Feature deprecations affecting Automation Anywhere products

Review the features and capabilities (from Automation Anywhere or third party) that are deprecated or nearing deprecation to understand how they affect your automation and what action is required.

Definition: Deprecation refers to features or capabilities available in the current (latest) release that are planned to be removed or unsupported in a future release.

You can use the specified alternatives or updated versions when they are made available.

Third-party feature deprecations

Upcoming: The following table lists third-party features that will be deprecated by the date mentioned:

Feature or capability Deprecation date Customer impact and recommendation Resources

Google Less Secure Apps (LSAs) deprecation

September 30, 2024

Google has announced the deprecation of Less Secure Apps (LSAs) to connect to Google Workspace using a username and password as this authentication is not secure and does not meet the industry's best practices.

Google recommends using a more secure OAuth2-based authentication to connect to Gmail.

If you are using Automation 360 to automate Gmail using Email and Email Trigger packages with Basic authentication, then you will be impacted by this deprecation.

The latest Automation 360 version of the Email package provides you an option to switch from Basic authentication to OAuth2 - PKCE. However, the same option is not available in the Email Trigger package.

To help reduce the risk of deprecation, we plan to enhance the Email and Email trigger packages with a new Control Room managed OAuth2 mode of authentication that you can use to automate Gmail. This authentication mode is secure and uses the centralized access token management from the Control Room. A similar solution has already been provided for Google packages.

For details, see Connect action for Google packages

Recommended: We plan to provide a Bot Scanner utility to help you scan and identify the impacted bots that use the Email and Email trigger packages to automate Gmail. You can then update the impacted bots by replacing the Basic authentication with Control Room managed OAuth2 authentication mode.

Google Less Secure Apps (LSA) deprecation

Completed: The following table lists third-party features that are already deprecated:

Feature or capability Deprecation date Customer impact and recommendation Resources

EWS API

See Upcoming API Deprecations in Exchange Web Services for Exchange Online

March 31, 2022 Automation 360 currently uses EWS API in Email package and Email trigger for the EWS option to connect to Exchange Online hosted on Azure Cloud and access emails from Microsoft 365.

Microsoft has recommended that customers move to a REST-based Graph API, which is more secure and scalable compared with the legacy SOAP-based EWS API. Therefore Automation 360 will provide support for Microsoft 365 Outlook package based on Graph APIs which will enable you to switch from EWS API to Graph API from an upcoming release.

This deprecation by Microsoft might impact bots for email automations (Email package and Email trigger) that connect to Exchange Online using EWS API. Note that there is no immediate impact on your existing bots and they continue to run properly.

Recommended: Update the impacted bots by replacing each email-related action with the equivalent new actions in the Microsoft 365 Outlook package, planned in the upcoming release if your bots are impacted by the deprecation.

Manifest V2 based extensions (Automation 360 v.26 and later releases) October 23, 2023 From Automation 360 v.26 and later releases, we have published new Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge Manifest V3 extensions.

Starting on October 23, 2023, we will deprecate support for Manifest V2 extensions on Automation 360 v.26 and later releases. After this date, we will not address any issues relating to Manifest v2 extensions. If you are on Automation 360 v.26 or a later release and still using Manifest V2 extensions for Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge, we recommend that you update your Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge browser extensions to Manifest V3 extensions before October 23, 2023.

Tegaki API OCR engine October 3, 2023 From Automation 360v.30, we have deprecated use of Tegaki API OCR engine for data extraction in Automation 360 IQ Bot. We recommend using the Google Vision OCR engine instead.
Deprecation note added to:
Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.0 and TLS 1.1 April 2023 Automation 360 Cloud deployments currently support the following TLS protocol versions:
  • TLS 1.0
  • TLS 1.1
  • TLS 1.2
  • TLS 1.3
However, the TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1 protocol versions have security vulnerabilities as per the industry security standards. Therefore, Automation 360 Cloud deployments for Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud Project will support only the TLS 1.2 and TLS 1.3 protocol versions.
Note: For Automation 360 Cloud deployments, the changes will be effective as part of the Cloud deployment configurations, not as part of the Automation 360 release.
Deprecating TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1

Manifest V2 based extensions by Google

See also: Overview and timelines for migrating to Manifest V3

January 2023
Automations that use Google Chrome Manifest V2 based extensions will stop working sometime after June 2023. The deprecation timelines of Manifest V2 based extensions are currently under review and subject to change by Google.This might impact customer bots that automate web applications over Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge.

