Google’s whiteboarding app is joining the graveyard

It’s never a dull day at the Google graveyard — the company has blogged a Workspace update today announcing the end of its collaborative Jamboard whiteboarding software. Google plans to wind down the app in late 2024 and is introducing the “next phase” of whiteboarding solutions: pointing users toward third-party apps that work with Workspace services like Google Meet, Drive, and Calendar.

Google says it will offer support to help transition customers to use other whiteboard tools, including FigJam, Lucidspark, and Miro. According to the blog post, Workspace customer feedback indicated the third-party solutions worked better for them thanks to feature offerings like an infinite canvas size, use case templates, voting, and more. So instead of further developing Jamboard, Google’s digging its hole and will focus on core collaboration services on Docs, Sheets, and Slides.

The Jamboard app will hit its first phase-out step on October 1st, 2024. On that day, Jamboard will become a read-only app, and users will no longer be able to make new or edit old Jams on any platform. Then users will have until December 31st, 2024, to back up Jam their files, and on that date, Google will cut off access and begin permanently deleting files. Google plans to provide “clear paths” to retain and migrate Jam data to FigJam, Lucidspark, and Miro “within just a few clicks.” The resources will be available “well before” the app winds down in late 2024.

You might remember Google had a $5,000 Jamboard whiteboarding meeting room display — well, that’s also discontinued. The Jamboard hardware will no longer receive software updates on September 30th, 2024, and its license subscriptions will expire the same day. Companies and schools with an upcoming renewal may remain subscribers up to that date at a prorated amount if they’d prefer to delay transitioning as long as possible. The 55-inch Jamboard device will reach end of life on October 1st, 2024.

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If you need new whiteboarding hardware for your meeting rooms, Google suggests getting its Google Meet Series One screens: the Board 65 and the Desk 27. And Google will connect educational institutions with Figma, Lucid Software, and Miro to help them transition. Google can’t send outside solutions to the graveyard since it doesn’t own the solutions.