Google introduced final yr that help for Jamboard gadgets and apps will finish as of Oct. 1, 2024. Google Jamboard delivers easy-to-use collaborative drawing capabilities to individuals who use Google Workspace by a mix of Jamboard apps and a Jamboard gadget. The Jamboard apps can be utilized with out shopping for a Jamboard gadget and work on the net, iOS, iPadOS, and Android gadgets and in Google Meet.
Individuals who use Jamboard gadgets or apps might want to search options. For {hardware} choices, Googleâs announcement really useful both the Collection One Board 65 (priced round $9,000) or the Collection One Desk 27 (priced round $2,000), each by Avocor.
Three software program options â FigJam by Figma, Lucidspark by Lucid Software program, and Miro â have been built-in to work with Collection One gadgets, and import choices for Jamboard content material can be found.
Prime Jamboard opponents and options: Comparability desk
Individuals who use the Jamboard apps, impartial of the Jamboard gadget, could think about a variety of software program options. The next six choices all help visible collaboration and may function appropriate replacements for Jamboard.
FigJam by Figma: Finest for pleasant design
Figma, a collaborative interface design utility firm, launched FigJam (Determine A) in 2021. FigJam helps drawing instruments, shapes, stickers, notes, textual content, connectors, and stamps, together with part and desk administration options. You might also import photographs or insert hyperlinks to net assets, together with shared Google Drive information. Cursor chat allows an ephemeral dialog with collaborators that disappears if you exit the mode, whereas the remark system permits typical feedback on content material anyplace on the board. FigJam gives a couple of extra options than Jamboard, delivered with a cleanly designed consumer interface, as you may count on. Included with these is FigJam AI, a brand new collaboration software that helps groups brainstorm with AI-generated ideas, text-to-image capabilities, and automations.
Determine A
Figmaâs possession deserves point out since Adobe, a artistic content material big, introduced an settlement to accumulate Figma in September 2022; nevertheless, the deal was terminated in December 2023. Whereas possession doesnât straight have an effect on product options, the truth that Figma as soon as sought to merge with a bigger firm could sign a long run potential for acquisition.
| Execs | Cons |
|---|---|
| FigJam app is on the market on the net (and Google Workspace Market) and iPad. |
No devoted FigJam iPhone or Android app. |
| Clear design. | No offline mode. |
| Extra options than Google Jamboard. | |
| Free version is on the market to college students and educators. |
Pricing
Figma gives 4 FigJam pricing plans: Starter, Skilled, Group, and Enterprise.
- Starter, which is free and allows you to create as much as three Figma and three FigJam information, with limitless private information and limitless collaborators, amongst different options.
- Skilled, $5 per full seat per 30 days. Consists of all Starter options and provides limitless FigJam information, open periods, password protections, voting, and extra. College students and educators could entry this version at no cost.
- Group, $5 per full seat per 30 days. Consists of all Profesional options plus customized colours and templates, centralized administration, centralized content material administration, and extra.
- Enterprise, $5 per full seat per 30 days. Consists of all Group options, plus devoted workspaces, visitor entry controls, together with many different consumer administration and safety features.
Miro: Finest for enterprise integrations
Miro (Determine B), previously often called RealtimeBoard, offers a strong set of options all centered round visible collaboration. Normal drawing instruments can be found to attract, add shapes (together with flowchart and Unified Modeling Language symbols), sticky notes, and textual content, together with many templates. Miro additionally helps you to add an enormous number of content material sorts, together with photographs, spreadsheets, tables, kanban, code blocks, charts, diagrams, and extra. Timer, voting, chat, video chat, and notes allow you to collaborate with others in varied methods in your board content material, whereas the brand new âCreate with AIâ characteristic generates concepts from a immediate or objects on a board.
