There are a lot of frustrated users on the Adobe forums following the decision to close Animate. Unfortunately, this feels very typical of Adobe and has become something of a pattern. Hopefully, this will encourage more people to look toward alternatives like Tumult Hype (and perhaps give us a nudge toward a Hype 5 release!), which is truly an outstanding piece of software and deserves a much wider audience.
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Wow! 
It looks like Tumult has another shot. I thought Hype should have been the app to pick up the pieces when the Flash plugin was no longer being supported, back in December 31, 2020.
I wasn't kidding…
…we're at a crossroads again, where either Tumult can rise to the occasion or the Internet can remain in mediocrity. Since the end of Flash, the web has been less exciting.
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I’m going to assume Adobe figures this is being replaced with AI. SAD!
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Very sad news. After cancelling their more web-centric 'Edge Animate,' it seems they still couldn't pivot Flash/Animate into a product that made sense for the modern web. Nonetheless, I was hoping it would still focus on the vector animation aspects that made it popular in the first place. There's tons more to do in this space, including leveraging AI itself if they so desired.
(And seems like a cop out to say the 'reason' is to focus on AI and not that the product languished, resulting in a diminishing user base...)
It looks like the situation changed. It looks like it's going into indefinite maintenance mode.
So, this is good news for Tumult!
It creates a bigger window of opportunity, but that moment starts from now… RIGHT NOW …not six months from now, not 1-2 years from now.
Isn't that what happened here though? 
People are wondering where's Hype 5. 
The people that are using Adobe Animate are going to start looking for alternatives. Is Hype a viable alternative? If they find Tumult Hype, what are they going to think… almost seven years since the 4.0 update?! That's not a good look.
Then there are the animation problems mentioned here…
https://forums.tumult.com/t/ideas-for-hype-5-features/
- Bones / Joints — “Rigging” and Joint Animation
- Lip Sync
- Camera
- Export video with audio
- Advanced Vector Shapes (SVG)
- SVG Shape Importing
If Tumult is working on those features, wouldn't it be a good idea to show a demo? Like this video… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_PKAJJhRoM
Why isn't there a beta of Hype 5 like there was of Hype 4?
It was frustrating watching the missed opportunity when the Flash plugin was shut down. A Flash-to-Hype converter would have been awesome! While such technology is difficult to create, there was Swiffy and Ruffle is interesting… https://github.com/ruffle-rs/ruffle …why isn't Hype doing awesome things like that?
I suppose that's how we know current AI can't replace coders. Can it build an Adobe Animate to Tumult Hype converter?
Even if an AI assistant had two apps open on the same computer, and was trained to tediously convert a project from one app to the other, how would that work without Hype supporting critical animation features?
Imagine the problem animators now face. They have all this artwork in Adobe software. What are they going to do now? How do they get their work off the old application and into Hype? There isn't a bridge connecting those two points.
Well, it looks like Tumult is getting another shot at greatness. It's going to be interesting to see how this turns out.
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Is this deja voo? I also remember Edge Animate, someone wake me up!
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This is one of the reasons why Adobe, when it comes to its relationship with users, doesn’t really deserve that much respect. It’s not the first time the company has decided to shut down a piece of software, leaving the people who relied on it completely stranded. When Adobe realizes it can no longer pursue a certain direction, it often doesn’t even invest in an evolution of the product or a gradual transition; it simply pulls the plug, and those who have spent years working with that software suddenly find themselves without a “home.”
The same thing happened to me with the Muse application, which was an excellent tool for visual website creation. Instead of updating it or rethinking it—perhaps by adapting it to more modern code—they chose to shut it down entirely, leaving all those who worked visually with that software out in the cold.
From this perspective, I don’t find Adobe reliable at all, and that’s one of the reasons why I always try to look for alternatives to its products. That said, I have to admit that some flagship software, such as After Effects, is still very difficult to replace, mainly because of the ecosystem that has been built around it over the years, with its plug-ins, tools, and well-established expertise.
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Also Apple with iWeb, Aperture….
Apple launches apps that require constant updates, like in the web and photography, then when it realizes that it is not its job, it abandons and promotes external apps only to then buy them and start the cycle again.
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A huge opportunity for Hype 5 !!!
If there would be an ideal moment to launch the new version of Hype, it is now. Please do so! After the launch of the new version of affinity more and more people leave adobe, mainly because it’s becoming expensive and unreliable. Now with animate going into maintenance mode another major failure.
On this forum there is a lot of contribution of feature requests, exchanging ideas, … of Max, Photics and lots of others.
I Think lot a lot of us, including myself, will want to help test a beta app. So Hype can become one of the best apps for animation, app creation and more.
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It could already happen with V4; for a complete novice, it already represents enormous potential.
The market is made up of many designers who can already create interesting things without coding. That market is probably looking for hype. 
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Version 4.0 of Hype was a great upgrade, but there were big issues. I wanted to make a game with Hype, but there are issues with the Physics engine. In a healthy development environment, these improvements would already be added.
The problem with 4.x is especially problematic for animators.
