Discontinued multimedia platform used to add animation and interactivity to websites
This article is about the multimedia software platform. For the application/animation software, seeAdobe Animate. For the player, seeAdobe Flash Player.
Flash displays text,vector graphics, andraster graphics to provide animations, video games, and applications. It allows streaming ofaudio and video, and can capture mouse, keyboard, microphone, and camera input.
TheActionScript programming language allows the development of interactive animations, video games, web applications, desktop applications, and mobile applications. Programmers can implement Flash software using an IDE such as Adobe Animate, Adobe Flash Builder,Adobe Director, FlashDevelop, andPowerflasher FDT. Adobe AIR enables full-featured desktop and mobile applications to be developed with Flash and published forWindows,macOS,Android,iOS,Xbox One,PlayStation 4,Wii U, andNintendo Switch.
Flash was initially used to create fully-interactive websites, but this approach was phased out with the introduction ofHTML5. Instead, Flash found a niche as the dominant platform for online multimedia content, particularly forbrowser games. Following anopen letter written by Steve Jobs in 2010 stating that he would not approve the use of Flash onApple'siOS devices due to numerous security flaws, use of Flash declined as Adobe transitioned to theAdobe AIR platform. The Flash Player was deprecated in 2017 and officially discontinued at the end of 2020 for all users outside mainland China, as well as non-enterprise users,[6] with many web browsers and operating systems scheduled to remove the Flash Player software around the same time. Adobe continues to develop Adobe Animate, which supports web standards such as HTML5 instead of the Flash format.[7]
In the early 2000s, Flash was widely installed ondesktop computers, and was often used to display interactiveweb pages andonline games, and to play video and audio content.[8] In 2005,YouTube was founded by formerPayPal employees, and it used Adobe Flash Player as a means to display compressed video content on the web.[8]
In 2007, YouTube offered videos in HTML5 format to support theiPhone andiPad, which did not support Flash Player.[8] After acontroversy with Apple, Adobe stopped developing Flash Player for Mobile, focusing its efforts on Adobe AIR applications and HTML5 animation.[8] In 2015,Google introducedGoogle Swiffy, a tool that converted Flash animation to HTML5, which Google used to automatically convert Flash web ads for mobile devices.[13] In 2016, Google discontinued Swiffy and its support.[14] In 2015, YouTube switched to HTML5 technology on most devices by default;[15][16][17] however, YouTube supported the Flash-based video player for older web browsers and devices until 2017.[18]
After Flash 5 introduced ActionScript in 2000, developers combined the visual and programming capabilities of Flash to produce interactive experiences and applications for the Web.[19] Such Web-based applications eventually became known as "Rich Internet Applications"[19] and later "Rich Web Applications".[20]
Between 2006 and 2016, theSpeedtest.net web service conducted over 9.0 billion speed tests with a utility built with Adobe Flash.[23][24] In 2016, the service shifted to HTML5 due to the decreasing availability of Adobe Flash Player on PCs.[25]
Adobe introduced various technologies to help build video games, including Adobe AIR (to release games for desktop or mobile platforms),Adobe Scout (to improve performance),CrossBridge (to convert C++-based games to run in Flash), andStage3D (to support GPU-accelerated video games). 3D frameworks likeAway3D andFlare3D simplified creation of 3D content for Flash.[citation needed]
Flash is also used to build interfaces and HUDs for 3D video games usingScaleform GFx, a technology that renders Flash content within non-Flash video games. Scaleform is supported by more than 10 major video game engines includingUnreal Engine 3,CryEngine, andPhyreEngine, and has been used to provide 3D interfaces for more than 150 major video game titles since its launch in 2003.[citation needed]
As the Internet became more popular, FutureWave realized the potential for a vector-based web animation tool that might challengeMacromediaShockwave technology.[32][33] In 1995, FutureWave modified SmartSketch by adding frame-by-frame animation features and released this new product as FutureSplash Animator on Macintosh and PC.[32][33][39][40]
FutureWave approachedAdobe Systems with an offer to sell them FutureSplash in 1995, but Adobe turned down the offer at that time.[33][failed verification] Microsoft wanted to create an "online TV network" (MSN 2.0) and adopted FutureSplash animated content as a central part of it.[33]Disney Online used FutureSplash animations for their subscription-based service Disney's Daily Blast.[32][33]Fox Broadcasting Company launchedThe Simpsons using FutureSplash.[33]
