Sunday, March 16, 2025

High 6 Google Urged Jamboard Alternate options & Extra


Google introduced final yr that assist for Jamboard units and apps will finish as of Oct. 1, 2024. Google Jamboard delivers easy-to-use collaborative drawing capabilities to individuals who use Google Workspace via 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 internet, iOS, iPadOS, and Android units and in Google Meet.

Individuals who use Jamboard units or apps might want to search options. For {hardware} choices, Google’s 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 — FigJam by Figma, Lucidspark by Lucid Software program, and Miro — have been built-in to work with Collection One units, and import choices for Jamboard content material can be found.

High Jamboard opponents and options: Comparability desk

Individuals who use the Jamboard apps, unbiased of the Jamboard gadget, might think about a variety of software program options. The next six choices all assist visible collaboration and may function appropriate replacements for Jamboard.

FigJam by Figma: Finest for pleasant design

Picture: FigJam

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 pictures or insert hyperlinks to net sources, together with shared Google Drive recordsdata. Cursor chat allows an ephemeral dialog with collaborators that disappears once you exit the mode, whereas the remark system permits standard feedback on content material anyplace on the board. FigJam presents just a few extra options than Jamboard, delivered with a cleanly designed consumer interface, as you may anticipate. Included with these is FigJam AI, a brand new collaboration device that helps groups brainstorm with AI-generated ideas, text-to-image capabilities, and automations.

Determine A

Screenshot showing the interface of a new, blank FigJam board on a Chromebook.
Determine A: Screenshot displaying the interface of a brand new, clean FigJam board on a Chromebook. Picture: Andy Wolber/TechRepublic

Figma’s possession deserves point out since Adobe, a inventive content material big, introduced an settlement to accumulate Figma in September 2022; nevertheless, the deal was terminated in December 2023. Whereas possession doesn’t immediately have an effect on product options, the truth that Figma as soon as sought to merge with a bigger firm might sign a long run potential for acquisition.

Execs Cons
FigJam app is obtainable on the internet (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 obtainable to college students and educators.

Pricing

Figma presents 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 recordsdata, with limitless private recordsdata and limitless collaborators, amongst different options.
  • Skilled, $5 per full seat per 30 days. Contains all Starter options and provides limitless FigJam recordsdata, open periods, password protections, voting, and extra. College students and educators might entry this version without cost.
  • Group, $5 per full seat per 30 days. Contains all Profesional options plus customized colours and templates, centralized administration, centralized content material administration, and extra.
  • Enterprise, $5 per full seat per 30 days. Contains all Group options, plus devoted workspaces, visitor entry controls, together with many different consumer administration and security measures.

Miro: Finest for enterprise integrations

Miro logo.
Picture: Miro

Miro (Determine B), previously referred to as RealtimeBoard, gives 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 enables you to add an enormous number of content material sorts, together with pictures, 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 “Create with AI” function generates concepts from a immediate or gadgets on a board.

Determine B

Screenshot showing the interface of a new, blank Miro board on a Chromebook.
Determine B: Screenshot displaying the interface of a brand new, clean Miro board on a Chromebook. Picture: Andy Wolber/TechRepublic

Miro enables you to current your board to different individuals in a number of methods. The Talktrack function enables you to document a video along 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, chances are you’ll 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 supply entry to facilitation instruments to assist actions corresponding to voting and including sticky notes or reactions.

Execs Cons
Miro app is obtainable on the internet (and
Google Workspace Market), macOS,
Home windows, iPhone, iPad and Android.
No offline mode.
Very full-featured.
Numerous varieties of content material might be added.
Helpful number of presentation choices.

Pricing

Miro presents 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 assist 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 challenge 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 consists of all Starter options, plus limitless boards for each group and shopper, safe collaboration with limitless visitors on personal and group boards, superior form entry, enhanced assembly options (e.g., breakouts and voting), and extra.
  • Enterprise, which requires contacting gross sales for pricing. This plan consists of all Enterprise options plus added safety, compliance, administration, and reporting capabilities, together with premium assist.

College students, educators, and non-profits might entry completely 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 sources, and extra.
  • Nonprofits can get a 30% low cost on paid Miros plans.

