Beam is designed for touch (finger) input, so a stylus is optional. A stylus can add precision and ease of use, and the features available depend on the stylus type.
Active stylus (contains a battery and internal components): Apple Pencil (all models) is currently the only supported active stylus. By default, Beam is set to Annotate Immediately when an Apple Pencil is connected, so you can annotate by drawing on the screen without switching to annotation mode. To restrict annotation to the Apple Pencil, tap the
touch annotation button to turn off finger annotation. Your finger then controls navigation only.Passive stylus (no battery or internal components; mimics finger input): Any passive stylus can be used in place of a finger. Because it mimics touch,
touch annotation must stay enabled to annotate with it. Annotate Immediately isn't supported for passive styluses.