In December 1996,[41] FutureSplash was acquired by Macromedia, and Macromedia re-branded and releasedFutureSplash Animator asMacromedia Flash 1.0. Flash was a two-part system, a graphics and animation editor known as Macromedia Flash, and a player known as Macromedia Flash Player.[42]
FutureSplash Animator was an animation tool originally developed for pen-based computing devices. Due to the small size of theFutureSplash Viewer, it was particularly suited for download on the Web. Macromedia distributed Flash Player as a free browserplugin in order to quickly gain market share. By 2005, more computers worldwide had Flash Player installed than any other Web media format, includingJava,QuickTime,RealNetworks, andWindows Media Player.[43]
Macromedia upgraded the Flash system between 1996 and 1999 adding MovieClips, Actions (the precursor to ActionScript), Alpha transparency, and other features. As Flash matured, Macromedia's focus shifted from marketing it as a graphics and media tool to promoting it as aWeb application platform, adding scripting and data access capabilities to the player while attempting to retain its small footprint.[citation needed]
In 2000, the first major version of ActionScript was developed, and released withFlash 5. Actionscript 2.0 was released withFlash MX 2004 and supportedobject-oriented programming, improved UI components and other programming features. The last version of Flash released by Macromedia wasFlash 8, which focused on graphical upgrades such as filters (blur, drop shadow, etc.), blend modes (similar toAdobe Photoshop), and advanced features forFLV video.[citation needed]
Release
Year
Icon
Description
FutureSplash
Animator
1996
Initial version of Flash released in May 1996 with basic editing tools and a timeline.[44][45]
Macromedia
Flash 1
1996
A re-branded version of the FutureSplash Animator, released on December 18, 1996, under the name Macromedia Flash 1.0. The name "Flash" was created by blending the words Future and Splash.[46][45]
Macromedia
Flash 2
1997
Released with Flash Player 2 on May 18, 1997,[47] new features include synchronizedWAV andAIFF sound support, enhanced bitmap editing, MacromediaFreeHand integration,TrueType andPostScript fonts support, color transformations, auto-trace and the objectlibrary.[48][49]
Macromedia
Flash 3
1998
Released with Flash Player 3 on May 12, 1998,[50] new features include shape tweening, the movie clip element,JavaScript plug-in integration,PNG support, sprite animation, vector & bitmap transparency, bandwidth profiling and an external stand-alone player.[51]
Macromedia
Flash 4
1999
Released with Flash Player 4 on June 15, 1999,[52] new features include a redesigned user interface, internalvariables, an input field, improved timeline (smart guides, outline color mode), advanced ActionScript, publish settings panel andMP3 audiostreaming.[53]
Macromedia
Flash 5
2000
Released with Flash Player 5 on August 24, 2000,[54] new features include pen and sub-selection tools,ActionScript 1.0 (based onECMAScript, making it very similar to JavaScript in syntax),XML support, Smartclips (the precursor to components in Flash),HTML text formatting added for dynamic text.[55]
Macromedia
Flash MX (6)
2002
Released with Flash Player 6 on March 15, 2002,[56] new features include a context-sensitive properties panel, timeline folders, improved color mixer, a videocodec (Sorenson Spark),Unicode, v1UI Components,compression,ActionScript vector drawing API.[57]
Macromedia
Flash MX 2004 (7)
2003
Released with Flash Player 7 on September 10, 2003[citation needed], new features include screens (forms for non-linear state-based development and slides for organizing content in a linear slide format likePowerPoint), small font size rendering, timeline effects, updated templates, high-fidelity import and video import wizard.[58]
ActionScript 2.0 was released with this version, enablingobject-oriented programming but lacking the easier "Script assist" method of writing code. JavaScript for Flash (JSFL) allowed users to write scripts to automate tasks within the Flash editor. New programming features included:web services integration, MP3/FLV media playback components,XML data service components, data binding APIs, the Project Panel, V2 UI components, and Transition libraries.[59]
Macromedia
Flash 8
2005
Released with Flash Player 8 on September 13, 2005[citation needed], new features include graphical filters (blur,drop shadow, glow, etc.) andblend modes, easing control for animation, enhanced stroke properties (caps and joins), object-based drawing mode, run-time bitmap caching,FlashType advanced anti-aliasing for text,On2 VP6 advanced video codec, support for alpha transparency in video, a stand-alone encoder and advanced video importer, cue point support in FLV files, an advanced video playback component, and an interactive mobile device emulator.[60]
Macromedia Flash Basic 8, a "lite" version of the Flash authoring tool targeted to new users who only wanted to do a basic drawing, animation, and interactivity. The Basic product was eventually stopped and replaced by a discounted educational version of Flash CS3 Professional.[61]
Macromedia Flash 8 was one of the most used and popular versions of Flash.
