- Adobe says Animate no longer meets user needs like it used to
- Could its disuse be making room for new GenAI tools?
- There is no direct replacement – After Effects and Express will cover “portions”
Adobe has confirmed that it will discontinue Adobe Animate starting March 1, 2026, citing the rise of newer (read: AI) platforms that “better meet user needs.”
A multi-stage phase-out will see users still be able to access and download their files for one year, or three years for enterprise customers, after which the service will be completely obsolete and all remaining files will be deleted.
“Animate has been a product that has been around for over 25 years and has served its purpose of creating, nurturing and developing the animation ecosystem well,” the company wrote on a separate support page, suggesting that it is time for the now-obsolete tool to be retired.
“As technologies evolve, new platforms and paradigms emerge,” Adobe wrote, indicating a preference for starting from scratch with newer, more suitable tools rather than trying to introduce generative AI into Animate.
The decision didn’t come as a huge surprise, given Animate’s absence from the latest Adobe Max conference and lack of significant updates in 2025, however, users are still unhappy with the retirement plan, with some urging Adobe to open-source the app rather than cutting ties completely.
However, there is no single tool that is presented as a successor. Instead, Adobe is steering customers toward its comprehensive (and expensive) Creative Cloud Pro plan, which includes After Effects and Express, to replace “portions” of Animate.
Users who still have projects in Adobe Animate that they’ve forgotten about will have a slightly different experience when downloading the app, which is now located in the “Show older apps (top right, profile icon > Preferences > Apps > Show older apps)” section of the Creative Cloud desktop client.
Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to receive news, reviews and opinions from our experts in your feeds. Be sure to click the Follow button!
And of course you can also follow TechRadar on TikTok for news, reviews, unboxings in video form and receive regular updates from us on WhatsApp also.
