Community Manager

Adobe Animate: End of Life and Support Timeline

Forum|Forum|20 hours ago
February 2, 2026
114 replies
5433 views

Adobe Animate has been a product that has existed for over 25 years and has served its purpose well for creating, nurturing and developing the animation ecosystem. As technologies evolve, new platforms and paradigms have emerged that better serve the needs of the users. Acknowledging this change, we are planning to discontinue the sale of Adobe Animate effective March 1, 2026. 
 
Existing Animate users may continue to use the application. Support for enterprise customers will continue for three years, through March 1, 2029.  For all other customers, support will continue for one year, through March 1, 2027.

Customers with a Creative Cloud Pro plan can use other Adobe apps to replace portions of Animate's capabilities. Adobe After Effects supports complex keyframe animation using the Puppet tool, while Adobe Express offers one-click animation effects that can be easily applied to photos, videos, text, shapes and other design elements.
 
We thank our Animate users and encourage you to share feedback with our teams on the Adobe Support.
  
For more information, and instructions for downloading Animate during the support period please see visit the Animate HelpX page.

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UpstartThunder

Known Participant

To Adobe,

I am a professional animator with over 30 years in the industry. I began on paper, transitioned to Flash, and continued with Adobe Animate.

I have used these tools professionally on broadcast series, adverts, shorts, and feature films. I am presently using Animate on a feature film and also pre-production on a series.

Adobe Animate is not a legacy curiosity. It is production infrastructure.

Across decades of real-world work, Animate enabled flexible 2D animation pipelines that remain unmatched inside Creative Cloud. No Adobe product replaces its timeline-based vector animation workflow. After Effects is not a substitute. Adobe Express is absolutely not a substitute. Suggesting otherwise demonstrates a disconnect from professional 2D production realities and is completely disrespectful.

By discontinuing Animate without a like-for-like replacement or a long-term maintenance or access commitment, Adobe is forcing experienced professionals, studios, and educators to leave the Creative Cloud ecosystem entirely. This is not resistance to change; it is a rational response to the removal of a core tool with no migration path.

Many of us adopted Flash and Animate precisely because Adobe positioned them as serious, long-term professional solutions. Ending Animate now breaks that trust and signals that foundational creative tools can be discarded when they no longer align with short-term strategic trends. Is this because you haven't been able to include AI into the program, so you think it’s worthless?

This decision affects not just individual artists, but pipelines, curricula, and decades of accumulated professional knowledge. Adobe’s reputation was built in part on supporting working creatives over the long term. We are asking you to honor that legacy.

Sincerely,

Jane Davies Professional Animator (30+ years)

Nicholas Hilditch

Participating Frequently

This is the most articulate response I have seen, Jane, and I hope that the right people read it.

G

gabriel_adobi

Inspiring

Would be great that Adobe users could download Animate original standalone install file for the version they use (as it was possible to do few years ago).

I

Ivesha

Participant

Question. If I cancel my subscription can I continue using discontinued Animate?

jane-e

Community Expert

@Ivesha

No. When you cancel your subscription, the applications stop launching.

Jane

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UpstartThunder

Known Participant

I am litrarally animation on it for a feature film right now and have worked on many series and adverts using it. Your disregard for paying customers is astounding.

edrijver

Participant

I have one question with regards to the support timeline. It starts with “Existing Animate users may continue to use the application. “ Does this continue beyond the support deadline of March 1 2027/2029? Or will the application be blocked from even booting up after these dates?

In short, can I open Animate beyond any of these end dates?

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UpstartThunder

Known Participant

Yes something they are not clear on.

MYINKYHEAD

Participant

I’ve used Flash/Animate for over 20 years - it’s been the basis of my professional career. I’ve made BAFTA winning films using it. The main reason I have subscribed for so many years to the Adobe suite is for Adobe Animate. If it goes, so shall I - I will have to find alternatives which won’t be easy. My workflow is based around Animate. Such a short sighted decision. At least make it open source. Let the people who’ve used it and continue to produce amazing work with it have access to it.

Nicholas Hilditch

Participating Frequently

This is almost identical to my experience, right down to the Baftas (in 2006 and 2007). Adobe cannot begin to pretend they care about their users given how they have made this announcement. Very poorly handled indeed.

D

dasessig

Inspiring

Ich entwickle seit 2000 mit Flash / Adobe Animate und seit 2011 iOS-Kinder-Bildungsapps mit Animate + AIR.
Über 90 Flashgames und 25 Apps im App Store – viele davon werden weltweit in Schulen eingesetzt.
Lehrer, Eltern und vor allem Kinder sind glücklich damit. Die Apps funktionieren. Sie erfüllen ihren Zweck.

Und jetzt will Adobe ab 2026 Entwicklung UND Support komplett einstellen und es soll nicht mehr möglich sein, die aktuellen Projekte zu öffnen.

Ganz ehrlich, Adobe: Wie stellt ihr euch das vor?

Schul-Apps, die nicht mehr gepflegt oder aktualisiert werden können
Jahrelange Bildungsprojekte, die technisch „verwaisen“
Entwickler, die ihr über Jahrzehnte begleitet habt, einfach fallen lassen

Das sind keine alten Spielereien – das sind laufende, genutzte Bildungsangebote mit realem Mehrwert.

Es gibt keinen brauchbaren Migrationspfad, keine echte Alternative, keine Verantwortung für Bestandskunden.
Nur die unausgesprochene Botschaft: „Danke fürs Abo – fang halt neu an.“

Technischer Fortschritt ist das eine.
Aber eine komplette Entwicklergeneration und funktionierende Bildungssoftware einfach abzuschalten, ist kein Fortschritt –
das ist ein massiver Vertrauensbruch.

Adobe beendet hier nicht nur ein Produkt.
Adobe verspielt Vertrauen.

I

Ivesha

Participant

Why not open source it???? Animate is such a great ANIMATION tool. I would say one of the kind and you are killing it! Pure nonsense. Is this AI takeover?