Adobe reverses decision to discontinue Animate, apologizes for 'confusion and angst within the community'

• Adobe Animate is now in maintenance mode, which means it will no longer get new features
• Senior Director apologizes for previous message which caused "confusion and angst"
• Unlike yesterday's report, new Animate users are still being welcomed

Adobe has reversed its decision to discontinue its popular Animate platform following huge community uproar.

Less than 24 hours after announcing the move, Adobe Creative Cloud Senior Director for Design Marketing & Community Mike Chambers admitted in a Reddit post that the company failed to "meet [its] standards" and "caused a lot of confusion and angst within the community."

What has now become clear is that Animate is still being deprioritized, but rather it will enter a so-called 'maintenance mode' rather than being fully sunset at this point.

Adobe Animate isn't being discontinued after all

Chambers said Animate is already in (thus, not entering) maintenance mode, which means it will continue to get security and bug fixes.

"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," Chambers stressed.

Maintenance mode is Adobe speak for cutting support for new features, but the app will still get all the usual customer support and security updates to keep it going for potentially years to come.

Responding to community uproar following previous announcements that Adobe Animate was going to be discontinued, Chambers promised to "take steps so that the community continues to have long-term access to their content."

While this is certainly good news for Animate users and a green flag for Adobe as it proactively responds to customer feedback, some are still unhappy. One Reddit user challenged the subscription model behind Animate, suggesting it should become a perpetual license now that new features are no longer being added.

TechRadar Pro asked Adobe whether it would be open to changing its pricing or licensing strategy for the platform – any update will be shared here.

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