Determine B
Miro helps you to current your board to different individuals in a number of methods. The Talktrack characteristic helps you to file a video together with your webcam (inset in a circle on the display screen) as you navigate and focus on the board. The ensuing video is saved and could also be shared. Alternatively, you could current both your complete board, which hides many menus to emphasise your content material; or current frames, which lets you outline and navigate chosen sections of content material so as. Enterprise and Enterprise editions provide entry to facilitation instruments to help actions reminiscent of voting and including sticky notes or reactions.
| Execs | Cons |
|---|---|
| Miro app is on the market on the net (and Google Workspace Market), macOS, Home windows, iPhone, iPad and Android. |
No offline mode. |
| Very full-featured. | |
| Various kinds of content material might be added. | |
| Helpful number of presentation choices. |
Pricing
Miro gives 4 pricing plans for skilled use: Free, Starter, Enterprise, and Enterprise.
- Free, which incorporates one workspace with three editable boards, 5 Talktracks, entry to templates, and help for integrations.
- Starter, $8 per member per 30 days, paid yearly. This plan provides limitless boards, high-resolution exports, collaboration with limitless guests on public boards, limitless Talktracks, limitless mission folders, Personal Mode sticky notes, model historical past, assembly options (e.g., timers, voting, and video chat), and personal boards.
- Enterprise, $16 per member per 30 days paid yearly. This plan contains all Starter options, plus limitless boards for each workforce and shopper, safe collaboration with limitless company on non-public and workforce boards, superior form entry, enhanced assembly options (e.g., breakouts and voting), and extra.
- Enterprise, which requires contacting gross sales for pricing. This plan contains all Enterprise options plus added safety, compliance, administration, and reporting capabilities, together with premium help.
College students, educators, and non-profits could entry totally different Miro pricing plans.
- Educator plans are designed for workers members and college students of academic institutes. For educators, the plan is legitimate indefinitely, however for college students they’re legitimate for 2 years. They arrive with limitless lively boards, board viewers, and commenters, coaching and discussion board assets, and extra.
- Nonprofits can get a 30% low cost on paid Miros plans.
SEE: Easy methods to use Miro as your whiteboard in a digital assembly
Lucidspark by Lucid Software program: Finest for experimental AI
Lucidspark (Determine C) offers a board on which you’ll draw and add photographs, shapes, sticky notes, textual content, and contours. The feedback and activity system lets board collaborators not solely touch upon particular board content material but in addition assign work to a colleague. To assist rationalization, you could outline body areas and designate paths in order to point out sections of the board in sequence. Visible actions templates help varied kinds of sorting, score, and board engagement, together with extra timer and voting instruments.
Determine C
Lucidspark additionally gives menu customization and an experimental AI characteristic. Customise the left-side on-screen menu with a Software pinning characteristic to point out solely the choices you choose. For instance, in the event you not often want Jira integration, you could unpin that possibility and it’ll not show on-screen, though you should still entry it from the Extra menu. And a Collaborative AI possibility generates concepts from an entered immediate. For instance, a immediate of âFinest options of Lucidsparkâ created a 3Ă3 set of sticky notes, every stuffed with two or three phrases describing options reminiscent of âBuilt-in Video Chat,â âSeamless Integrations,â and âPresentation mode.â
| Execs | Cons |
|---|---|
| Lucidspark app is on the market on the net (and Google Workspace Market) and Android. | Staff or Enterprise version accounts are required to make use of cellular app on iOS or iPadOS. |
| Customizable menu for quick entry to most-used choices. | |
| Collaborative AI to generate concepts. | |
| Vital variety of supported app integrations. |
Pricing
There are 4 Lucidspark plans: Free, Particular person, Staff, and Enterprise.
- Free, which incorporates three editable boards, limitless shapes, drawing, emoji reactions, commenting, presentation mode, primary visible actions to collect suggestions and combination outcomes, primary collaborative AI, and different options.
- Particular person, $7.95 per consumer per 30 days billed yearly ($95.40/yearly per consumer). This plan provides limitless editable boards, 1 GB of storage, premium visible actions to collect suggestions, and combination outcomes, and extra.
