Revu for iPad to Bluebeam Mobile 📲

Transitioning from Revu for iPad to Bluebeam Mobile

Bluebeam is evolving how teams access drawings, perform markups, collaborate, and manage Studio Sessions & Projects. As part of this evolution, Revu for iPad was officially retired and removed from the App Store on December 31, 2025. It is no longer supported or available for download, making a transition unavoidable for most teams.

If you relied on Revu for iPad to review drawings, add markups, or collaborate away from your desk, this guide will help you understand what’s changed, what to use now, and how to adjust your workflow with minimal disruption. This isn’t about matching every feature, it’s about continuing to get work done the same way you did before, using the right Bluebeam tool for where the work happens.

What’s Changed

Revu for iPad is no longer available or supported. Instead of a single iPad app that tried to do everything, Bluebeam now offers:

Bluebeam Mobile for work away from a desk
Bluebeam Web for desk-based access when Revu isn’t available
Revu (desktop) for full document setup and administration

Each plays a different role.

The New Mental Model

Think about your workflow in terms of where you’re working, not which features you’re looking for.

Desk

This is where documents are prepared and managed.

Creating and administering Studio Sessions and Projects
Organizing files
Advanced markup and toolset work

Tools: Revu (desktop) or Bluebeam Web

Field

This is where information is consumed, updated, and captured.

Opening drawings on site
Adding markups
Filling out forms
Reviewing changes
Working offline or with unreliable connectivity

Tool: Bluebeam Mobile

What to Use Instead of Revu for iPad

If you’re working in the field

Use Bluebeam Mobile.

With Mobile, you can:

Open PDFs on your phone or tablet
Collaborate in Studio Sessions and Projects you’ve been invited to
Add and edit markups in Sessions (live), Projects, and local files
Check out Project files and fill out forms
Work from files stored on your device or managed by your team’s storage system

This supports both structured Studio workflows and teams that manage files through an existing document system.

If you’re at a desk without Revu

Use Bluebeam Web.

Web is best when:

You’re on a laptop or desktop
Revu isn’t installed or accessible
You need to review files, collaborate, or manage Sessions and Projects from a browser

Bluebeam Web fills the gap when Revu isn’t available. It’s not meant to replace field workflows.

How File Management Works

Teams manage files in different ways, and Bluebeam Mobile is designed to work with those realities instead of forcing a single storage model.

For many teams, Studio Sessions and Projects are the system of record. Files are prepared at the desk, shared through Studio, and accessed from mobile in the field.

For others, a third-party storage system is the source of truth. In those cases:

The storage app handles upload, download, and sharing
Bluebeam Mobile opens those files for markup and review
Updates flow back through the same storage system

Mobile supports both approaches without requiring custom integrations. This lets Bluebeam stay focused on construction-specific workflows while remaining storage-agnostic.

Working Offline

Bluebeam Mobile is built to be offline first.

Files can be opened directly from your device
No upload step is required to start working
Changes are saved locally and sync when connectivity returns
Choose Project files to keep available and up to date before going offline

This mirrors how many teams used Revu for iPad and is critical for jobsite conditions.

Document Tasks Beyond Mobile Workflows

Some document tasks aren’t available in Bluebeam’s mobile apps today:

Structural document editing (add, remove, rotate, reorder pages, page labels)
Tool set creation, curation, and standards management
Batch processing across large drawing sets
Complex takeoffs and summary reports
Admin-level setup and configuration

We started with field workflows first. That means prioritizing reliable file access, construction markups, and collaboration on mobile. Advanced document preparation and administrative tasks continue to live on desktop and web, where they’re better suited.

Getting Started

Set up or sign in with your Bluebeam ID (BBID)
Install Bluebeam Mobile
Open files from Studio, your device, or your team’s storage app
Use the desk for preparation and setup, and mobile for execution in the field

Need Help?

We know transitions like this can impact real workflows.

