There was a time when Flash was a revolutionary tool that transformed the web from static text and images into a powerful multimedia experience.

If there isn’t, then it’s time for the companies giving you Flash-only services to change their content delivery systems. If you do need it, ask yourself why, because it’s possible there’s an alternate solution available. If you don’t need it, don’t install it on your computer. Here’s what I said about Flash in 2015, and it still holds true today:Īt this point, Flash is a liability anywhere it’s installed. In other words, the excuse that you can’t switch away from Flash won’t fly any more. There won’t be any support or updates from Adobe, and site visitors won’t be able to download Flash player. That doesn’t mean your Flash-dependent website will stop working on January 1, 2021, although it might as well. Specifically, we will stop updating and distributing the Flash Player at the end of 2020 and encourage content creators to migrate any existing Flash content to these new open formats. In collaboration with several of our technology partners-including Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Mozilla-Adobe is planning to end-of-life Flash. The company is also working with some big names in the tech space to help make the final transition away from Flash easier. Adobe plans to provide security updates and bug fixes, as well as add new features as necessary, until the end of 2020. Flash is Dead, but You Aren’t Screwed YetĪdobe’s proclamation that Flash is dead doesn’t, however, mean holdout websites that haven’t transitioned away from the platform yet are out of luck. When Adobe conceded a couple years ago that HTML5 was the new standard, it was only a matter of time before an official end of life announcement was made. Add to that YouTube and Facebook transitioning away from Flash, and you have the perfect death cocktail. When mainstream web browsers started blocking Flash content- including Safari and Google Chrome-that sealed the platform’s fate.

The rise of HTML5 and CSS3 helped drive more nails into Flash’s coffin, as did the shift away from including the platform as part of standard operating system installations. Flash is plagued with security problems, was never designed with touch interfaces in mind, and has been far too processor and resource heavy to efficiently run on mobile devices. That’s the friendly way of saying Flash lost relevance when web browsing shifted to mobile devices, but its days were numbered even before that.

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