SEE: Learn how to use Miro as your whiteboard in a digital assembly

Lucidspark by Lucid Software program: Finest for experimental AI

Lucidspark logo.
Picture: Lucidspark

Lucidspark (Determine C) gives a board on which you’ll draw and add pictures, shapes, sticky notes, textual content, and features. The feedback and job system lets board collaborators not solely touch upon particular board content material but additionally assign work to a colleague. To help rationalization, chances are you’ll outline body areas and designate paths in order to point out sections of the board in sequence. Visible actions templates assist varied varieties of sorting, ranking, and board engagement, together with extra timer and voting instruments.

Determine C

Screenshot showing the interface of a new, blank Lucidspark board on a Chromebook.
Determine C: Screenshot displaying the interface of a brand new, clean Lucidspark board on a Chromebook. Picture: Andy Wolber/TechRepublic

Lucidspark additionally presents menu customization and an experimental AI function. Customise the left-side on-screen menu with a Software pinning function to point out solely the choices you choose. For instance, in the event you hardly ever want Jira integration, chances are you’ll 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 “Finest options of Lucidspark” created a 3×3 set of sticky notes, every full of two or three phrases describing options corresponding to “Built-in Video Chat,” “Seamless Integrations,” and “Presentation mode.”

Execs Cons
Lucidspark app is obtainable on the internet (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. No offline mode.
Collaborative AI to generate concepts.
Important 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, fundamental visible actions to collect suggestions and combination outcomes, fundamental 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 group 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 presents entry to Lucidchart for diagramming and provides Staff folders, Common Canvas, many app integrations, and entry to numerous consumer administration and security measures.

Educators might entry a variant of the Staff plan without cost; this gives academics and college students entry to the cellular app and plenty of Staff options at no cost. An non-obligatory improve to a paid group plan for training provides centralized account administration, audit logs, and entry to precedence assist.

Microsoft Whiteboard logo.
Picture: Microsoft Whiteboard

Microsoft Whiteboard: Finest without cost use

Microsoft Whiteboard (Determine D) is free, but it surely does require a Microsoft account to view, create, or collaborate on boards; due to this fact, this feature might take advantage of sense for people or organizations who already use different Microsoft companies, corresponding to Microsoft 365.

Determine D

Screenshot showing the interface of a new, blank Microsoft Whiteboard board on a Chromebook.
Determine D: Screenshot displaying the interface of a brand new, clean Microsoft Whiteboard board on a Chromebook. Picture: Andy Wolber/TechRepublic

Microsoft Whiteboard presents a normal set of instruments that features a pen, highlighter, ruler, notes, emoji-style reactions, textual content and shapes. You might also add pictures to a board. Plus, Microsoft Whiteboard presents numerous templates for all kinds of brainstorming, planning, assembly, and studying actions. You might customise the board background colour and choose from a set of 9 background grid designs. And there’s an included timer. Share the hyperlink to offer collaborators entry to all of those instruments, too.

Execs Cons
Microsoft Whiteboard is obtainable on the internet,
iPhone, iPad and Android, in addition to for
Microsoft Floor Hub and Microsoft Groups Rooms units.
Not out there within the Google Workspace Market.
Free. Should sign up with a Microsoft account.
Important number of templates for enterprise makes use of,
corresponding to brainstorming, challenge planning and assembly actions.
No offline mode.
Targeted set of instruments.

Pricing

Microsoft Whiteboard is free, though it’s essential to sign up with a Microsoft account to make use of it. A Microsoft account could also be obtained without cost.

Zoom Whiteboard: Finest for Zoom conferences

Zoom Whiteboard logo.
Picture: Zoom Whiteboard

The Zoom conferencing platform presents Zoom Whiteboard (Determine E), which can be used both with an online assembly or individually. For anybody with an present Zoom account, Zoom Whiteboard deserves consideration.

Determine E

Screenshot showing the interface of a new, blank Zoom Whiteboard board on a Chromebook.
Determine E: Screenshot displaying the interface of a brand new, clean Zoom Whiteboard board on a Chromebook. Picture: Andy Wolber/TechRepublic

Zoom Whiteboard presents numerous templates for brainstorming, diagramming, assembly, training, or leisure; or chances are you’ll merely create a brand new clean board. The system consists of instruments corresponding to pens, shapes, traces, textual content, sticky notes, and feedback. You might add pictures and PDFs to your board or add a thoughts map, desk, kanban board, or playing cards. Specifically, playing cards allow you to assign duties and monitor each dates and job standing. Zoom boards additionally allow you to create a number of pages. As a presentation assist, chances are you’ll add frames round your board content material, then manage and current the frames in sequence. The timer and laser pointer could also be helpful throughout shows or collaborations as nicely.