Recommended: Switch to Manifest V3 based extensions for Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge.

Releases:
  • Automation 360 v.26
  • Version 11.3.5.8

Basic authentication in Exchange Online

October 2022

Bots for email automations (Email package and trigger) that connect to Exchange Online by using IMAP, POP3, or EWS protocols with Basic authentication will be impacted.

Recommended: Update the impacted bots by replacing each email-related action with OAuth 2.0.

Released:
  • A package only release for Automation 360 v.25
  • Version 11.3.5.7 client patch
Internet Explorer EOL June 2022

Customers who are running IE-based bots on Windows 10 Semi-Annual Channel are impacted.

Releases with tools to convert IE-based bots to Microsoft Edge with IE mode:
  • Automation 360 v.24R2
  • Version 11.3.5.6

Automation Anywhere feature deprecations

Upcoming: The following table lists Automation Anywhere features that will be deprecated by the date mentioned:

Feature or capability Deprecation date Customer impact and recommendation Resources
Cloud Migration Utility September 30, 2024 This deprecation will impact customers who are using Enterprise 11 and are planning to use the Cloud Migration Utility to migrate to ​Automation 360 Cloud. The Cloud Migration Utility will be supported for releases we plan to deliver up to September 2024 (planned Automation 360 v.33 release). We recommend that such customers use the utility to migrate to the latest available Automation 360 Cloud GA release before September 30, 2024. For assistance, contact Automation Anywhere support: Open a support case (A-People login required).
Cloud-enabled deployment model April 2024 This deprecation will impact customers who are on a Cloud-enabled deployment model. We recommend that such customers move to Automation 360 Cloud or On-Premises before the deprecation. For assistance, contact Automation Anywhere support: Open a support case (A-People login required).

Completed: The following table lists Automation Anywhere features that are already deprecated:

Feature or capability Deprecation date Customer impact and recommendation Resources
v1 Authentication API December 2023

From Automation 360 v.31, the Authentication API (v1/authenticationand v1/authentication/token) will be deprecated.

Recommended: You can use the v2/authenticationand v2/authentication/token

  • New API: Authentication API v2/authenticationand v2/authentication/token
  • Deprecated API: v1/authenticationand v1/authentication/token
v1 User Management API December 2023

From Automation 360 v.31, the User Management APIs (v1/usermanagement will be deprecated.

Recommended: You can use the v2/usermanagement

  • New API: User Management APIs v2/usermanagement
  • Deprecated APIs: v1/usermanagement
v3 Migration API December 2023

From Automation 360 v.31, the v3 Migration APIs (v3/migration will be deprecated.

Recommended: You can use the v4/migration

  • New API: Migration APIs v4/migration
  • Deprecated APIs: v3/migration
Automation 360 IQ Bot Community Edition November 28, 2023

Automation 360 IQ Bot Community Edition will no longer be available from November 28, 2023. Use the Document Automation Community Edition for enhanced intelligent document processing.

Users who have created automations using Automation 360 IQ Bot will need to rewrite them using Document Automation.

To learn more, refer to Document Automation.

Descoped language support

June/July 2023

Beginning with Automation 360 v.29, the User Interface for Automation Anywhere product will no longer support Italian, Russian, and Simplified Chinese languages. In addition, updated release documentation will no longer be available in these three languages though older documentation will be accessible.