Even if someone wanted to move their work to Hype, how would that happen? You can't make advanced shapes… even just a donut is a problem… unless you split that donut into two halves — which is awkward to work with.
- How would you import years worth of your vector artwork into Hype?
- How would you import animations that involve rigging / bones / joints?
And let's be real, the Windows / Mac problem is a non-starter for lots of people.
…and this is the bigger problem. I really do not like what Apple has done to the iWork apps!
There are alternatives to office apps. I don't need to use Pages, Numbers, or Keynote, but I liked that they didn't bother me. While pivot tables or mail merge are nice features, I don't normally do that kind of work. I didn't care that the apps weren't seeing major updates. I liked the consistency. What I also liked is how the software was integrated into the Apple ecosphere and it just worked.
Now, the apps try to upsell into renting software — the very dangerous situation that is at the root of this Adobe problem. I'd go to create a new document and there are all these little Apple Creator Studio icons all over the place.
That's tacky! 
I've been pressing the “not now” option until I figure out how I want to solve this problem.
Ever play Crossy Road? The company that makes the game is “Hipster Whale”. It's a bit of a joke, as “whales” are the ones that spend a lot of money on in-app purchases. That's the main idea behind “freemium” games. Yet, I didn't play Crossy Road until it was on the Apple TV — without ads!
Is that what Apple wants to be?! Is that how they want to treat their ecosystem… like a mobile game app?! 
I did an inventory of blockers, apps that were difficult to replace elsewhere. Apple just knocked four of them off the list. If the iWork apps are going to spam me, and if I can't trust the future of Final Cut Pro, that just leaves Hype.
So this is what brings it all together. One of the most popular posts on the forum is this… Windows / PC version of Tumult Hype …Tumult was told about the problem. I don't like Windows anymore — especially after version 11. Yet, this creates a humungous problem for Hype.
The community said… hey, you need to fix this problem …but the conversation was shut down. That's a rare occurrence here. What does that say to customers — it's not good!
At its core, Hype is for web development and web animation. If apps like Visual Studio Code, Inkscape, FileZilla, and others can run cross-platform — Mac, Windows, Linux — why can't Hype do that? It's been over 10 years since that forum post. If this is your flagship app, why wouldn't you want to solve that problem?
OUTSOURCE the problem if you hate working with Windows. Try doing a Kickstarter to hire someone to do the work. DO SOMETHING! These problems are fixable. Why isn't there action in Tumult land?!
Things were… different …back in December 31, 2020. I could see not being prepared during that moment in time. But the Hype 5 thread was created two years and a day ago. Tumult should have been all over this opportunity. That was a huge unforced error by Adobe — a big fumble!
I was being patient. I was being optimistic. But since nothing significantly positive happened, a great opportunity is being missed.
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For the energy you invest, you could alternatively create your own app! 
We need to understand what the vocation of the software is. I worked for schools with infographics, for companies with configurators, to build plugins for marketplaces, to make animated GIFs for Giphy, and many other things ( almost withour custom code) over the years.
I would not use Hype to make a cartoon, and I do not expect this. Hype does not have that vocation.
The biggest audience is the one that does not need tutorials to learn how to use Hype and writes code. We need to think like the average user who opens the app store and watches videos on YouTube; in my opinion, he is the one who makes the statistics.
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I did consider it, but this is Tumult's thing.
Besides, two apps I'm working on have higher priority — and a book! If all three of those projects are done… and I'm still hungry for things to do… hmm!
Nah, Tumult is really close. They said they're working on Hype 5. They're pretty straightforward, honest, and professional. When Hype 5 is here, I might have some… interesting things to add. 
I've been… hmm… nah… that's a story for later. Basically, it's a matter of when Hype 5 is launched and what new features are added. Let's just say I've been watching Tumult's responses and planning accordingly. 
That's the problem. If someone asked me, what's an alternative to Adobe Animate, It would be tough to recommend Hype… not right now. It's missing key features.
Yet, is Hype not supposed to be a replacement for Flash?
If “no” is the answer, then… oh well. 
Having created a wide array of YouTube videos, I'm not sure that's the best standard. Videos about Pac-Man board games are my most popular content.
Hype does need improvements with being easier for beginners, especially with animation and game development. However, that's why Hype is nice — it's a gateway to learning true web development.
Around 15 years ago, I picked Tumult Hype because it was a “no-code” solution. But eventually, I got a lot better at coding. Today, many of my Hype projects don't have much to do with the timeline.
The software needs to cater to both beginners and professionals. That way, when the experts are asked for recommendations, they don't hesitate.
Being just focused on the needs of beginners might not be such a great idea in the era of AI. Because if a beginner is looking for a quick and easy way to make animation, there's Sora, Veo, and a bunch of others.
The reason to use Hype is because it's lightweight and essentially vanilla web tech — HTML, CSS, JavaScript. People still make websites. And if you want to make animation, without the massive file size of video, what are your options?
Then, when you look at where Hype is at, it not hard to see where it can go. It just needs some work to be better at game development and animation.
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