Whiteboard diagrams to text — arrows, boxes, and all.
BoardSnap reads whiteboard diagrams — flowcharts, system architecture sketches, process maps, org charts — and converts them into structured text descriptions and summaries. Not just the labels, but the relationships the diagram was drawn to show.
Why diagrams are harder to convert than lists
A list of items on a whiteboard is relatively easy to convert to text — OCR reads the words, and order follows left-to-right, top-to-bottom.
A diagram is different. The same word in a circle means something different from the same word in a box. An arrow between two items carries information — direction, dependency, sequence, cause-and-effect — that pure text recognition can't detect.
Diagrams are a language on top of words. Converting them to useful text requires reading both layers.
How BoardSnap reads diagram structure
BoardSnap AI uses positional metadata from VisionKit's OCR output to infer relationships between elements. It identifies:
- Enclosed shapes — boxes and circles as entities or states
- Connecting lines and arrows — as relationships with directionality
- Labels on connectors — as descriptions of the relationship type
- Hierarchical spacing — indentation and size as indicators of level
- Grouping — proximity as implicit clustering
From these signals, the AI constructs a description of the diagram's meaning — not a recreation of the diagram, but a clear prose or structured-list description of what it shows.
Types of diagrams BoardSnap handles
Flowcharts: Decision trees, process flows, approval chains. BoardSnap describes the path and the decision points.
System architecture sketches: Boxes for services, arrows for data flow, labels for APIs and databases. BoardSnap produces a structured description of the architecture.
Org charts and stakeholder maps: Hierarchy and reporting relationships. BoardSnap extracts the structure and lists relationships.
Entity relationship diagrams: Tables, keys, and relationship lines. BoardSnap reads the entities and the relationships between them.
User journey maps: Stages, touchpoints, pain points, and opportunities. BoardSnap extracts each stage and its associated notes.
The output: description plus action items
A diagram description alone is useful for documentation. What makes BoardSnap more than a diagram reader is what it does after the description.
BoardSnap AI scans the diagram for action items embedded in its content — open decisions, missing connections, items flagged with question marks, boxes labeled "TBD" or "to confirm." These become action items in the summary.
An architecture diagram with a "TBD: auth strategy" box produces an action item: "Define auth strategy." A flowchart with a branching path labeled "pending review" produces an action item: "Get approval for [branch]."
Diagram context across a project
Architecture evolves. The diagram from kickoff looks different from the diagram three months later. Without a record of how it changed, the team loses the reasoning behind the current design.
Boards in a BoardSnap Project preserve the evolution of a diagram. Snap the architecture board at each major revision. The Project holds the complete history — each board with its summary, its action items, and the original image.
When someone asks "why did we move from a monolith to microservices" — the answer is in the Project.
- Each board snapshot is a point-in-time record of the diagram
- AI chat across the Project lets you query the diagram's history
- Action items from diagram reviews are tracked alongside the visual record
- Brand context ensures the description uses your system's actual terminology
Frequently asked
Can BoardSnap reproduce a diagram as a digital diagram?
No. BoardSnap converts diagram content to structured text and summaries, not to a digital diagram format (Mermaid, draw.io, Lucidchart). If you need a digital diagram, you'd use BoardSnap's text output as source material to create it. Diagram export is on the long-term roadmap.
How does BoardSnap handle very complex multi-layer diagrams?
Complex diagrams with many overlapping elements may produce summaries with some structural uncertainty. The AI notes where it inferred relationships rather than read explicit labels. Very complex diagrams benefit from multiple snaps at different zoom levels.
Can BoardSnap read Miro or FigJam screenshots?
Yes. Import any image from your Camera Roll or share directly from another app. The OCR and AI analysis apply to any image, not just photos taken within BoardSnap.
Does BoardSnap work for UML diagrams?
Yes, with caveats. Simple UML sequence diagrams and class diagrams are readable. Complex UML with dense notation may have lower accuracy on specific notation symbols, but the overall structure and entity relationships extract well.
What if the diagram has no text labels at all?
Diagrams with no text labels are hard to summarize — BoardSnap AI describes the visual structure it inferred, but without labels it can't name the entities or relationships. Most useful whiteboard diagrams have at least some text.
Your diagrams contain decisions. Get them into text.
Download BoardSnap. Snap your next architecture sketch or flowchart and see what the AI extracts.