Jamboard Is Gone: 3 Google Meet Whiteboard Options Tested for 2025 — Which One Can Hold Up Your Meeting?

In 2025, when you try to find that whiteboard in Google Meet, the first problem you hit isn't 'which tool works best' — it's 'what exactly am I looking for?'

Because Jamboard is gone. It became read-only in October 2024 and officially ended on December 31. The old path to 'start a new whiteboard' no longer takes you where it used to.

So the real question becomes two: What do you use to draw during the meeting? And what do you use to capture what's left after the meeting?

In my experience, it's best not to hand both tasks to the same tool.

Below, I've laid out the decision points based on the paths that actually still work in 2025.

After Jamboard: Quick Overview

Let's start with the direction of the conclusion: nothing fully replaces Jamboard today, because Jamboard's value wasn't 'whiteboard features' — it was that it lived right inside the meeting.

In practice, there are three paths people use:

Option	Positioning	Best for
Google Meet Activities panel add-on whiteboard	Real-time drawing during the meeting, everyone on the same board	Teams that want 'no link pasting'
External whiteboards like FigJam, Lucidspark, Miro	Maximum flexibility, Google-endorsed partner alternatives	Those needing complex diagrams and long-term board assets
Meeting notes tools like Tinrec	No drawing — turns discussion into transcripts, summaries, and action items	People who care about 'having something to show after the meeting'

This article looks at five dimensions: launch speed, whether boards persist, mobile participation, post-meeting output, and team data ownership.

Dimension 1: Drawing During the Meeting — Where Do You Open the Whiteboard?

The add-on route works like this: click the Activities button in the bottom right of Google Meet, add a third-party whiteboard add-on, select it, and hit 'Start a whiteboard.' Everyone in the meeting joins the same board. No link pasting, no asking people to open a new tab.

But there's a catch to mention upfront. If you're signed into multiple Google accounts in your browser, the add-on often won't launch — you need to sign out of the others and keep only the one you're using. The first time it happened to me, I thought it was a permissions issue and restarted the meeting for ten minutes.

The external service route has a different rhythm: open a board, paste the link into Meet's chat, then share the specific area you want to discuss. Maximum flexibility, but the host has to do three extra things — open the board, paste the link, and make sure everyone is on the same page.

This is where the Jamboard era was most different: a board lived directly inside the meeting, no selecting, no pasting. Now that 'given' is gone.

→ For this dimension: add-ons match the immediacy of the old days; external services win on flexibility. But both only solve 'drawing.'

Dimension 2: After the Discussion — Do the Boards Stick Around?

The lesson Jamboard taught everyone wasn't that it was bad — it's that when it shut down, those boards went with it.

After the app ended, all the old tutorials about 'open a jam, export from the app' became useless. What you thought was an asset turned out to be rented space.

So in 2025, when choosing a whiteboard, I ask one question first: Will this company still be around tomorrow?

That's exactly the pitch of add-on tools — boards live in their own cloud and don't evaporate when the meeting ends. FigJam, Lucidspark, and Miro already have a full file concept, so this part is relatively stable.

But what remains? Usually a bunch of sticky notes and arrows. It records 'we discussed this,' but not 'who said what, and what we finally decided.'

→ For this dimension: whiteboard tools win on keeping the diagram. But a diagram is not a record.

Dimension 3: What About People on Mobile?

Google Meet whiteboards have always been weak on mobile. Jamboard never had native support on iPhone or Android — mobile users could only participate via screen sharing with an external app.

In 2025, with add-ons, the situation is similar — mobile can view, but actually editing is still not as good as desktop.

My approach is to treat whiteboarding as 'a desktop thing,' with mobile people listening and speaking.

But that easily turns the mobile person into a bystander. Once attendees feel like they're just an audience, engagement drops.

Later I shifted my perspective: if the meeting has a complete transcript from start to finish, mobile participants can catch up on context afterward, even if they didn't draw that diagram.

→ For this dimension: whiteboards remain weak on mobile. The fix isn't in the whiteboard — it's in the record.

Dimension 4: After the Meeting — Who Turns It Into Action Items?

This is where I think you should spend the most time setting things up in 2025.

My approach: use the whiteboard as usual, but simultaneously record with Tinrec desktop. It captures your computer's system audio directly, handling meetings on Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Webex — no need to invite a bot to join as a fifth participant.

This matters a lot to me. In many client meetings, adding an 'AI notes bot' to the list changes the whole atmosphere.