- Staff, three workforce consumer licenses for $27 per 30 days billed yearly ($324/yearly for the three licenses, which is $108/consumer per yr). This plan provides superior controls for visible actions, chat, revision historical past and versioning, voting, a timer and facilitator instruments, contact display screen whiteboards, developer platform, and extra.
- Enterprise licenses require contacting gross sales. This plan gives entry to Lucidchart for diagramming and provides Staff folders, Common Canvas, many app integrations, and entry to varied consumer administration and safety features.
Educators could entry a variant of the Staff plan at no cost; this offers lecturers and college students entry to the cellular app and lots of Staff options at no cost. An optionally available improve to a paid workforce plan for schooling provides centralized account administration, audit logs, and entry to precedence help.
Microsoft Whiteboard: Finest at no cost use
Microsoft Whiteboard (Determine D) is free, however it does require a Microsoft account to view, create, or collaborate on boards; subsequently, this feature could take advantage of sense for people or organizations who already use different Microsoft companies, reminiscent of Microsoft 365.
Determine D
Microsoft Whiteboard gives a regular set of instruments that features a pen, highlighter, ruler, notes, emoji-style reactions, textual content and shapes. You might also add photographs to a board. Plus, Microsoft Whiteboard gives numerous templates for all types of brainstorming, planning, assembly, and studying actions. You might customise the board background coloration and choose from a set of 9 background grid designs. And thereâs an included timer. Share the hyperlink to present collaborators entry to all of those instruments, too.
| Execs | Cons |
|---|---|
| Microsoft Whiteboard is on the market on the net, iPhone, iPad and Android, in addition to for Microsoft Floor Hub and Microsoft Groups Rooms gadgets. |
Not obtainable within the Google Workspace Market. |
| Free. | Should check in with a Microsoft account. |
| Vital number of templates for enterprise makes use of, reminiscent of brainstorming, mission planning and assembly actions. |
No offline mode. |
| Targeted set of instruments. |
Pricing
Microsoft Whiteboard is free, though you should check in with a Microsoft account to make use of it. A Microsoft account could also be obtained at no cost.
Zoom Whiteboard: Finest for Zoom conferences
The Zoom conferencing platform gives Zoom Whiteboard (Determine E), which can be used both with an online assembly or individually. For anybody with an current Zoom account, Zoom Whiteboard deserves consideration.
Determine E
Zoom Whiteboard gives numerous templates for brainstorming, diagramming, assembly, schooling, or leisure; or you could merely create a brand new clean board. The system contains instruments reminiscent of pens, shapes, traces, textual content, sticky notes, and feedback. You might add photographs and PDFs to your board or add a thoughts map, desk, kanban board, or playing cards. Particularly, playing cards allow you to assign duties and monitor each dates and activity standing. Zoom boards additionally allow you to create a number of pages. As a presentation support, you could add frames round your board content material, then arrange and current the frames in sequence. The timer and laser pointer could also be helpful throughout shows or collaborations as effectively.
| Execs | Cons |
|---|---|
| Obtainable as a part of Zoom on the net (and Google Workspace Market), macOS, Home windows, Linux, iPhone, iPad and Android. | Zoom Whiteboard gives secondary performance to net conferences. |
| Massive variety of templates for enterprise makes use of, reminiscent of brainstorming and diagramming. | No offline mode |
| Help for a number of pages inside a board. | |
| Frames to order presentation sequence. |
Pricing
Three Zoom Whiteboard editions can be found: Whiteboard Primary, Whiteboard, and Whiteboard Plus.
- Whiteboard Primary, which is included with Zoom Office Primary and Zoom Office Professional, contains three concurrent editable boards owned and 25 MB of storage, together with all core drawing, annotation, picture, and collaboration options.
- Whiteboard, $24.90 per consumer per yr, and could also be added to both the Zoom Office Primary or Zoom Office Professional plan. This plan provides limitless concurrent editable boards, commonplace options, and superior doc management. Additionally it is included in Zoom Office Enterprise, Zoom Office Enterprise Plus, and Zoom Office Enterprise.