Use the Community to:

Ask questions about Web or Mobile
Share tips for replacing Revu for iPad workflows
Learn how other teams are adapting
Get guidance from experienced users and Bluebeam staff

If you’re stuck or unsure where to start, post your question in the forum. We’re here to help!

Putting It All Together

Revu for iPad attempted to serve as both a desk and field tool. With the transition to Bluebeam Web and Mobile, those roles are now more clearly defined. Web and desktop handle preparation and coordination, while Bluebeam Mobile is designed specifically for field work.

Whether your team uses Studio, an existing storage system, or both, these tools enable the same core workflows as before, with clearer roles, a field-ready experience, and more flexible collaboration for distributed teams.

This guide will continue to evolve as Bluebeam Web and Mobile improve, including workflows in the comments below, so check back for updates and community-shared best practices.

Find more posts tagged with

Revu

Mobile

Comments

Marco M

Common Revu for iPad Workflows

Field Markups

If you used Revu for iPad for:

Opening drawings & documents on site
Adding quick markups or notes
Working offline when needed

What to do now:

Open drawings in Bluebeam Mobile before or during your site visit, using files from Studio Projects, Studio Sessions, or your local device.
Add markups and notes directly in Bluebeam Mobile while you’re on site.
Work offline as needed, with changes syncing when you reconnect.
Review, refine, and report on markups later from Bluebeam Revu on desktop.

This reflects a shift toward capturing information in the field and handling more detailed review or reporting back at the desk, which is how Bluebeam Mobile and Revu are designed to work together.

Design Review

If you used Revu for iPad for:

Reviewing drawings and documents away from your desk
Adding comments during internal or external reviews
Participating in live review sessions

What to do now:

Use Bluebeam Web for design reviews when you’re at a desk or on a laptop without Revu installed.
Use Bluebeam Mobile for design reviews when you’re away from a desk or on a jobsite.
Join the Studio Session from Bluebeam Web or Mobile to review drawings and add comments alongside other reviewers.
Use desktop Revu for setting up Sessions, managing revu standards, handling more complex markup tasks, and reporting from the Markups List.

It’s normal to move between Web, Mobile, and desktop Revu during a design review, depending on where you’re working and the level of detail needed.

Field Issues & Punch Listing

If you used Revu for iPad for:

Capturing field issue during jobsite walks
Marking up drawings to create punch list items
Following up on open or incomplete items

What to do now:

Use Bluebeam Mobile to open drawings and capture field issues directly on site
Add markups or notes on the drawing to document punch items and observations
Add photos as needed to provide additional context while you’re in the field.
Review, track, and report on field issues, site observations, or punch list items later in Bluebeam Revu as part of the coordination workflow.

Many teams focus on capturing clear, accurate information in the field, then rely on desktop Revu for follow-up, tracking, and reporting once they’re back at the desk.

Steve Schultz

Hi Marco - great article. Is Bluebeam Mobile synonymous with "Bluebeam Cloud" available in the App Store? The icon after installing the app just shows the name Bluebeam!

Ken Phelps

Short answer, Steve. Yes!

I believe the app name in the store is still called Bluebeam Cloud (for now). But cloud / mobile are fairly interchangable.

James Schmidt

Yikes! I shared @Marco M's post with a colleague and told them I would be checking it out and I quickly received a reply that was surprisingly negative.

"Thank you, unfortunately, the new Bluebeam mobile or cloud system is an absolute…"{Insert Colorful language here}. "And I do not say that lightly. Bluebeam has immortalized the term FUBAR! They traded a fantastic product in for one that doesn’t even work as well as a cheesy, no-name app. As you can tell, I am not happy with Bluebeam's decision to move away from Bluebeam Revu for iPad.

We are working on a solution. So far, I have not liked the solutions found. I am still working on it. I think in the long run, this Bluebeam will lose market share. I hope, for their sake, that it does not irreparably damage them.

Just saying!"

Wow! This is not what I would have expected from something that Bluebeam released.

Is there a reason why the new version is so different and lacking in functionality comparatively? Is this related to money / subscriptions? I know the Revu for iPad was a one time fee for downloading the App originally.

