It's been a while since I've opened Animate to do anything, and recently I had to tweak some animations, and I just can't! If I copy and paste something from Illustrator, it just closes, and if I try to export a GIF, it closes!
Adobe's stance is leaving a lot to be desired. If they're going to leave it like this, they should just leave the code open for anyone who's still willing to do something about it.
Yep, give it back to the community. Go back to the name Flash. This is an iconic piece of software. Adobe might be surprised how hard it will be to kill off. The recent purchase of Commodore by dedicated fans is a testament to what sentiment and community can achieve:
What an embarrassment this company has become. Buying up Flash from Macromedia and now holding it hostage like that. Not evolving the software anymore, and not letting anyone else to do it. I swear, if this software was open source, with the help of enthusiastic community members like Flanimate Power Tools, it would thrive to the skies. Just look at VLC, Audacity, Blender and Godot, just to name a few. But no, instead, it just rots somewhere - completely abandoned and neglected.
Sure, Adobe did a few good things with Animate - but absolutely not enough. At this point, I believe the best thing Adobe can do for their own image and to save what's left of it, is to transfer Animate to the community and to let it become what's it always meant to be - let Animate become evolved to reach its full potential. I know it's wishful thinking - but I still want to hope that it can be done.
Adobe are clearly not interested in Animate - so why not make a kind gesture, on their part, and make it open source and hand it down to the community. And the world will start talking about this, and it will heal Adobe's image in regard to the "hidden subscription fee trap" scandal and all that kind of thing.
Yes, big mistake to to change a unique name to a generic "Animate" so that it's really hard to find any info or tuts... but there where too many Jobs fans around that time. Some in the old team that got jobs at Apple. Go figure.
I've used Animate (since the Macromedia era) in countless projects—it’s my go-to for illustration and animation. With Animate and AIR, there’s no project you can’t tackle. Just last year, I published two mobile educational games with it.
Adobe needs to position Animate correctly: more sample projects, templates, and consistent updates. I doubt the decision-makers fully grasp its potential. Once a trendsetter, Adobe now feels like it’s chasing trends—a leadership issue that needs fixing.
I have a substantial portfolio of interactive infographics that demonstrate the abilities of animate. I have found workarounds, such as embedding webm video components, to reduce file sizes of ambitious projects.
As a community, I suggest we pool those samples and share with Adobe -- and position the product as a multiple range software, just like Tumult Hype is doing (https://tumult.com/hype/gallery/).
I installed Animate today to experiment with the format, since a possible use I may have in the future is exporting in HTML, as I usually do motion graphics in After Effects, which doesn't support that to my knowledge. So I decided to check the community page, since the app felt quite "un-updated" (Hm, where's all the annoying new contextual task bars and generative AI popups that I never use?) and wanted to check if anyone agreed.
This post really reminded me of Adobe's current state. It's gotten to the point where I cannot use any Adobe program which isn't Illustrator or LrC without running into baffling performance/interface issues which would make me question if underneath all the new UI and features, we're all still running the same code that was written decades ago. (eg. About Animate: "Portions of this program were written with MacApp" Yes, I know it's normal for apps to be using old standards, but wasn't MacApp used for Classic MacOS?? What possible implementation would have to stick around from that old of an era?)
Welp, I feel like I will likely will have to look elsewhere for what I want to achieve, HTML or not. I wish Adobe a "Get well soon".
Why on earth are you going to wish a corporation a "Get well soon" card, they will discard it immediately.
Unfortunately we cannot sugarcoat the situation, since Adobe don't seem too interested to want to bring up any discussion in regards to Animate. And when people at Adobe promise to respond by a certain day, they proceed to give no response whatsoever.
I think it is safe to say by now that Adobe Animate will most definitely be discontinued at some point. There hasn't been a single update on development for over a year now, and with Creative Cloud 2026 fast approaching, it is only a matter of time until Adobe officially announces the discontinuation of Adobe Animate.
It is a shame too, since Adobe have chosen to let the software die in favour of promoting AI.
Not much positive to say if a piece of software is receiving the same treatment to the other discontinued software, well, before they were officially discontinued. Sorry!
I doubt Adobe cares at this moment, considering what we are seeing right now is the exact same pattern of behaviour that Adobe applied to previously discontinued software.
And besides, someone at Adobe apparently promised an update as early as November, but it is now April and at this rate, Animate is definitely looking to be discontinued. Sad, but I can't be too hopeful considering who we're dealing with at the moment.
I have worked on multiple television shows that used Flash/Animate to rig and animate characters, and I know of several productions that are using Animate and are currently in progress - it's the main reason I subscribe to Adobe products. If they drop Animate I won't have any reason to continue my subscription.