In 2007, Adobe's first version release wasAdobe Flash CS3 Professional, the ninth major version of Flash. It introduced the ActionScript 3.0 programming language, which supported modern programming practices and enabled business applications to be developed with Flash.Adobe Flex Builder (built onEclipse) targeted the enterpriseapplication development market, and was also released the same year. Flex Builder included the Flex SDK, a set of components that included charting, advanced UI, and data services (Flex Data Services).[citation needed]
In 2008, Adobe released the tenth version of Flash,Adobe Flash CS4. Flash 10 improved animation capabilities within the Flash editor, adding a motion editor panel (similar toAdobe After Effects),inverse kinematics (bones), basic 3D object animation, object-based animation, and other text and graphics features.Flash Player 10 included an in-built 3D engine (without GPU acceleration) that allowed basic object transformations in 3D space (position, rotation, scaling).[citation needed]
Also in 2008, Adobe released the first version of Adobe Integrated Runtime (later re-branded asAdobe AIR), a runtime engine that replaced Flash Player, and provided additional capabilities to the ActionScript 3.0 language to build desktop and mobile applications. With AIR, developers could access the file system (the user's files and folders), and connected devices such as a joystick, gamepad, and sensors for the first time.[citation needed]
In 2011,Adobe Flash Player 11 was released, and with it the first version ofStage3D, allowing GPU-accelerated 3D rendering for Flash applications and games on desktop platforms such asMicrosoft Windows andMac OS X.[64] Adobe further improved 3D capabilities from 2011 to 2013, adding support for 3D rendering on Android and iOS platforms, alpha-channels, compressed textures,texture atlases, and other features.[65][66] Adobe AIR was upgraded to support 64-bit computers, and to allow developers to add additional functionality to the AIR runtime usingAIR Native Extensions (ANE).
In May 2014, Adobe announced that Adobe AIR was used in over 100,000 unique applications and had over 1 billion installations logged worldwide.[67] Adobe AIR was voted theBest Mobile Application Development product at theConsumer Electronics Show on two consecutive years (CES 2014 and CES 2015).[68][69]
In 2016, Adobe renamed Flash Professional, the primary authoring software for Flash content, toAdobe Animate to reflect its growing use for authoring HTML5 content in favor of Flash content.[70]
Release
Year
Icon
Description
Adobe Flash Professional CS3 (9)
2007
Flash CS3 is the first version of Flash released under the Adobe brand name, and features improved integration withAdobe Photoshop, enhancedQuickTime video export, filter and motion tween copy-paste support, improved vector drawing tools becoming more likeAdobe Illustrator andAdobe Fireworks.[71]
ActionScript 3.0 was released with this version, along with ActionScript Virtual Machine 2.0 (AVM2) forfaster code execution andgarbage collection[72] New programming features included:strongly typed variables with type safety, runtime errors, improved events, display list instead of "depth" system, and many new classes (Socket, ByteArray, Loader, RegExp, etc.).[73] AS3 allowed entire applications to be written in code, without needing the Flash timeline.