I really want to find a way to make this work for our team, as we have trained our crews to use the older REVU for iPad version and things were going so smoothly.

Any insight would be great!

Thanks,

Shawn Dawson

@James Schmidt, an honest question: when was the last time you or your colleague logged into the Bluebeam Cloud iOS app?

We shipped measurements just a couple of weeks ago, and we’re delivering updates every month. The app is changing quickly. That doesn’t mean every workflow is covered yet, but it does mean the situation isn’t static.

If there’s a specific workflow that’s missing or broken for your team, that’s the conversation worth having. Writing the entire app off as “FUBAR” doesn’t help us understand what problem you’re actually trying to solve.

Revu for iPad was the real dead end. The pricing model wasn’t sustainable, it only worked on iPads, and the underlying technology couldn’t extend to iPhone or Android. It also struggled with performance and usability on large files, which we consistently heard from field users. Rebuilding it feature-for-feature would have locked us back into the same limitations instead of letting us build shared, cross-platform technology step by step.

So let’s move forward. What solution are you looking for, and what does a successful field workflow look like for your team today?

Best,

Shawn Dawson
Staff Product Manager
Bluebeam

Matias Leinikka

I want to add some concrete context here, since not everyone reading this may be aware of the timelines involved.

Revu for iOS has not received a major version update in approximately 12 years. While it remained available for a long time, its functionality and overall scope have largely remained unchanged since around 2014.

Bluebeam Cloud, introduced in 2022, has now existed for roughly four years. During that time, it has not evolved into a fully capable replacement for the mobile workflows previously supported by Revu for iOS. When a new product is introduced as a successor, it is generally expected to meet or exceed the capabilities of what it replaces. In this case, that expectation has not been met.

This context matters now that Revu for iOS has been retired and users are directed toward Cloud and Mobile as alternatives. The current situation is not the result of a sudden transition, but of long-term underinvestment in the mobile platform combined with a slow maturation of its replacement.

While it is understandable that product focus shifts over time, this has placed many users in a difficult position, particularly those who work exclusively in the field.

These users are not desk-based, not managers, and often not PC users at all. They are technicians, installers, electricians, and commissioning engineers working on construction sites every day. For them, a desktop license is not a practical substitute, and browser-based tools do not align with the realities of field work.

This feedback has been raised for years. Given the timelines above, it is reasonable to ask whether field-only users are considered a core part of Bluebeam’s intended customer base going forward.

If field-only users had been a primary focus, we would likely already see functionality for creating and managing templates for control plans, commissioning protocols, checklists, and similar field documentation, with results that can be presented clearly and professionally to supervisors and clients.

gabriellevyils

When will custom toolboxes be available? This app is useless to my team until we can import special symbols into drawings.

James Schmidt

Thanks for the reply.
I'll discuss this with the team and come up with some specifics and get back to you.

I find it hard to believe that the newest version can't do what the old one could do but that's what I'm being informed of.

I'll reach out mid week next week and offer some specifics.

Thanks,

OGSTMorse

Thank You Matias for explaining some of the issues I've experienced throughout recent use of Bluebeam on ios devices. First of all as of today 02/07/26, I do not see "Bluebeam Mobile" available on the ios app store. I only see "Bluebeam Cloud" of which I have installed and use ocasionaly in favor of marking up drawings using pdf's opened in the ios "Files" app. It would be more efficient for me to mark up drawings I have stored on my Bluebeam Revu desktop program but there are too many bugs in the current "Bluebeam Cloud" app for me to deal with in the field. I believe in order to be efficient with each of the different needs of the user, there needs to be a few different apps designed for a few different user needs. The app I would benefit from would be simple mark-ups while using the pen/stylus initiated from a simple customizable side bar containing color options and basic cloud and text options. I think someone performing a (for instance) complete material review should be using a different app or the desktop program. Let's face it, it's very unlikely that the app user will be able to perform everything on a mobile device that the user can by using the desktop version. One simplified app can't be everything for everybody, and the Bluebeam app developers should stop trying to accomplish that, and focus on different apps for use by different user requirements.

