Adobe Flash, the multimedia platform that has helped power animations, games, and websites since the 1990s, has disappeared forever as of Dec 31, 2020. So what does this mean, and why did it happen?
Adobe Flash first appeared in 1996 as Macromedia Flash, and was used to produce animations and graphics for the world wide web. Many of the early animation and game sites on the internet relied on Flash to flourish. In fact, YouTube, when in launched in 2005, used Flash to play its video content as it became the dominant internet video platform.
So why is it gone? Well, like many languages and platforms, Flash is not totally secure. Over the years, people have found ways to exploit the security flaws in Flash to attack people’s computers. On top of this, the technology itself has been improved upon by succeeding video technologies, such as HTML5. Because of the security holes, and because there is no easy way to fix them forever, Flash was deprecated (abandoned and replaced) on Dec 31, 2020.
What does this mean for people or sites that use Flash? Most websites made the transition away from Flash many years ago (for example, YouTube moved completely to HTML5 in 2015, and Apple moved away from Flash in 2010), and most people won’t notice anything at all. However, some sites still use Flash, and will no longer be supported or function properly from 2021 on.
Though it played an important role in the early days of the world wide web, other technologies have since stood on its shoulders and improved the way we navigate the internet. There are safer alternatives today, so it is time to say goodbye to Flash!