After recording, the transcript, summary, chapters, and action items all come out together. I can ask questions directly about the meeting: 'What was the client's concern about the budget?' — no need to re-listen to sixty minutes.

It also does real-time translation, viewable in original, translated, or bilingual side-by-side; after the meeting, results can be exported to Notion, Google Docs, OneNote, Dropbox, or post-processed with an Agent to generate reports and tables.

The whiteboard gives you 'structure'; the transcript gives you 'the actual words.' Connect the two, and the meeting is truly over.

→ For this dimension: the whiteboard won't tell you who agreed to what. Only a notes tool can do that.

Dimension 5: Team Meeting Data — Who Ends Up Holding It?

Honestly, with three to five people, this question doesn't matter.

But as the team grows, the problem surfaces: meeting notes scatter across everyone's personal accounts. When someone leaves, that data becomes fuzzy — or no one is even sure it still exists.

Tinrec's team plan addresses exactly this. It's an independent team space where meeting data belongs to the team, not to the person who uploaded it.

A few concepts need clarifying: roles (Owner, Admin, Member) govern governance; seats determine whether you can record, upload, edit, and export; membership determines whether you belong to the team.

Members who are active but have no seat can still view, play, and read team data — they just can't perform actions like upload, edit, or export.

The admin side shows usage trends, member rankings, and details, plus an audit log for querying, filtering, and exporting. Accidentally deleted audio files can be recovered from a 30-day recycle bin. Team hotwords are used to train company-specific terminology.

One common misunderstanding to clear up: currently it's not 'individual permissions per file' — it's primarily team-level sharing, controlled by roles and seats, not fine-grained file ACLs.

Pricing is as follows: team monthly USD 29.80 per paid seat per month, annual USD 199 per paid seat per year (about USD 16.58 per month). Each paid seat provides 2,000 minutes of team shared import quota per month; real-time recording under active seats is currently not deducted by minutes. First-time eligible teams get a 7-day trial with 1 free seat and 300 minutes of shared import. Actual plans and amounts are subject to the official purchase page.

→ For this dimension: whiteboard tools manage 'this one meeting'; team spaces manage 'this whole year.'

What Are the Unique Advantages of Each?

The real strengths of whiteboard tools, I think, are just two:

• Real-time visualization: flowcharts, sorting, voting — these are exhausting to explain verbally but clear in three minutes with a drawing.
• Low barrier to participation: anyone can place a sticky note, no need to teach new software.

Tinrec's advantages are concentrated in the before-and-after meeting segments:

• No-bot recording: desktop captures system audio, doesn't add meeting participants, and doesn't require changing anyone's habits.
• Complete post-meeting output: transcript, summary, chapters, action items, mind map, AI Q&A, real-time translation.
• Portable: export to common formats and third-party tools — content isn't locked in.
• Team accumulation: team space, seats, usage, audit, hotwords — data doesn't leave when members do.

Conclusion: Which Should You Choose?

• If you want 'smooth drawing during the meeting' → install the Google Meet Activities whiteboard add-on first, or use FigJam, Lucidspark, or Miro directly.
• If you want 'something to show after the meeting' → Tinrec.
• If you want both → whiteboard via add-on, notes via Tinrec — that's my current approach.
• If you lead a team → think first about who ultimately owns the meeting data; that matters far more than which whiteboard you use.

In one sentence: the lesson from Jamboard's disappearance isn't 'hurry and find the next whiteboard' — it's 'don't entrust your meeting's memory to a board.'

Quick Starter Checklist

1. Open a test meeting, add a whiteboard add-on from the Activities panel in the bottom right, and confirm it launches.
2. Check that your browser is signed into only one Google account — multiple accounts are the most common cause of add-on failure.
3. If using an external whiteboard, open the board and paste the link into chat before the meeting — don't start looking during the meeting.
4. Record the same meeting once with Tinrec desktop and confirm the transcript is generated properly.
5. After the meeting, ask three questions about it: What was decided? Who will do what? By when?
6. Export the summary and action items to a shared team location — don't leave them in a personal account.

Test step by step, and you'll gradually find the rhythm that works for your team.

References

• How to use Miro (former Jamboard) on Google Meet in 2025 - YouTube
• How to Use a Whiteboard in Google Meet on Laptop/iPhone/Android
• Whiteboard for Google Meet
• Jamboard in Google Meet: What to Use After the Shutdown
• Google Meet Whiteboard Tools Tested in 2025: Which of the 3 Free Options Is Best? - Official Tinrec Blog