Coming soon: Balsamiq Wireframes

Hello friends of Balsamiq!

After more than two years of development, the big day has finally come: we are finally ready to announce the next generation of our product.

Coming very soon: Balsamiq Wireframes

Balsamiq Wireframes is a complete rewrite of the Balsamiq Mockups editor.

It is built in Javascript and runs natively in the browser. Bye bye Flash, you've been great for us... but it's time to move on.

The new name: Mockups → Wireframes

When I first launched Balsamiq in 2008, I called our wireframing tool Balsamiq Mockups, because, let's face it, I didn't know what I was doing.

I was still relatively new to the field of UX, and didn't know the difference between Wireframes (what our product helps you design) and Mockups (high-fidelity 'comps' of screens).

It's been over 9 years, and we've learned a lot in the process.

This rewrite was such a major undertaking that we decided to celebrate it by giving the new version the name it should have had from the beginning: Balsamiq Wireframes.

So instead of Balsamiq Mockups 4, you can expect to see Balsamiq Wireframes for Mac, Windows, Google Drive, Confluence, JIRA, and to see it included as part of the upcoming Balsamiq Cloud, our new web app.

What's new in Balsamiq Wireframes

The biggest change is that it no longer uses the Flash Player. We rebuilt it from the ground up to run natively in the browser, but also to let us use a vast majority of the codebase for the upcoming desktop and tablet version as well. Stay tuned for more details on this in the future.

Since it's based on modern technologies, and since we've learned a lot since 2008, Balsamiq Wireframes is really fast. Much much faster than Balsamiq Mockups 3, even on complex wireframes.

We have added a number of new preconfigured Material Design controls to make it easier to build Android applications, and have integrated the new Wireframes To Go in the editor.

So if you need extra controls, you can now import them into your projects from our community-contributed site, with just a few clicks.

Now that we're no longer constrained by Flash, we were also able to increase the canvas size by 400%, a highly requested feature.

We also use vectors everywhere, so controls resize beautifully and exported PDFs are in high-definition, and the text in them is selectable (another common request).

The most important new features are all centered around collaboration. We now have both 'editor' and 'reviewer' roles, built-in threaded comments (with callouts!), real-time co-editing and even a little built-in chat window. Collaborating on your low-fidelity wireframes is SO smooth in Balsamiq Wireframes.

If you are using one of our v2-based products like myBalsamiq or Balsamiq Mockups for Confluence Server or JIRA Server, you will also enjoy all the goodness we shipped in Balsamiq Mockups 3: the new panels UI, better management of Assets, easier Symbols editing, the Trash Bin, built-in Alternates, the ability to choose a font for the whole project, project description and wireframe notes, the quick draw and transform features, wireframe hierarchy, background music to help you focus, and lots more.

Balsamiq Wireframes uses the same BMPR file format as Balsamiq Mockups 3, so your team will be able to update gradually, at your convenience.

The roadmap

We are going to ship products that include Balsamiq Wireframes in rapid succession over the next few weeks.

Very soon, you will see Balsamiq Wireframes for Confluence Server and Balsamiq Wireframes for JIRA Server, followed closely by Balsamiq Wireframes for Google Drive.

A few weeks after that, Wireframes will be included in the release of Balsamiq Cloud, our new subscription web app.

After that, we'll release Balsamiq Wireframes for Confluence Cloud and for JIRA Cloud.

In the meantime, we are hard at work bringing Balsamiq Wireframes to the Desktop (macOS and Windows). We expect those versions to come out in 2018.

We'll also start working on tablet versions soon. It's all VERY exciting. 😃