Vani by Zoho — The Visual Collaboration Platform
In the modern remote-first era, teams juggle dozens of tools: video calls, chat apps, design boards, file sharing, whiteboards, and more. All that friction interrupts creative flow, context gets lost, and switching between apps drains time.
Enter Vani — Zoho’s bold step into the visual collaboration space. Positioned as an “infinite canvas” for teams to brainstorm, annotate, plan, and meet — all in one place — Vani aims to simplify how ideas emerge, evolve, and reach execution. Zoho, already deeply embedded in business productivity (CRM, Office Suite, Workspace, etc.), is leveraging its ecosystem to push Vani as a serious contender in the collaboration tool space. With so many tools vying for attention, Vani’s success depends on whether it can unify rather than fragment workflows.
In this long-form piece we’ll dig into what Vani is, how it works, why it’s promising (and where it may fall short), who it’s for, and what the future might hold.
What Is Vani? A Visual Collaboration Platform
At its core, Vani is a visual collaboration platform that gives teams an infinite canvas to create, meet, and execute together. Each “Space” in Vani is a large canvas where you can drop sticky notes, diagrams, images, shapes, connectors and more — build as large or as small as needed.
Vani includes templates and kits for product, marketing and design teams; live collaboration with cursors and comments; in-space video meetings called “Catchups”; version history and export options; and integrations with multiple apps — all aimed at reducing context switching.
Quick at-a-glance:
- Infinite canvas with sticky notes, shapes and connectors.
- In-space Catchup video meetings and voice notes for synchronous/asynchronous collaboration.
- Templates & kits for workshops, roadmaps, campaigns.
- Integrations with Zoho apps, Google, Figma and more.
Learn more: Vani official site.
Key Features & Capabilities
Infinite Canvas & Visual Tools
Draw flows, group sticky notes, create connectors, embed images and wireframes — Vani provides flexible primitives for visual thinking.
In-Canvas Catchups
Host video meetings inside the same Space so discussion and visuals happen together — no tab-hopping required.
Templates & Kits
Ready-made kits for workshops, product roadmaps, marketing campaigns and more help teams get started fast.
Integrations & Automation
Embed Google Docs, Figma, YouTube and connect with Zoho Flow to trigger automations (e.g., card moved → notify Slack).
Advanced capabilities
- Version history: Revert to previous states and track changes.
- Export: Download boards as PNG/PDF or export organized presentations.
- Sharing controls: Passwords, expirations, and role-based access for external stakeholders.
Why Vani Matters
Many organizations suffer from tool sprawl: Zoom for calls, Miro for whiteboarding, Figma for design, and a dozen other apps for documents or project tracking. Vani’s value proposition is to reduce that friction by keeping ideation, conversation, and artifacts in a single, shareable Space.
- Reduce context switching: Work and meet in the same Space.
- Faster handoffs: Export annotated boards with notes for designers or vendors.
- Better alignment: Templates and shared canvases minimize ambiguity across teams.
Practical Workflow & Onboarding Tips
Adopt Vani more smoothly by following simple practices:
- Run a pilot: Start with one team or project to build familiarity.
- Use kits: Leverage templates for workshops and roadmaps to save time.
- Embed docs up front: Place key references and files in the Space so reviews happen in context.
- Encourage live Catchups: Replace separate meetings + whiteboarding sessions with in-space meetings to preserve context.
These steps help teams move from experimentation to productive use more quickly.
Use Cases: Who Benefits from Vani
Product & Design
Sketch flows, share wireframes, and get real-time feedback while discussing changes in the same Space.
Marketing & Campaigns
Plan campaign timelines, gather creative assets, and annotate mockups before sending to production.
Workshops & Training
Run interactive workshops with sticky notes, voting, and synthesis — all on the same canvas.
Education & Remote Learning
Create interactive lessons, timelines, and visual study aids that students can engage with live or asynchronously.
Story: A Product Team's Day with Vani
Imagine a product kickoff where the roadmap, user flows, design sketches and stakeholder notes all occupy the same Space. The team runs a 30-minute Catchup inside the board, moves items into priority lanes, adds notes for the engineering lead, and exports the snapshot for the PRD — all without hopping between apps. That’s the kind of seamless flow Vani tries to enable.
In practice, this reduces friction and keeps decision context intact — which boosts speed and clarity.
Vani vs Competitors & Limitations
Vani blends features of Miro, Figma whiteboards, and collaborative docs — but faces classic product challenges: performance at scale, mobile editing smoothness, and convincing teams to switch from established workflows.
- Performance: Very large boards can slow down; Vani needs smart loading strategies.
- Mobile/Offline: Canvas editing on phones/tablets and offline support remain hard to perfect.
- Adoption: Teams entrenched in other tools may be slow to migrate.
- Enterprise readiness: Security, compliance, and governance features must keep pace for wider enterprise uptake.
These are solvable with focused product work, but they determine whether Vani becomes a niche play or a platform staple.
Privacy, Ethics & Best Practices
When using collaborative visual tools, consider these responsible-use guidelines:
- Protect sensitive assets: Avoid uploading private or regulated data without necessary controls.
- Attribution: Track sources and prompts for generated or borrowed assets.
- Inclusive prompts: When using AI-assist features, watch for biased or exclusionary outputs.
- Human review: Always include a human-in-the-loop for final decisions based on board outputs.
Following these practices will keep collaboration productive and responsible.
SEO, Export & Collaboration Strategies
Make Vani boards useful beyond the canvas with these tips:
- Descriptive filenames: Exported images should use SEO-friendly names and alt text for web publishing (e.g.,
vani-product-roadmap-canvas.png). - Metadata & notes: Keep a short README area in your board that explains structure and ownership.
- Archive milestones: Export snapshots after key phases to preserve decisions and rationale.
These small steps help with discoverability and future audits.
Resources, Templates & Complementary Tools
Pair Vani with these tools and resources for maximum effect:
- Asset libraries (Unsplash, Pexels) for photography references.
- Design handoff tools (Figma, Zeplin) for implementation-ready assets.
- Automation (Zoho Flow) to trigger actions from board changes.
These complements make Vani outputs more production-ready.
Frequently Asked Questions
Future Outlook & What To Expect
Here’s what we might expect Vani to evolve into as it matures:
- Deeper AI assistance: Layout suggestions, summaries, auto-organization and possible image generation to speed ideation.
- Real-time scaling: Improvements so dozens of users can collaborate fluidly without performance drops.
- Offline & mobile parity: Better editing on tablets/phones and offline caching for sketching without connectivity.
- Tighter Zoho ecosystem weaving: Actions in Vani could trigger workflows in Zoho CRM, Projects or Analytics automatically.
- Enterprise governance: SSO, audit logs, data residency and compliance certifications for wider enterprise adoption.
- Marketplace & templates: A community marketplace of templates, kits, and industry-specific boards.
If Vani hits these marks, it could become a central hub for visual collaboration inside many businesses — particularly those already using Zoho’s suite.
Conclusion
Vani by Zoho isn’t just another collaboration tool — it’s Zoho’s approach to bridging idea generation and execution. By embedding video, annotations, media, templates and automation into one canvas, Vani aims to keep creativity fluid and organized. For teams already inside the Zoho ecosystem, Vani holds substantial promise: reduced friction, better alignment, and more productive visual collaboration. But success will hinge on performance, adoption, and continued investment in enterprise-grade governance.
Curious? Try Vani’s free tier and pilot a visual workflow with a small team — test how it changes your ideation-to-execution loop.
Sources & Further Reading
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