Full disclosure, I was headhunted by Miro a couple of years ago, which was nice. It was a many stepped interview process and I realised after the second interview that it probably wasn't for me, both the scale of the software, and and need for me to relocate to Berlin.
Also, a slight conflict of interests, with objec.tv - a personal project building a whiteboard/mind mapping platform I will write about in due course.
IIRC they experienced ridiculous expansion during Covid - I think from 2 million to 20 million users during 2020. And their software is very feature rich and easy to use.
We used Miro extensively at Magnopus which was great, because I'd just started using it as a way to communicate with my daughter.
Rather than use social media, we've foregone that and decided to use this collaborative, whiteboard, mind-mapping platform.
It's great to use on web, but there's a very good mobile app, usable on phone, better on tablet. Android and IOS.
I did have to subscribe to create a private account and invite another user. It's free for a few public boards, but you'll want to subscribe if you want to use it as a private communication or learning tool with your kids.
For this purpose it is excellent, and gives you a way to interact away from social media and all it's distractions - mainly other people and advertisements.
My daughter and I have several boards, each one for a different subject, one is a calendar, one is for talking about TV and Film. It's easy to add pictures, shapes and there's a full featured message/comment system built in. For the most part we use it as something like an instagram cross pinterest clone.
Here is our 'life' board, where we discuss our favourite creatures:
I also use it as a very rapid way to construct diagrams and flow charts, for which it is perfect:
I did try out the pen compatibility mode - where you can build diagrams using a stylus, it automatically recognises shapes and converts them, very clever.
It can also be used for real time collaboration, so you can see each others cursors. I also think there's a videoconferencing mode built in too.
You can do plenty in the free version, I don't think the functionality is compromised, just the number of boards you can create, and the privacy options.
Check it out: www.miro.com