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Support for Adobe Flash officially ended on December 31, 2020, effectively removing the platform. The now-discontinued web plugin will be remembered for its golden age of animated internet memes and the never-ending security issues that eventually led to its demise.
Let’s take a look at Flash, what’s next, and how to enjoy old content in 2021 and beyond.
Flash is gone forever
Flash is no longer available for download as of December 31, 2020, and Adobe begins blocking Flash content from running entirely on January 12, 2021. The company recommends that you completely uninstall Flash as a security concern. There will be no more Flash updates, nor will you be able to download older versions directly from Adobe.
This also means that the Flash versions included with browsers like Google Chrome will be retired. The change is unlikely to affect your daily browsing habits as the vast majority of websites have stopped using Flash in favor of modern browsing technologies.
You should avoid installing older versions of Flash Player for security reasons. If you still want to access Flash content, there are options, but none of them are officially supported by Adobe.
The history of Adobe Flash (1996-2020)
In 1996, a company called Macromedia acquired a vector-based web animation tool called FutureSplash, originally released by FutureWave Software in 1993. The technology was already in use by companies like Microsoft and Disney Online to display animated content in a web browser.
Macromedia changed the name of the tool to Macromedia Flash 1.0 and released it together with a counterpart browser plug-in called Macromedia Flash Player. By the mid-2000s, Flash had taken off in a big way, fueled by the popularity of browser games, animations, and the interactive tools that relied on it.
Flash was able to stand out thanks to the simplicity of installing a small plug-in that was compatible with most browsers. Since Flash used vector-based graphics, the file sizes for the resulting animations were small. This was important at a time when many people were using dial-up internet with slow download speeds.
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Vector graphics are essentially text-based instructions. They are infinitely scaled as they do not have a defined size, unlike raster graphics which have much larger file sizes and will become pixelated when stretched. Flash-enabled creators, marketers, and anyone interested in new media to create interactive games, animations, banner ads, and menus. It was even used to create entire websites that looked great at the time, loaded quickly, and were responsive to use.
Macromedia added more bells and whistles to Flash over time. In 2000, Flash 5 was released with ActionScript, a rudimentary scripting language that mimics JavaScript. In 2005, Adobe Systems (the same company that turned down an offer to buy FutureSplash in 1995) acquired Macromedia. Adobe took Flash under its wing and developed many more features in the years to come.
Flash brought to life some of the internet’s most beloved websites, cartoons, games, and more. Websites like Newgrounds emerged as a hub for all things Flash. Comedy web series like Homestar Runner, stickman animations like Xiao Xiao, and rudimentary but addictive games like Pandemic all flourished on the platform.
But Flash also played a big role in the adoption of video streaming. The FLV container made it possible to display video in virtually any web browser as long as it had Flash Player installed. At one point, Flash was even required to use websites like YouTube, Vimeo, Google Video, and more. The first video-on-demand services like Hulu and BBC iPlayer required Flash in the early 2000s.
On December 31, Adobe Flash will no longer be supported. I didn’t have consoles growing up, so Flash is how I learned to love games. Many of my best memories from my childhood are of Flash games and animations.
Thanks for all the memories. May heaven grant you fortune. pic.twitter.com/ljoWtd8rii
– Justin (@askiisoft) December 29, 2020
But web standards don’t sit still forever. While Flash was instrumental in making the web a more vibrant place in the early days, cracks soon began to appear. Before long, it became clear that the Internet would soon completely outweigh the need for Flash and browser plug-ins.
Problems with Flash
Flash powered a large part of the web at the height of its popularity, which put a lot of responsibility on Adobe. Since flash was a web plug-in, it was maintained and updated by a single entity. As Flash grew in popularity, it increasingly became a target for hackers.
It didn’t take long for Flash to join other browser plug-ins like ActiveX and Java to be labeled a security risk. Try as it might, Adobe couldn’t fix Flash, so in 2017, the company decided to halt development and remove Flash entirely by the end of 2020. Adobe didn’t take any chances either: Flash content can’t run in the final. version.
Flash was able to grow because he filled a void. Rich web content that included animations, video, sound, and interactivity was not possible with browsers that barely met the first web standards. It took the rise of browsers like Mozilla Firefox to put a greater emphasis on new web technologies that could eventually replace Flash.
In 2007, Apple released the iPhone and made the historic decision not to support Flash on the platform. At the time, Flash was still very popular, so this move had a disruptive effect on the web, but the writing was on the wall. Flash was no longer necessary when browser technologies and dedicated native mobile apps would get the job done.
Apple’s decision and the consequent popularity of the iPhone helped spark Flash’s decline as developers sought to make the web accessible to all devices in an increasingly mobile world.
In 2012, Flash was widely considered a security risk. This prompted Google’s decision to bundle Flash with Chrome to create a sandbox. This effectively placed the flash content in its own safe space, isolating it from the rest of the system.
As time passed, Internet speeds and browser standards advanced to a stage where Flash was no longer required.
Life after Flash
By 2020, the web had already adjusted to a new normal that did not rely on proprietary browser technologies. For techies, this had been the case for years. Websites like How-To Geek I have been urging you to remove plug-ins like Flash since 2015. This was made possible by the rise of browser technologies that effectively make Flash obsolete.
Websites designed entirely in Flash have been replaced by, wait, websites. Today’s HTML is responsive and scales with the size of your screen and the capabilities of your device. Flash would scale in a linear sense, like any vector graphics tool, but it was not as sophisticated as what is possible with current browsers.
In 2009, made its appearance as part of the HTML5 release. These allowed websites like YouTube to serve videos in any modern browser that was compliant with the HTML5 standard. Faster internet speeds also allowed for higher quality videos.
The HTML5 canvas element allows browsers to draw and animate graphics using JavaScript. These tools can be used to create games, highly interactive websites, and animations. Add WebGL and now you can draw 3D models and shapes to display in a browser as well.
Developers have used modern web technologies to create sophisticated software that runs in a browser, from services like Netflix to emulators like DOSBox. The use of JavaScript and CSS has simplified web design and made it possible to bring elaborate and responsive designs to life. Where Flash had ActionScript, the modern web has JavaScript.
Even vector graphics, one of the original reasons for the success of Flash, have a modern equivalent in the SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) format. Using SVG files allows you to create websites and applications that look pixel perfect on a smartphone or large TV.
Access to Flash content in 2021 and beyond
Since so much nostalgia online is trapped in a Flash container, there are a few projects that will allow you to continue enjoying Flash content even after Adobe has disconnected.
The first of these is Flashpoint by BlueMaxima, a web game preservation project that supports Flash, Shockwave, Java, Unity Web Player, Silverlight, ActiveX, and HTML5. It’s available in two versions: a 500MB “Infinity” player that downloads games on the go, and a giant 500+ GB archive that works offline.
There is also a project called Ruffle, which tries to emulate Flash. It can be run as a standalone application on most major operating systems or as a browser application by using the WebAssembly programming language. It is primarily aimed at website owners who can install it on the server and make their Flash content “just work” natively.
RELATED: How to Play Old Flash Games in 2020 and Beyond
The end of a flash era
Retirement from Adobe Flash is a bittersweet time for many. While the browser plugin was responsible for a host of security problems in his later life, it was also used to create some of the most memorable moments on the internet. Fortunately, thanks to projects like BlueMaxima’s Flashpoint and Ruffle, a great deal of content has been preserved.
Flash was a fairly accessible creative suite for budding animators and web game developers. If you’re feeling creative but don’t have the technical skills of a programmer, you can try creating your own 3D games on a PS4 or PS5 with Dreams.
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