Adobe: It’s Time to Deliver on the Captivate Promise

Back in July 2024, Adobe published the “New Captivate Roadmap,” outlining its vision for the future of the application. It was an encouraging post. Adobe acknowledged that the new Captivate didn’t yet match Captivate Classic and laid out a roadmap showing the missing features that would be added over time. Even more encouraging, the roadmap indicated that the journey to feature parity would be completed by 2025.

Well…

It’s almost 2027.

When Adobe introduced the all-new Captivate, I was cautiously optimistic.

I understood why the company chose not to simply modernize Captivate Classic. Starting with a new code base made sense. A modern architecture could provide a stronger foundation for the future, improve performance, simplify responsive authoring, and make it easier to add new capabilities over time.

What convinced many of us to stay invested wasn’t the initial release—it was Adobe’s promise. The published roadmap made it clear that the new Captivate would steadily evolve until it reached feature parity with Captivate Classic. The message was straightforward: Be patient. The features are coming.

So we waited.

Nearly three years later, Adobe has certainly made progress. The application has gained improvements to accessibility, AI-assisted content creation, responsive authoring enhancements, new widgets, and even a beta importer for Captivate Classic projects. Those additions are appreciated, and it’s obvious that work is being done.

The problem isn’t that Adobe isn’t developing Captivate.

The problem is how slowly it’s happening.

For developers who relied on Captivate Classic to build sophisticated software simulations, branching scenarios, variables, advanced actions, shared actions, object states, and the countless other features that made Captivate such a powerful authoring tool, the new version still feels unfinished. Every release seems to introduce one or two meaningful improvements while leaving a long list of highly requested capabilities untouched.

Take software simulations as an example. This was once Captivate’s signature feature, and it’s still nowhere near the level of Captivate Classic. During recording, the generated text instructions often require significant editing because they simply aren’t as accurate as they were in Classic. When the recording is complete, the cursor appears as a gray blob instead of an actual mouse pointer, forcing you to manually change its appearance. Even something as basic as formatting the instructional captions has become more tedious. In Classic, you could define object styles so every simulation caption looked exactly the way you wanted. Change the style once, and every caption updated automatically. In the new Captivate, you’re editing captions one at a time because there isn’t an equivalent way to globally control the appearance of simulation instructions. These aren’t flashy, headline-grabbing features—they’re the everyday workflow improvements that made Captivate such an efficient tool. Losing them doesn’t feel like progress. It feels like a step backward.

Still Waiting…

Here’s just a sampling of the capabilities that Captivate Classic users have been waiting to see fully realized:

• A software simulation workflow that truly matches Classic.
• Accurate simulation text instructions without extensive cleanup.
• Proper mouse pointers during simulation recording instead of generic cursor graphics.
• Global styling for simulation captions rather than editing them one at a time.
• Full parity for advanced actions and shared actions.
• More complete variable support.
• Virtual reality/360 images.
• MS Word round-tripping.
• Video demo mode.
• Export as a PDF.
• An asset library that isn’t a joke (seriously, there are a few hundred assets included with Captivate when there should be millions).
• A faster release cadence that gives users confidence the platform is actively evolving. (It feels like Adobe isn’t truly supporting eLearning or technical communications any longer.)

This isn’t an exhaustive list. Ask ten experienced Captivate developers what they’re still missing, and you’ll probably get ten different answers. But you’ll also find remarkable agreement on one thing: we’re still waiting for the application Adobe promised.

That’s disappointing because Adobe set the expectation that the new Captivate would eventually stand shoulder to shoulder with Classic. According to the roadmap, much of that work was expected to be complete by 2025. At the current pace, that goal feels increasingly distant.

Meanwhile, the rest of the industry isn’t standing still. Organizations need to choose authoring tools today, not several years from now. Consultants have client deadlines. Corporate training teams have projects to deliver. Colleges need software they can confidently teach. Every month that passes without substantial progress gives organizations another reason to evaluate alternatives.

Articulate, for example, has established a steady release cadence for Storyline 360, rolling out new features, enhancements, and bug fixes almost every month. Not every update is groundbreaking, but the cumulative effect is significant. Users know the product is actively evolving, and they rarely have to wait long to see improvements or requested capabilities. That’s the kind of momentum Captivate once had—and it’s the kind of momentum Adobe needs to regain if it expects long-time Captivate users to remain invested.

Many long-time Captivate users have already transitioned to Storyline, while others are exploring other authoring platforms. The conversations I have with clients and fellow developers are no longer about when a feature will arrive—they’re about whether it ever will.

That’s the part that concerns me the most.

Adobe already knows what users are asking for. They published the roadmap. They acknowledged the missing functionality. They assured customers that feature parity with Classic was the destination. That roadmap generated excitement because it suggested a clear path forward, not simply a new product with a different target audience.

Promises, however, eventually have an expiration date.

At some point, users stop asking what’s coming next and begin wondering whether the destination has quietly changed.

I’ve been teaching Captivate for decades. I’ve written books about it, trained thousands of developers, and recommended it to organizations around the world. Captivate wasn’t just another eLearning authoring tool—it was, for many years, the application that set the standard for software simulations and advanced interactive learning.

That’s why this isn’t written out of anger. It’s written out of disappointment.

I want Captivate to succeed.

Adobe has talented engineers, a loyal customer base, and one of the strongest brands in creative software. The new Captivate has enormous potential, but potential alone won’t convince organizations to stay with the platform. They need to see substantial progress, a faster release cadence, and visible movement toward the parity Adobe promised.

Personally, I’d love nothing more than to write an article praising Adobe for finally delivering the features we’ve been waiting for. I want to recommend Captivate without reservations the way I once did. But that will only happen if Adobe accelerates development and demonstrates that the roadmap published years ago is still the roadmap they’re committed to following.

Adobe didn’t promise a different Captivate. It promised a better Captivate—one that would eventually match and surpass Classic. Until software simulations and the everyday authoring experience reach that level, that promise remains unfulfilled.

So here’s my message to Adobe:

Come on.

It’s time to pick up the pace.

Your most loyal customers have been remarkably patient because they believed in your vision. But patience isn’t unlimited, and every slow release makes it a little harder to believe that Captivate Classic’s capabilities will ever fully arrive in the new Captivate.

The roadmap created hope.

Now it’s time to deliver on it.