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We have no idea how this will play out.
They are just buying their competitor, easier than improving their product.
They did say support for XD won't end. I have to believe both will merge into one super-duper UX app.
(FigmaD? Xigma?) xD
It's all speculation, of course. I wonder what Figma users are thinking right now, though.
My guess is we might have file interop between XD and Figma. If we are lucky some other sharing functionality.
Sounds to me like XD will soon no longer be. From an email this morning:
Dear Valued Customer,
We're writing to share some exciting news we announced today. Adobe has entered into a definitive merger agreement to acquire Figma, a leading web-first design platform for teams who build products together.
Figma and FigJam make it possible for all stakeholders designing interactive mobile and web applications to collaborate through multi-player workflows, sophisticated design systems and a rich extensib
...My hot take without all the facts:
Figma & XD aren't well differentiated enough to make a clear path for running them in parallel indefinitely. When they say 'we will continue to supportt XD' while 'reducing our investment in XD' it sounds similar to what they've done with Adobe Dimensions since introducing the Substance Suite. The difference is that as the premium product, Figma would have to become a subscription (?).
I'm having flash backs of when Adobe acquired Macromedia. They mainly wante
.... Like I think Illustrator got Freehands auttrace engine (?).
By @Wednesday Dessauer
No. Illustrator at that time already had better autotrace than FreeHand ever had.
At least the UI of XD and Figma are near identical so the migration will be relatively painless 😀
What it means is Adobe has finally accepted their abysmal failure.
XD will wind down. Figma will receive lots of cash and a slow lethal injection of Adobe bureaucracy.
It's not a great time to be a user of XD or Figma, tbh.
...and the day started out so well this morning.
What a mess. Bad news for Figma users, and bad news for XD users.
Obviously XD's development will end with the acquisition of Figma. And Figma's successful business model will be turned on its head and ruined by Adobe management in a few years time.
Chances are a new upstart company will provide an alternative to Figma that uses Figma's old successful business model, and after a decade or two or so Figma will but remain a pleasant memory.
I shudder
...So the probability of XD disappearing is still very high, right?
They have Figjam and Figma, two incredibly great tools for collaborative whiteboarding, UI design, and prototyping. These tools are far more advanced, stable, reliable, and feature-rich, compared to Adobe XD (plus Whiteboard plug-in). Apart from XD's jaw-dropping Repeat Grid (with auto-alternating content), they offer everything Adobe XD does (and sooo much more), but quicker, better, more elegant and efficient.
Only thing Figma is missing compared to Xd is Video and Lottie (although they do support GIFs, they are pretty inefficient). Another thing - Xd allows for some hacks to simulate a sticky navigation, which due to the way fixed elements work in Figma, are impossible to achieve in the same way.
So if they add Video / Lottie to Figma and (proper) sticky functionality / scroll trigger - I personally don't need anything else.
FYI Multiplatform is less of an issue than it used to be. Depending on the environment you can create a Mac app as easily as a Windows app. Again, this is using the newer development environments. However, if one platform has a library that the other doesn't then it can cause major lag as it has to have feature parity.
The interesting part here seems to do with Microsoft's interests in Figma. They like Figma at Microsoft.
Another issue may be the Mac M1 architecture upgrades for the desktop too
...I have NO problem with Adobe's pricing. I sometimes need to use all their tools and I know I have access to all of them. The price is right. No complaints.
I would like to see Adobe stopped from aquiring Figma.
They are a monopoly.
Adobe sits in the heart of San Jose along with Google, Facebook, Twitter and the rest. These people have no allegence to Freedom or the American way of life. Technocracy is their end game.
Hi All,
We apologize for the delay in response and thank you for your observations.
What’s the plan for XD? Will Figma become part of XD, or will XD be EOL?
We will continue to serve our existing Adobe XD customers. Post close, we look forward to engaging with the XD and Figma communities to understand ways we could add value. Key info: adobe.ly/3BEzZ2n
Thanks,
Harshika
Hello ! I leearnec that Figma has been acquired by Abobe. To download Figma how do I proceed ? Is it present on the adobe suite or do I have to buy it via the usual platform ?
Adobe has announced the intent to acquire Figma, but this has not happened yet and the process will take months for the deal to close:
"The transaction is expected to close in 2023, subject to the receipt of required regulatory clearances and approvals and the satisfaction of other closing conditions, including the approval of Figma’s stockholders."
https://news.adobe.com/news/news-details/2022/Adobe-to-Acquire-Figma/default.aspx
So in the meatime, those who wish to use Figma should procee
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Thanks Everyone for you comments for this interesting discussion about Figma. Adobe Max is fun so I'm going to close this thread. This means I'll mark as many as I can with the correct answer. Again. Thanks everyone for your commnents.
