What is the future of XD after Adobe's failed acquisition of Figma?

[Tan34583873up61]

What is the future of XD after Adobe's failed acquisition of Figma?

[Byrdview]

@joel246759296dg5  I was just chatting with adobe support and they said 

"

here is no word regarding XD discontinuation. XD is one of the most popular platforms for UI/UX

All the users will be informed well in time, if there is ever a move to discontinue XD.

Rest assured XD is here to stay... 

Then....

"XD is in maintenance mode, meaning that the engineering team is not actively working on it. But team will continue to push security updates. It does not mean that the support for the product has ended"...

Then: 

"There is no official documentation for XD discontinuation. Only rumors in the community because they think that maintenance mode is equivalent to EOL. Even our team has not received any update. As soon as there is an update from the management team, all the users will be informed about the same."

[Byrdview]

I just closed a live chat with Adobe support and basically, "There is no official documentation for XD discontinuation. Only rumors in the community because they think that maintenance mode is equivalent to EOL. Even our team has not received any update. As soon as there is an update from the management team, all the users will be informed about the same."

[ellices63621269]

That is funny. Rumors are spreading because the lack of official word from Adobe and they aren't even disputing any comment that says XD is dead.

Using the phrase "maintenance mode" is what leads people to think it is winding down. I mean, Windows OS goes from having an actively updated/enhanced version, then it goes to a maintenance/security only updates, then it goes into no patches at all. If Adobe has a different definition of "maintenance mode," it would be best if they defined it for the class...

[Juur]

I've never used a specialized UI app myself, since as a solo freelancer I've done all of my site prototypes in Illustrator mostly and it has worked just fine, but perhaps i've been missing out on this and I might need to pick one up in the future with works that require more collaboration. So, yeah, would also like to know for sure what's the deal with XD. Is there any chance Adobe might resurrect it? Or is it indeed absolutely finished? If so, why is the XD app still lingering in the CC app list? Why is there no conclusive answer from Adobe? Intel leaks all the time, how come no Adobe worker is willing to comment on this?

[joel246759296dg5]

I think this is a very hard decision for Adobe to make. And it will be the best one for all of us when they get there. Either XD will come out of maintenance mode or they will have a reason that something else will emerge.

To me nothing beats a vector app like Adobe Illustrator. However XD has the most amazing prototype mode to make art boards interactive. XD cannot stand up to Illustrator but as a rapid prototyping tool it is incredibly fast, efficient and easy to use with some practice.

Kudos to you for creating UX artifacts in .ai. I did that as well before I used XD, Sketch, UX PIN, Axure, Proto io, and Sigma and others. Illustrator and Photoshop will always be essential needs to me to get the job done but a prototyping tool like XD brings that efficient and real interactive quality to life that we need to understand how a user would perceive a product.

[Bartosz Gołębiowski]

That's why I still do not understand why they gave up on Fireworks.
Fireworks had all checkboxes checked:
- prototyping features, 
- vector tools,
- raster tools, 
- graphic optimization tools - much better than those in Photoshop.
If only Adobe gave Fireworks a chance to shine, but they did not know how to make it shine.

[Chris W. Griffith]

It was a Macromedia product....

[Bartosz Gołębiowski]

So what? Animate, Captivate, Connect, Robohelp, ColdFusion, Dreamweaver are also ex-Macromedia apps.

[Ken21967388pf0y]

I had been using XD for years and thought it was a great product. But since they've decided to boneyard the tool, I've switched over to Figma. I tried using AI but found that it's incredibly nonintuitive to use. I realize it's power, but it's so hard to use if you are not proficient at it. The learning curve as with photoshop and their other tools is super steep!

[Uncle Jon]

Thanks for keeping this chat going, it is disgusting that Adobe have said nothing, on a quick search this chat comes up first! Come on Adobe, are you not customer focused? Good or bad news, we can take it! But no news is worse.

[Chris W. Griffith]

In a bloomberg.com article, an unnamed Adobe spokesperson is quoted say that XD is dead.

[Juur]

So they should get rid of it in the CC app list and reduce the subscription price accordingly.

[Ken21967388pf0y]

I agree. I also think Adobe has too many seperate apps as it is. I think they should consolidate Photoshop with Illustrator for starters. It's a mess traversings so many different apps for the same kinds of media. 

[Bartosz Gołębiowski]

Consolidate bitmap graphic app and vector graphic? Bad idea, not gonna happen.

[histerica]

Yep - but without figma it leaves a massive hole in their offering. It will be replaced, or they would hemmorage users.  Agreed, an update would be nice - but they had to pull the plug on a train that had been moving for more than two years. Bloomberg means nothing, all paid media.

Tried Figma, hate it. Might as well use PSD/AI - my love for XD as a traditional GD is that it is super light, and distraction free, similar to INDD for print. I am actually leaning towards functionality being ported into INDD, but making it channel/media agnostic.

I would be SUPER happy on all fronts if they would just align their short cuts haha.

[joel246759296dg5]

I agree. Some semblance of a better offering for us would be nice. I found XD to be very portable and produced decent work for rapid prototyping and a design system that was far greater than sketch and all the invision confusion. I am learning Figma and honestly it does not move at light speed in terms of what I am trying to do and how to get it to my devs.