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IQ Bot Extraction package This package is deprecated from Automation 360 v.26. Document Automation provides all the capabilities provided by the IQ Bot Extraction package. To move your bots from the IQ Bot Extraction package to Document Automation, see Move from IQ Bot Extraction package to Document Automation. Archived Documentation (PDF):

IQ Bot Extraction package

October 2022

From Automation 360 v.25, the IQ Bot Extraction package no longer supports pre-trained machine learning model for invoice data extraction but will continue to support learning instance group based-training extraction.

Recommended: Use the new command package called Document Extraction, released in v.25 as part of Document Automation.

Released: Automation 360 v.25

Move from IQ Bot Extraction package to Document Automation

IQ Bot - Tesseract OCR v3

October 2022

For all existing learning instances trained using Tesseract OCR v3, we recommend that you plan to train them with alternative OCRs (including Tesseract4 OCR) before you update to v.26. Note that Automation 360 IQ Bot Cloud customers will receive the v.26 release by default from October 2022.

Released: Automation 360 v.26

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G-Suite Apps September 2022 From Automation 360 v.26, the GSuite Apps package no longer supports using the Connect and Disconnect actions to establish a connection with the Google server and automate tasks.
Recommended:For specific G-Suite applications, the functionality of the G-Suite Apps package is available in the following G-Suite packages:
  • Google Drive
  • Google Calendar
  • Google Sheets
To automate tasks, in the appropriate G-suite package, use the corresponding Connect and Disconnect actions.
Connect action for Google packages
Automation Anywhere Mobile app July 2022 The Automation Anywhere Mobile app is deprecated and will not be updated to subsequent versions of iOS and Android. The mobile app is no longer available and no further support will be offered. A replacement product is currently not available. Archived Documentation (PDF): EN-US
V2 Activity List API June 2022 From Automation 360 v.25, the Activity List API (v2/activity/list) is deprecated.

Recommended: With the newly implemented Activity List API (v3/activity/list), you can return the job executions without call back and bot output information.

Note: If you want to get the botOutVariables or callbackInfo, use /v3/activity/execution/{id} Bot Execution Orchestrator API V3 .
Automation Anywhere for Excel January 2022

Automation Anywhere for Excel has been deprecated. The plug-in is no longer available to download as a product. However, support will be offered to current customers already using the product.

A replacement product as a plug-in for Microsoft Excel is not available. However, as an alternative, new customers can develop bots for Excel within the Automation 360 Automation Workspace and use input variables to allow specifying file names, worksheets, and ranges for bots to operate on. In Automation Anywhere for Excel, this action was triggered from within the Excel application, whereas now, this action is taken from the Automation Anywhere Control Room.

Documentation: Archived docs for RPA Bots for Excel v2.0
IQ Bot [Local Device] package September 2021 This package is deprecated from Automation 360 v.22 (Build 10526). We recommend using Document Automation with the Document Extraction package that provides all the capabilities provided by the IQ Bot [Local Device] package along with some improvements. Archived Documentation (PDF): IQ Bot [Local Device] package (Archived PDF)
Process package January 2021 The Process package is no longer supported with the Create a Request action as this has been replaced by the AARI web package (now renamed to Process Composer package) in Enterprise A2019.18.

Recommended: Use the Create a Request action in Process Composer package.

New: Process Composer package

Deprecated: Process package

Human-Bot Collaboration 11.3.x August 2020 Human-Bot Collaboration (HBC) 11.3.x was deprecated from August 2020 with the release of Enterprise A2019.15.
Recommended: Migrate to Automation 360 to use the Automation Co-Pilot for Business Users (Automation Co-Pilot) that includes Desktop and Web.
Note: For this migration, there is no automated migration path between HBC 11.3.x and Automation Co-Pilot because of an absence of parity between the two products (including sets of features).
New: Automation Co-Pilot for Business Users

Deprecated: Enterprise 11: Human-Bot Collaboration

See also: Automation 360 software lifecycle policy