Mike Chambers@mesh
I just shared an update on Adobe Animate over on reddit (/r/adobeanimate), and given the conversations on X, wanted to also share here. Its a bit long, as there is a lot of info, so I also included a screenshot of the core info on Animate.
TLDR: We have made some changes to to our plans for Adobe Animate, and it will continue to be available for both new and existing users
Hey everyone, my name is Mike Chambers, and I work on the community team at Adobe (and am a long time Flash / Animate user). 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, I 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.
On a personal note, as someone who started their career with Macromedia Flash 3 and Macromedia Generator, Adobe Animate has a special place in my heart. I know how frustrating and stressful this has been and we clearly could have handled and communicated this better. I might not have answers to everything, but I will try to answer any questions you might have.
