Enterprise

Adobe is finally killing Flash

Key Points
  • Adobe is working with Alphabet, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft and Mozilla in the run-up to the end-of-life for the longstanding web technology.
  • Flash emerged in the 1990s but other technologies such as HTML5 have supplanted it.
Adobe is finally killing Flash
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Adobe is finally killing Flash

Adobe on Tuesday said it will stop updating and distributing the Flash technology for playing multimedia on the web by 2020.

The company is collaborating with Alphabet, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft and Mozilla in the effort but will provide support for and updates to the software until the end-of-life date.

Meanwhile, Adobe will "encourage content creators to migrate any existing Flash content to these new open formats," the company said in a blog post.

Flash dates back to the 1990s, but other tech players have been speaking out against it for years. Apple in particular has been talking for years about how Flash hurts the user experience on desktop and mobile devices. "Adobe claims that we are a closed system, and that Flash is open, but in fact the opposite is true," Steve Jobs wrote in 2010.

Earlier this year, Google said it would start blocking Flash by default in its Chrome browser come October, and Microsoft has sought to stop Flash from showing up in its Edge browser for Windows 10.

"Adobe will also remain at the forefront of leading the development of new web standards and actively participate in their advancement. This includes continuing to contribute to the HTML5 standard and participating in the WebAssembly Community Group. And we'll continue to provide best in class animation and video tools such as Animate CC, the premier web animation tool for developing HTML5 content, and Premiere Pro CC," Adobe said in its blog post.