- Whiteboard Plus, $70 per consumer per yr and could also be added to both Zoom Office Primary or Zoom Office Professional plans, provides superior whiteboard options and help for customized and organizational templates. Additionally, Zoom Whiteboard Plus is included as a part of Zoom Rooms plans and Zoom Office Enterprise Plus.
SEE: Easy methods to use the brand new Zoom Whiteboard for hybrid conferences
Apple Freeform: Finest for Apple gadget customers
Freeform (Determine F), a visible collaboration software by Apple, is included with present gadgets that run iOS, iPadOS, and macOS. The app is free, though solely individuals who use Apple gadgets could use it. For instance, Freeform can be a superb possibility for a classroom the place a trainer and college students all use iPadOS or macOS gadgets, however wouldn’t be appropriate for a scenario the place collaborators may use Home windows, ChromeOS, or Android gadgets.
Determine F
Freeform gives quite a few writing and drawing types, together with a pen, pencil, highlighter, crayon, ink, and watercolor choices. On gadgets that help an Apple pencil, you could leverage the systemâs built-in handwriting recognition system, Scribble, to transform pencil strokes into textual content. Freeform helps you to add notes, hyperlinks, shapes, and typed textual content. You might use a digital camera to seize a photograph or add a picture, video, audio file, or PDF to a board. Freeform works offline, so you should use it to seize concepts virtually anyplace. Freeform permits as much as 100 individuals to collaborate on a board, and it might be used with Messages or FaceTime.
| Execs | Cons |
|---|---|
| Obtainable on present iPhone, iPad and macOS gadgets. | Obtainable solely on Apple gadgets. |
| Can create and work offline. | |
| Works effectively with Apple Pencil, Messages and FaceTime. | |
| Wider vary of drawing software types (e.g., watercolor, ink and crayon) in comparison with most of the different options on this article. |
Pricing
Freeform is on the market as one of many default apps on all trendy Apple gadgets, together with iPhone, iPad, and macOS programs.
Extra Jamboard options to think about
Past the six companies coated above, many different collaborative drawing choices exist. Google suggests Google Drawings or Google Slides may meet some wants. Different companies which will advantage consideration embody Canva Whiteboard, Conceptboard, Excalidraw, Clarify Every little thing, Inko, Pear Deck, Pencil Areas, Sketchboard, or Whiteboard.chat.
Jamboard phase-out timeline: What it’s essential do
- Sept. 30, 2024: By this date, you should have backed up any Jamboard gadget occasion logs that you simply wish to maintain from the Admin console, as you’ll not be capable of do that afterwards and occasion log knowledge can be deleted.
- Oct. 1, 2024: For those who havenât already, it’s essential begin backing up the Jam information you wish to retain and migrating them to different functions. It’s also possible to save them as PDFs or PNG information.
Additionally, you will not be capable of create new or edit current Jam information on any platform, together with the online, iOS, and Android, whereas the 55-inch Jamboard gadget will not be a part of Meet conferences or save to the cloud. - Dec. 31, 2024: The Jamboard utility can be wound down, so you’ll not be capable of entry your Jam information, and they are going to be completely deleted.
Methodology
The primary three companies â FigJam by Figma, Miro, and Lucidspark by Lucid Software program â are included as a result of Google particularly recommends these as options to Google Jamboard. All three will provide some kind of import software to let you protect current Jamboard content material.
The remaining three choices had been chosen due to the widespread use of Microsoft, Zoom, and Apple instruments within the schooling neighborhood â a big consumer of Jamboard apps. For those who and your collaborators use Apple {hardware}, Freeform is smart as a substitute for Jamboard. For those who and your collaborators have current Microsoft or Zoom accounts, then both of these respective companies may serve you effectively.
The writer signed and actively examined every of the companies for testing functions, and has actively used and coated Google Jamboard since its inception. Every of the screenshots was taken throughout this experimentation. We depend on vendor web sites for pricing.
