Farewell Flash, you served us well

Sunday, August 30th, 2015

It’s getting ever so close – the end of such a great product Flash. To the non-techinical users out there, Flash is what brought the web to life. You most probably have used to watch videos (like on YouTube), play games and view animated websites – it has served us well. So what has changed now?

Almost 5 years ago, Steve Jobs (Apple CEO) wrote a letter about Flash and the way it is detrimental for mobile devices (back then it was still the first version of the iPhone!). He talked about the huge rate of battery consumption and lack of security. With this in mind, he decided not to support Flash on Apple’s devices.

Some people thought it was a radical change, some people also thought Apple would not be able to bring down such a huge technology such as Flash and that Apple will eventually succumb and accept it on their phones. This change sparked discussions worldwide.

But Apple had their way. All of a sudden, all website owners having a Flash built website would not be able to view it on an iPhone, for example. Same thing happened to all serving adverts on their website that were powered by Flash. Google continued to add insult to injury when they announced that having a Flash website is detrimental to SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and thus, websites running Flash will rank lower on the search engine.

What’s next?

First and foremost, if you have a Flash website, now is the time to change it! HTML5 is the answer. Nowadays nobody builds a website using Flash anymore, and those that have a website with this technology, are converting it to HTML5. Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox have recently disabled Flash (http://gizmodo.com/firefox-now-blocks-flash-by-default-1717664482) on their browsers after it was revealed that hackers were exploiting a bug in the software. As from 1st September 2015, Chrome will not serve Flash advertisements on their browser either.

To be honest, I feel certain nostalgia. I remember the excited look clients had on their faces when they view certain web animations on screen. I have worked personally with Flash for so many years – but now I feel HTML5 is so much better. It helps provide a far better user experience, is mobile friendly and let’s face it – it’s the future.

Thus, to conclude, with less developers building Flash websites, less users using the technology and more importantly, less companies endorsing its use, Flash is heading towards its obituary. So long Flash, it’s been a pleasure working with you!