Exemplary embodiments relate to techniques for creating drawings in communications applications. When the system registers a sustained haptic contact signal, further contacts may generate drawings to be overlaid onto a message thread. While the contact is sustained, each swipe may create a new stroke that is transmitted on a real-time data channel. A new layer may be defined over the messages, having its own coordinate system. The drawing may be recreated on the recipient client by drawing the strokes on the new layer. Each participant may see the drawing displayed over their message thread. The drawing may scroll with the messages, or may be displayed in the same place on the screen until cleared by some action from the sender or recipient.