It’s the beginning of the end for Adobe Flash

HTML5 is a newer technology for building and displaying web content. Most developers have already made the switch to producing content exclusively in HTML5, and Adobe has followed suit.

Adobe Animate will still let developers create Flash content when it’s released early next year, but there’s nothing like dropping “Flash” from its name to signal the beginning of the end.

But Adobe notes that it will continue to support Flash as long as it’s online. Previous versions of Flash Professional will continue to be available. HTML5 is an open platform. Because of the emergence of HTML5 and demand for animations that leverage web standards, we completely rewrote the tool over the past few years to incorporate native HTML5 Canvas and WebGL support.

Along with changing the name of Flash Professional CC, Adobe is working on major feature updates for the software, including improved drawing, illustration, and authoring support and integration with Adobe Stock and Creative Cloud Libraries.

“Adobe has a history of pioneering and advancing industry standards”. Adobe says it will be working with Microsoft and Google to maintain Flash’s compatibility and security inside of web browsers. That said, many websites and apps still rely on Flash to power games and video. “Our customers have clearly communicated that they would like our creative applications to evolve to support multiple standards and we are committed to doing that”.

Adobe announced Tuesday that is replacing Flash Professional, its web animation tool, with a new program called Adobe Animate CC that will launch in January 2016. “Today, open standards like HTML5 have matured and provide numerous capabilities that Flash ushered in”, Adobe continued.