For teachers who used Google Jamboard
Google ended Jamboard. Here's what works in its place.
Shared sticky notes, drawing, a link-based board — same as before, plus PDF, LaTeX formulas, quizzes and flashcards in the same canvas. No Google account required.
In late 2024 Google shut Jamboard down. A lot of teachers lost their main tool overnight.
If you opened Jamboard this year, you saw a message saying "Jamboard is no longer available". The boards you built over the years disappeared with the service. This is not a small change — it is a situation where you have to pick something new, ideally fast.
What was good about Jamboard, and what you don't want to lose.
A shared board from a link, a drawing frame, sticky notes, several people working at the same time, no install. These are the things Jamboard did well and what a switcher wants to see in the new tool right away. If you open Lucyboard and you do not feel lost in the first 30 seconds, that is a good sign.
What you get extra if you choose Lucyboard.
Jamboard had a board. Lucyboard has a board plus: PDF as an element (drop a worksheet and write the solution next to it), LaTeX formulas (useful for math and physics), a quick quiz next to the notes, flashcards for recap. These are not features for the sake of features — they are tools a teacher usually needs in the second minute of a lesson, and Jamboard did not have them.
What Lucyboard does not have, and will not pretend to have.
No native integration with Google Classroom, Meet, or Workspace — you share a link, you do not click "add to Google". No offline mode. No native iPad app. No vector-grade drawing on the level of Illustrator. If any of these is critical for you, this is not a 1:1 replacement and you should keep looking.
What the switch looks like in four steps.
1) Open Lucyboard. 2) Drop in your material (PDF, photo, blank board). 3) Send the link to Classroom, email, WhatsApp — wherever you used to share Jamboard. 4) Students click and they are on the board. Done. No data migration, no training, no setup.
What to do with your old Jamboard files.
Honestly: there is no importer. Google did not expose a usable API for that data, so no tool can do it. You can take screenshots of the important boards and drop them as elements into Lucyboard. Or start from scratch — those boards were not working since the service was shut down anyway.
Who Lucyboard is NOT a Jamboard alternative for.
In a few situations, you will need to keep looking:
- Your school is built around Google Classroom, Meet, and Workspace, and you want the board to live in that ecosystem.
- Your students must work without internet (for example, on a school trip).
- You need a native iPad app, not a browser version.
- Your lesson is mostly vector drawing or graphic design, not notes.
Try it on one lesson.
No account, no install, no email. Open a board, drop in a PDF, send the link to your student. If after one lesson you go back to how it used to work in Jamboard, that is honest feedback worth sending us.