavior is an intended limitation or a software issue. In addition, the annotation misalignment, unexpected movement and resizing, and collaborative cursors remaining visible on mobile would require further investigation. 

As you have already tried the troubleshooting steps from the related discussion without success, I recommend asking your Microsoft 365 administrator to open a support request through the Microsoft 365 admin center by selecting Support > Help & Support.

 

A technical support engineer can perform a remote session to investigate the situation, verify the backend configurations, and run any necessary synchronization tools to resolve the problem. If the issue requires further attention, they can escalate it to a specialized team for deeper analysis.            

For more details, please refer to: Get support - Microsoft 365 admin   

To help with the investigation, please include the Teams versions used by all affected participants, their device and operating system details, the browsers tested, and a screen recording showing the annotation differences between desktop and mobile. 

If you’re unsure who the Global Admin is within your organization, you can find guidance on locating them here: How do I find my Microsoft 365 admin?   

Note: If you’re an end-user, please coordinate with your Office 365 Global Administrator to handle these step  

Before submitting the ticket, make sure the Support Assistant is turned Off as several customers have reported that when the Support Assistant is enabled, the Contact Support option may not appear. 

As shown in the screenshot, simply switch Support Assistant > Off, then enter your issue description. Once disabled, scroll down and the Contact Support button should appear, allowing you to submit the ticket normally. 

Please note that I am a fellow community member and do not have access to Microsoft’s internal bug-tracking system or future release information. Therefore, I cannot confirm whether a fix is currently being developed or provide a release date. A support ticket would be the most appropriate next step for investigating this behavior further. 

Answer 2

The mobile coordinate drift, moving or resizing ink, and persistent cursors should be escalated as reproducible Teams defects, while browser participants should be tested against Teams’ client and meeting-policy requirements because complete inability to view an annotation session is not the documented browser limitation.

What is expected and what is not

• Windows desktop: This is the full annotation experience and matches your working scenario.
• Mobile: Android and iOS participants can annotate when the presenter shares from the desktop. Microsoft does not document displaced annotations, cursor-following ink, unexpected zooming, or cursors remaining after the toggle is disabled as expected behavior.^1^
• Web: Browser annotation support is more limited: web participants can participate in an annotation session but cannot start one while sharing their own screen.^2^ Therefore, web users being unable to see or participate in a desktop-started session needs further investigation rather than being attributed solely to the start-session limitation.
• Collaborative cursors: They are enabled by default, but anyone should be able to disable them through Whiteboard toolset → Settings → Collaborative cursors. The setting should apply to that participant’s view.^1^

There is no published Microsoft notice or fix date in the available product documentation for the mobile misalignment, moving/zooming ink, or cursor-toggle behavior. The roadmap item targeting broader participant initiation of annotations does not state that it fixes these rendering defects.^3^

Workarounds for teaching sessions

Until Microsoft Support identifies the defect:

1. Use the Teams desktop client for participants who must place or interpret annotations precisely. Mobile annotation should not be relied on for word-level marking while the coordinate issue is reproducible.
2. Use a shared Microsoft Whiteboard instead of annotating over screen sharing when browser or mobile participation is essential. Whiteboard is simultaneously available through Windows, iOS, and the web app.^4^
3. For reference material, use Save a snapshot from the annotation toolbar. Teams stores the shared image and annotations as a Whiteboard file under Teams → View more apps → Whiteboard → Annotations.^1^

There is no documented client-side setting that corrects mobile annotation coordinates.

Check the web users’ assigned policy

This is relevant only if the affected browser users have organization-managed Teams accounts. An administrator should open:

Teams admin center → Meetings → Meeting policies → affected policy → Content sharing

Confirm that both Whiteboard and Collaborative annotations are enabled. These are per-user policy settings; disabling either removes annotation access.^4^

An administrator can also inspect and update the assigned policy through Teams PowerShell:

Connect-MicrosoftTeams

Get-CsTeamsMeetingPolicy -Identity "<policy-name>" |
    Select-Object Identity, AllowWhiteboard, AllowCollaborativeAnnotations

Set-CsTeamsMeetingPolicy -Identity "<policy-name>" `
    -AllowCollaborativeAnnotations $true

Do not change the policy if the browser users already have both settings enabled; proceed directly to escalation.

Open a support case with reproducible evidence

Since the previously suggested troubleshooting did not resolve the problem, avoid repeating cache resets or reinstalls. Reproduce each client-specific symptom and collect logs immediately afterward:

1. Record the Teams versions, operating systems, mobile models, browser names and versions, and whether participants are internal, guest, external, or anonymous.
2. Use a fixed test page and capture video from both desktop and mobile showing the same annotation at different coordinates.
3. Record the meeting ID and the exact reproduction time, including the time zone.
4. On Windows, press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+1 immediately after reproducing the meeting issue. Teams creates diagnostic files in Downloads. Logs should be collected promptly, and Microsoft Support may request them; log timestamps use UTC.^5^
5. File separate cases for:
   • Web participants unable to view or join desktop-started annotations.
   • Mobile coordinate drift and moving/resizing annotations.
   • Collaborative cursors remaining visible after being disabled.

A Microsoft 365 administrator can open Microsoft 365 admin center → Help & support → Contact Support. If the subscription was purchased through a partner, the partner must initiate support.^6^

Only Microsoft Support can confirm whether these reproductions match an internal known issue and provide any tenant-specific status or engineering fix schedule.

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References

1. Use annotation while sharing your screen in Microsoft Teams
2. Microsoft Teams Public Preview & Targeted Release
3. Microsoft 365 Roadmap - Microsoft Teams: Ability for all participants ...
4. Manage meeting policies for content sharing
5. Collect Teams client diagnostic logs for Microsoft support
6. Get support for Microsoft 365 for business