Adobe bids farewell to Flash, announces Animate rebranding

Adobe has at long last confirmed the death of Flash, announcing plans to rebrand its ageing web animation software as Adobe Animate CC early next year. 

The company has explained that the emergence of HTML5 and an increasing demand for animations that leverage evolving web standards led to the change. As it stands, over a third of all content created in Flash Professional uses HTML5. 

According to an Adobe statement, Flash Professional is being renamed Adobe Animate CC "to more accurately represent its position as the premier animation tool for the web and beyond."

Although Animate CC will continue to support Flash (SWF) and AIR formats, this appears to be more of a reboot than a simple rebrand, as Animate CC will play host to a wide array of new features that will let users create animations for any platform. 

Adobe will be showcasing Animate on its Twitch channel throughout the week.