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. Like I think Illustrator got Freehands auttrace engine (?).
By @Wednesday Dessauer
No. Illustrator at that time already had better autotrace than FreeHand ever had.
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Thank you Monika, I must have misremembered that part. 🙂
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I had totally forgotten about Streamline. Ever the source of knowledge Earth.
In my defence, I never used auto trace features back then. I always insisted on doing everything manually with the pen tool, like I was Luke Skywalker with just one shot at destroying the Deathstar.
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So the probability of XD disappearing is still very high, right?
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I'm afraid it looks that way. I don't expect they will shut it off any time soon, but there doesn't seem to be a busines case for continuing to build new features. I suspect they will leave it to stagnate and just fall further & further behind the other prototyping apps. It avoids the issue for now, and reduces the objections later.
One thing I wonder is, when the time does come to turn off the lights, will all those prototypes in the cloud continue to function? ( I'm starting my questions list for Adobe MAX already! )
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I don't think this deal will pass. Adobe already controls too much of the creative chain. Figma portfolio is so large Adobe would be unchallenged. Personally, I already pay for cc and substance suites.
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Let's hope so. The mononpoly is already way too big here and Adobe dev has been stalled for way too long. I'm so tired of the mediocrity and nothing would be better for the professional realm than much more serious competition.
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Adobe doesn't have a monopoly, and never did. There have always been competing tools in all the areas and industries they operate in. Just to name a few: Corel Draw, QuarkXPress, Avid, FinalCut, Davinci, Affinity, ProCreate, etc. Hey, even Canva needs to be countered by Adobe Express ! They're dominant, for sure, at least in professional print media and imaging. They're a strong player in the marketplace for audio/video tools. But they've always been weak and dwindling in web and app design...
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@Peter Villevoye I DO NOT AGREE with this comment at all! Microsoft for years was considered a monopoly because they could BUNDLE products for competitive advantage. This was how they knocked off IBM. IBM has never been a challenger since even with better products. Adobe's bundle even if their products are not best have resulted in higher prices for the industry for creative tools.
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Microsoft was indeed more a monopoly and quite aggresive in that.
But I was talking about Adobe.
And talking about pricing, let's not go there... Blast from the past !
Back in the early 2000's, buying a CS upgrade, let's say every 3 years, for ALL bundles would add up to well over $ 3,000. Even the Master Collection would set you back a whopping $ 2,599. That's more than $ 800 per year. How much is an Adobe subscription nowadays, and what do you get by that ?
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I have NO problem with Adobe's pricing. I sometimes need to use all their tools and I know I have access to all of them. The price is right. No complaints.
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I think the roadmap definitely ends for XD, just like it did for other competing products Adobe acquired, like PageMaker, FreeHand, PageMill/SiteMill, GoLive, FireWorks, and their own initiatives like LiveMotion, Edge Animation, Muse, Dimension, and now XD.
And since Adobe isn't adamant anymore about CC tools and services not following suit or even retaining their original brand (like Behance), I expect a very open and friendly attitude towards Figma and its users. They need this tool to (re)gain presence and status in the realms of UI design. Otherwise, more users will gradually turn away from an Adobe CC subscriptions, with all these other popular and obscure non-Adobe tools.
BTW: don't be afraid to change ship. Figma already imports XD files, maybe with some flaws, but that will even improve vastly now. So your investment in files won't be lost !
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At least the UI of XD and Figma are near identical so the migration will be relatively painless 😀
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Figma is a TOTAL mismatch for Adobe. Figma is a browser & Electron app - a model that works best. ALL Adobe app upgrades are SLOW because 90% of dev costs go to creating parity between Mac-Win versions to work/sync files over the web. Figma may be shelved. The effort to convert XD to work like Figma is too much for Adobe.
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Certainly Adobe will keep Figma as is, as web app. Probably terminate XD as desktop app eventually. Does not make any sense otherwise.
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Not really. Dozens of Aodobe apps would need to be migrated to the browser. How long will that take? It would be like the Manhattan project to make that work in 3 years. I don't see that happening.
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And Apple seems to prefer native apps?
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agree
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Or they just want their customer list...
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Incorrect, Figma also has a native app version, and even the option to take files off-line (export) and put them back on-line again (import). So any users with no permanent access to the internet can still work on a file.
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Figma desktop app does not open offline (at least for me) so I'd say it's more of a webapp desktop wrapper (nothing wrong with that, though)
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Correct. Figma app is a just a wrapper. It's very fast and reliable.
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@Kenneth KawamotoDo you have paid or free version? Some firms only allow paid to get offline access.