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Update on the status of Adobe Animate

Forum|Forum|7 months ago
February 3, 2026
102 replies
9184 views

Yesterday, Adobe shared an email with Adobe Animate customers on the future of Animate. What we shared did not meet our standards and caused a lot of confusion and angst within the community. On behalf of Adobe, I want to apologize.

While an email to all Animate customers will go out shortly, we wanted to quickly share a few things: 1) our standard approach for applications in maintenance mode, 2) changes to our plans for Adobe Animate and its status, and 3) our commitments to ensuring that you always have access to your content, regardless of the state of development of an application.

Standard Approach for Applications in Maintenance Mode

If we deprioritize active development of an application, our approach is to move that application into maintenance mode with continued support. Under maintenance mode, the application will continue to be available, will continue to receive security and bug fixes, but will not get new features.

If we decide to go a step further and discontinue a product, we will work closely with the community to ensure they have adequate time to plan in order to minimize disruption and will take steps so that the community continues to have long-term access to their content.

Current State of Adobe Animate

Adobe Animate is in maintenance mode. While we are no longer adding new features to Animate, we will continue to support it and provide ongoing security and bug fixes. More importantly, Animate will continue to be available for both new and existing users. This is a change from what we communicated in the email yesterday for the status of Adobe Animate, its time-frame, and availability.

To be clear, we are not discontinuing or removing access to Adobe Animate and it will continue to be available to both existing and new customers.

Commitments for long-term content/file access

For Adobe Animate, our commitment is to work with the community to ensure users continue to have long-term access to their content, regardless of the state of development of the application.

Show previous replies

Bartosz Gołębiowski

Participating Frequently

This is very mature for multibillion company.
How many users Adobe need to acknowledge that app is profitable?

T

tiagosaad

Known Participant

Thanks for the feedback.
And thanks for the whole Animate community!

Cagkan Kaya

Participant

ne oldu hisseler mi düştü? :))

HelenWLee

Inspiring

HelenWLee

Inspiring

You really need to send out that email now! Why are you dragging that? Not everybody will be reading forums or Reddit. And please be even clearer than this about the future access.

HelenWLee

Inspiring

3 million active users and Adobe try to kill the product after trying to scare people away for years. That makes no sense business wise or otherwise. Then the stock dropped 10% and that's why the bean counters got scared and changed.

Marc Martorell

Participating Frequently

OK Adobe, so when backtracking as now are you listening to us, or looking at that graph? because that matters

HelenWLee

Inspiring

@HelenWLee They saw the graph and they heard angry big studios talk about suing...

Marc Martorell

Participating Frequently

And why don’t you send first the new e-mail communicating this? This is not serious, you are acting in an impulsive manner and losing the trust of your customers. And what about your strategy of slowly letting die applications which show useful for creatives? Honestly, better make Animate open source and in a year this program is better than Toon Boom…

rayek.elfin

Legend

So… Animate is end-of-life now. And even in this backtracking message it is acknowledged that Adobe's management will discontinue the software in the not-so-far-off future?

People: do not trust Adobe management’s words here. Reading between the lines, the messaging is crystal clear. The damage is done. I would not be surprised if this wasn’t meant as a tactic to scare off those corporate partners (animation studios) and larger players still using Animate and force them to abandon Animate. Studios hate uncertainty: they will make plans now to remove Animate from their pipelines.

Then ‘backtrack’ that decisiontemporarily, sit back and observer the exodus away from Animate.

Give it two years, and only a diminished user base will care enough to make much of a racket over the final discontinuation of Animate. All according to plan, right?

It’s all in line with Adobe management's historic behaviour. And a classic gaslighting strategy: first stun your loyal users with apocalyptic messaging. Wait for the uproar. Follow it up with a so-called emphatic message “We did not mean it, and the news is not as bad as it could be, actually! We are only putting Animate on ice, and you can still use it!”

Desperate loyal users change from outraged mode to relief mode “Oh! We are so thankful you listened to us! Thank you Thank you THANK YOU!!!!”

What a disgraceful way to gaslight your users. Shameful. Utterly shameful.

Marc Martorell

Participating Frequently

The worst part is that the company has been trying to kill the app for years, but we still keep using it, and it will continue being the same… don’t this say anything to you Adobe?

U

Ulatek333

Known Participant

So what are the chances we will still be able to import .fla into after effects? And guys, please dont mess around like that anymore. That was stressful.