Google Shutting Down Jamboard, Its Collaborative Whiteboarding Effort

Google will discontinue its collaborative whiteboarding app, Jamboard, in late 2024. The company will also stop supporting its accompanying device, a giant 55-inch connected whiteboard that retailed for $5,000.

When it came down to it, Google said feedback from its Workspace customers indicated that third-party whiteboarding solutions, like FigJam, Lucidspark, and Miro, worked better for them.

These solutions offered features like an infinite canvas size, use case templates, voting, and more, which resonated with users. Google will instead work closer with these companies to better integrate Workspace services, like Google Meet, Drive, and Calendar, into their existing platforms.

Google also aims to focus on fortifying core collaboration features within the Workspace suite.

In a blog post, Google revealed its commitment to facilitating a smooth transition for Jamboard users by providing support and resources to assist in migrating projects and data to alternative whiteboard tools. FigJam, Lucidspark, and Miro were highlighted as the recommended third-party options.

To streamline the process, Google has outlined a phased approach for phasing out Jamboard.

With effect from October 1, 2024, the app will enter a read-only mode, preventing users from creating new boards or editing existing ones. Users will have until December 31, 2024, to back up their Jam files before Google discontinues access and permanently deletes the associated data.

Google has pledged to provide clear guidance on retaining and migrating Jam data to FigJam, Lucidspark, and Miro, promising a straightforward transfer process requiring just a few clicks.

Alongside the app’s discontinuation, Google will also end support for its Jamboard hardware, a meeting room display commanding a price tag of $5,000. Starting September 30, 2024, this hardware will no longer receive software updates, and license subscriptions will expire concurrently. Consequently, the 55-inch Jamboard devices will reach their end of life on October 1, 2024.

Google’s decision to discontinue Jamboard after just a few years reflects the company’s tendency to withdraw support for products that don’t achieve dominant market positions. The effort was launched in 2016, seen as a competitor to Microsoft’s Surface Hub. Google was able to sell a fair amount of their devices to educational institutions and businesses. In fact, during the Twitter auction, the company had 100 individual listings for the whiteboards, most of which were unused and still in original packaging.

But the 55-inch Jamboard device was designed for office environments, many which were closed during the pandemic, leading Google to reduce the price of these devices by 50%.