Skip to main content
BHSal
Known Participant
August 10, 2026
Question

Does Adobe have plans to modernise After Effects?

  • August 10, 2026
  • 2 replies
  • 22 views

Personally I am becoming increasingly concerned about how stuck in the past After Effects is. It's feels like "this is an amazing tool... from 15 years ago"

 

When you look at the competition there's no direct competitor to AE, but a few apps that together do everything better. That's AE's only really USP - it does an average job of most things, but how much longer can it last like this? It's one thing to say "oh it's too much work to update our 30 year old codebase or make use of modern GPUs" etc etc., but failing to incorporate basic QOL improvements that have been in this very forum for YEARS is just not good enough. 

 

Are there any plans at all to drag After Effects into the modern era or is the plan to keep it as a legacy tool with minor UI updates? 

    2 replies

    BHSal
    BHSalAuthor
    Known Participant
    August 10, 2026

    Respectfully this feels a little like empty pacification rather than the actual truth of it. If that were the case then why are the most upvoted feature requests still being ignored? There are feature requests under review with like 3 upvotes while others with hundreds have NOTHING from Adobe. 

    Maybe Adobe should have better dialogue with users, e.g. share a roadmap with us. Because realistically nobody wants more AI integration.  Having said that, the new roto tools are a very welcome improvement, but I don't understand how that can be implemented so quickly when something basic like combining mattes or timeline folders doesn't seem to be happening. 

     

    Also it seems unfair that devs and employees active in this forum bear the brunt of user frustration when it seems to be the people who are in charge of Adobe's general strategy seem to consistently make poor decisions. 

     

    Nishu Kushwaha
    Community Manager
    Community Manager
    August 10, 2026

    Hi BHSal, thanks for the honest post.

    Active development is happening. The Advanced 3D renderer, Object Matte, and the High-Performance Preview Playback introduced in recent versions are examples of core engine work, not just UI polish. There's more of that kind of investment underway, but I'm not able to preview specifics.

    On the QOL / long-standing Feature Requests side, you're right that some requests have been in the forum for a long time. The honest answer is that Feature Requests are prioritized against everything else in the backlog, and the ones with strong voting and community discussion tend to get more attention. If there are specific QOL items that matter most to you, sharing the links to those requests in this thread would let others upvote them.

    I'd encourage you to try the new Ai Assistance shipped in the latest beta version of After Effects and share the review.

    Let me know if there are any other questions.


    Thanks,

    Nishu