Adobe Flash has finally reached the end of life. This means that if you try to load any Flash content, be it games or videos, in any browser, Adobe’s Flash Player will block it from running.
December 31, 2020, was the last date for Flash player, as per Adobe’s announcement many years ago. The company had given sufficient time to developers and customers to migrate to alternatives in the meantime. January 12, 2021, was the last date after which Adobe started blocking Flash content from running via its plugin.
RIP Flash
Apple had taken a jumpstart by disabling support for Flash in Safari 14 last year, before other browsers such as Chrome and Firefox. In fact, Apple had taken the first step that started the domino effect towards the demise of Flash by refusing to support it on iPhone and iPad. Flash was power-hungry and inefficient which meant that it would have always kept mobile devices behind. It never took off on Android either, despite Google and Adobe’s efforts and marketing. Not to mention, Flash was not search engine friendly, always had security holes, and its ‘download and install plug-in’ nature was often misused by malware to get users to download malicious apps.
Things have changed since then and HTML5 and developments tools are sufficiently advanced to allow for animations and games to be created that can run on a vast variety of platforms.
While most developers and all of the advertisement industry have moved on from Flash, many Flash-based games never really moved on. Many browser-based gaming websites still continued to use Flash, which had resulted in countless hours of entertainment for users in the past. So much that there have been efforts to preserve this important part of the history of the Internet.
Internet Archive had announced that it will preserve Flash content in its archive, and use a Flash emulator called Ruffle, which will allow content to run in any browser without the need to use a plugin. The emulator is a work-in-progress and might not work with all animations and games, however, it is still a worthy effort to keep things running.
We are at a point in time where we can experience the same Internet on desktop, mobile, and tablet, without the need to install power-hungry plugins like Flash, Silverlight, or even the notorious ActiveX controls.
RIP Flash, you will not be missed.
P.S. if you still have Flash player installed, follow our guide to uninstall Flash from your Mac or Windows PC.
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