Execs Cons
Accessible as a part of Zoom on the internet (and Google Workspace Market), macOS, Home windows, Linux, iPhone, iPad and Android. Zoom Whiteboard presents secondary performance to net conferences.
Massive variety of templates for enterprise makes use of, corresponding to 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, consists of 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, customary 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 assist for customized and organizational templates. Additionally, Zoom Whiteboard Plus is included as a part of Zoom Rooms plans and Zoom Office Enterprise Plus.

SEE: Learn how to use the brand new Zoom Whiteboard for hybrid conferences

Apple Freeform: Finest for Apple gadget customers

Apple Freeform logo.
Picture: Apple Freeform

Freeform (Determine F), a visible collaboration device by Apple, is included with present units that run iOS, iPadOS, and macOS. The app is free, though solely individuals who use Apple units might use it. For instance, Freeform could be a superb possibility for a classroom the place a trainer and college students all use iPadOS or macOS units, however wouldn’t be appropriate for a state of affairs the place collaborators may use Home windows, ChromeOS, or Android units.

Determine F

Screenshot showing the interface of a new, blank Freeform board on iPad.
Determine F: Screenshot displaying the interface of a brand new, clean Freeform board on iPad. Picture: Andy Wolber/TechRepublic

Freeform presents quite a few writing and drawing types, together with a pen, pencil, highlighter, crayon, ink, and watercolor choices. On units that assist an Apple pencil, chances are you’ll leverage the system’s built-in handwriting recognition system, Scribble, to transform pencil strokes into textual content. Freeform enables 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 need to 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
Accessible on present iPhone, iPad and macOS units. Accessible solely on Apple units.
Can create and work offline.
Works nicely with Apple Pencil, Messages and FaceTime.
Wider vary of drawing device types (e.g., watercolor, ink
and crayon) in comparison with most of the different options on this article.

Pricing

Freeform is obtainable as one of many default apps on all trendy Apple units, together with iPhone, iPad, and macOS programs.

Extra Jamboard options to contemplate

Past the six companies lined above, many different collaborative drawing choices exist. Google suggests Google Drawings or Google Slides may meet some wants. Different companies that will advantage consideration embody Canva Whiteboard, Conceptboard, Excalidraw, Clarify Every part, Inko, Pear Deck, Pencil Areas, Sketchboard, or Whiteboard.chat.

Jamboard phase-out timeline: What it’s essential do

  • Sept. 30, 2024: By this date, it’s essential to have backed up any Jamboard gadget occasion logs that you just wish to preserve from the Admin console, as you’ll not have the ability to do that afterwards and occasion log information might be deleted.
  • Oct. 1, 2024: Should you haven’t already, it’s essential begin backing up the Jam recordsdata you wish to retain and migrating them to different purposes. You can even save them as PDFs or PNG recordsdata.
    Additionally, you will not have the ability to create new or edit present Jam recordsdata on any platform, together with the net, 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 might be wound down, so you’ll not have the ability to entry your Jam recordsdata, and they are going to be completely deleted.

Methodology

The primary three companies — FigJam by Figma, Miro, and Lucidspark by Lucid Software program — are included as a result of Google particularly recommends these as options to Google Jamboard. All three will supply some sort of import device to will let you protect present Jamboard content material.

The remaining three choices have been chosen due to the widespread use of Microsoft, Zoom, and Apple instruments within the training neighborhood — a big consumer of Jamboard apps. Should you and your collaborators use Apple {hardware}, Freeform is sensible as a substitute for Jamboard. Should you and your collaborators have present Microsoft or Zoom accounts, then both of these respective companies may serve you nicely.

The creator signed and actively examined every of the companies for testing functions, and has actively used and lined Google Jamboard since its inception. Every of the screenshots was taken throughout this experimentation. We depend on vendor web sites for pricing.

Related Articles

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Latest Articles

PHP Code Snippets Powered By : XYZScripts.com