Adobe Flash Player is Retro, But Not in a Cool Way2 min read

Adobe will stop distributing and updating Flash Player after Dec. 31 of this year. That gives web developers, businesses, educators, and consumers less than half a year to integrate to open standards like HTML5, WebGL, or WebAssembly. In fairness, Adobe sent a warning about this change back in July 2017.

Adobe Flash is used for animations, mobile games, embedded web browser video, and other applications. A lot of website visitors (end users) don’t ever run into issues with Adobe Flash Player anymore because these websites have already integrated open standards and deprecated Adobe Flash Player plug-ins. Artists may produce Flash graphics and animations using Adobe Animate (formerly known as Adobe Flash Professional).

But I Hate Change

If your site hasn’t moved away from Adobe Flash, then it’s showing its age. Even worse, it’s probably NOT showing whatever content you want to be seen. And if it IS showing content through Adobe Flash Player, it could be showing the content through an older version of Adobe Flash Player that is not supported and isn’t secure.

Granted, Adobe is still issuing security patches for Adobe Flash Player and will do so until the end of the year. It is also maintaining OS and browser compatibility up until the end of 2020. However, the number of Flash-supported OS and browsers will decline as we near the year’s end. Many browsers have already stated they will completely drop support for Flash.

Is Your Site Secure?

Flash Player is no longer considered an industry-standard. It isn’t secure and it can’t handle today’s more sophisticated videos and animations.

Site visitors can download older versions of Flash Player from third-party websites, but these versions are not secure and may contain malware. A frightening example of this is when hackers aligned with the Iranian government and created “MacDownloader,” macOS malware, which is a fake Flash download program, to spy on defense contractors.

A reputable website will not leave its visitors grasping at third-party downloads to view content.

There are some online Flash-to-HTML5 conversion tools, but these sites don’t guarantee that your intellectual property won’t be misused. Also, the integrity of your content layout could be jeopardized.

We Can Update Your Site

Adobe provides a list of general questions and answers related to Adobe Flash Player. We welcome you to call us to discuss any concerns you have regarding the disappearance of Adobe Flash Player and what it might mean for your website and any multimedia content you hope to share with visitors to your site.