OGSTMorse

Follow-up; after posting previous comment, I gave Bluebeam cloud another chance. The mark-up options are simple enough for my purposes. There was not a problem with "checking-out" but a big problem with "checking-in". The newly marked up drawing did not update on the desktop version. As a matter of fact, the document was still "checked-out" and I couldn't open it without losing the mark-ups that were made on the ios device. I was properly connected to wifi with a solid connection, waited until the arrowed circle dissapeared and signed off. I then turned on my laptop and signed into the Blubeam Revu desktop on my laptop and seen it was still "checked out". There seems to be an updating issue with the app on ios. It's just a thought.

Shawn Dawson

Hi @gabriellevyils, BTX importing will be available sometime in late H1 2026.

Best,

Shawn Dawson
Staff Product Manager
Bluebeam

Shawn Dawson

Hi @OGSTMorse,

Thanks for the detailed follow-up. You’re right that mobile will never be a 1:1 replacement for Revu, and we’re not trying to make it everything for everyone.

Right now, our priority is a very specific workflow: field and office teams collaborating on the same files, with reliable access, markups, measurements, and syncing back while you’re away from your desk. That assumes files are prepared ahead of time. Support for users starting from unprepared files is planned longer term, beyond 2027.

Revu remains the best place for setup, standards, and heavier review work today. Making Revu optional in more workflows is a multi-year effort.

On the check-in issue you described: once sync completes, the file should check in and the revision should be available in Revu. If it remains checked out, that’s not expected and indicates a sync failure we want to investigate. Please contact support@bluebeam.com with file size, project type, device model, and iOS version so we can dig in.

We appreciate the candid feedback. It’s helping us focus on making field workflows boring, predictable, and dependable.

Best,

Shawn Dawson
Staff Product Manager
Bluebeam

Nedywest

@ Shawn While I see your point about the future we the customers deserve better now. So do the right thing and bring back the old Revu app for iPad with the functionalities it got for Years and many field engineers like me were a custom to and happy to use on Daily basis till you prepare a proper replacement in the future. Nobody asked so far for an updates on the old app but have it back as it was. Then you work on new alternatives as long as you like. Why you cut us off. What is the cost for you as to keep the old app working till you get better on and was the annual subscription cost not covering the maintenance cost of an app no longer receives an updates that you desired to just scrapped it. You are losing customers. I am seriously exploring alternatives and if you do not do soon something for an iPad users and improve the experience on the iPad I will move soon. Once I move on with else I will not come back to you on the PC front and as you are not on Mac OS you will be easily forgotten. One customer less very soon. P.S. And I was looking forward your new MAX tier! No longer. Thank you!

Shawn Dawson

@Nedywest ,

We’ve communicated this transition for quite some time across the App Store, Community, and in-app messaging. This wasn’t a sudden change.

Revu for iPad had been end-of-development for years before it was removed from sale. It could not continue to meet Apple’s platform requirements or modern security standards.

If you previously purchased it, it remains available in your Apple purchase history to reinstall.

We’re focused on building the next-generation mobile experience. If there are specific field workflows you feel are blocking you today, share them. That’s what helps us prioritize.

Best,

Shawn Dawson
Staff Product Manager
Bluebeam

Nedywest

I thought it was communicated that the old will go by new is on the way to replace or at least that how I got it. As for the App Store change of requirements stuff I was not aware of so it make sense why it had to be removed. But the main bitterness still exist as the new Bluebeam Cloud / Mobile should have been ready by the time of shot down of the old which is not the case at the moment. Previously Revu was my main go for anything drawings on my iPad, and now I had to start using PDF Expert for same on the go / field work. As I previously said, it will be just a matter of time when I gonna get use to it and adapt and you going to loose me as customer.

Please harry up with the mobile app of Revu especially for iPad as most of the field engineers use this device while on the go.