Adobe Flash Professional CS4 (10)
2008
Flash CS4, released on September 23, 2008, introduces a new object-based motion-tween, renaming the former frame-based version as classic tween. Additions include basic3D object manipulation,inverse kinematics (bones), a vertical properties panel, the Deco and Spray brush tools, motion presets and further expansions toActionScript 3.0 (Vector arrays). CS4 allows the developer to create animations with many features absent in prior versions.[74][75]
Adobe Flash Professional CS5 (11)
2010
Flash CS5 was released on April 12, 2010, and launched for purchase on April 30, 2010. Flash CS5 Professional includes support for publishingiPhone applications.[76] However, on April 8, 2010, Apple changed the terms of its Developer License to effectively ban the use of the Flash-to-iPhone compiler[77][78] and on April 20, 2010, Adobe announced that they will be making no additional investments in targeting the iPhone and iPad in Flash CS5.[79]
Other features of Flash CS5 are a new text engine (TLF), new document templates, further improvement toinverse kinematics, new Deco tool effects, live FLV playback preview, and the code snippets panel.[80][81]
Adobe Flash Professional CS5.5 (11.5)
2011
Flash Professional CS5.5 was released in 2011. It includes improved support for publishingiPhone applications, following Apple's revision of their iOS developer terms.[82] Flash CS5.5 also contains several features to improve mobile app workflows across devices. Some examples are content scaling and stage resizing, copy and paste layers, sharing symbols across FLA files, symbol rasterization, incremental compilation, auto-save and file recovery, and integration with CS Live online services.[80]
Adobe Flash Professional CS6 (12)
2012
Adobe Flash Professional CS6 was released in 2012. It includes support for publishing files asHTML5 and generating sprite sheets.[83] This is the last 32-bit version and last perpetually licensed version.
Adobe Flash Professional CC (13)
2013
Flash Professional CC was released in June 2013, as part of Adobe'sCreative Cloud rebrand. Changes include a native 64-bit scene rendering engine, HiDPI user interface with Dark/Light themes, unlimited pasteboard size, live preview in shapes, fills and strokes, new distribute to keyframes option, full-screen mode, center stage button, multiple selection support for layer properties, guides, masks, etc. Minor performance improvements and bug fixes, and the removal of legacy features such asActionScript 2 support, as well as the removal of the bone tool, deco tool and spray brush tools. As part of the Creative Cloud suite, Flash CC offered users the ability to synchronize settings and save files online.[84]
Adobe Flash Professional CC 2014 (14)
2014
Flash Professional CC (2014) was released on June 18, 2014. It includes variable-width strokes,SVG export, andWebGL publishing for animations, as well as a redesigned Motion Editor.[85]
Adobe Flash Professional CC 2014 (14.1)
2014
Flash Professional CC (2014.1) was released on October 6, 2014, featuring expanded WebGL publishing abilities, brush custom settings (angle, flatness), and the ability to import externalSWFs.[85] Also, a newsoftware development kit (SDK) enabling extensibility for custom platforms without depending on the Flash runtime, to reach more viewers.
Adobe Flash Professional CC 2015 (15)
2015
Flash Professional CC (2015) was released on June 15, 2015, with the return of the bone animation tool (inverse kinematics), import H.264 videos with audio, export bitmaps asspritesheet for HTML5 Canvas, brush scaling with stage zoom, universal document type converter, improved audio workflows, improved Motion Editor, panel locking, faster saving of FLA files, auto-recovery optimizations, organize imported GIFs in a library, library search by linkage name, invert selection, paste and overwrite frames. Programming features include code snippet support forWebGL, improved Custom Platform Support SDK, latestFlash Player (version 17.0),AIR SDK (version 17.0) and CreateJS libraries.[86]
Adobe has taken steps to reduce or eliminate Flash licensing costs. For instance, theSWF file format documentation is provided free of charge[87] after they relaxed the requirement of accepting anon-disclosure agreement to view it in 2008.[88] Adobe also created the Open Screen Project which removes licensing fees and opens data protocols for Flash.
Adobe has also open-sourced many components relating to Flash.
In 2011, theAdobe Flex Framework was donated as open-source to theApache Software Foundation and rebranded as Apache Flex.[91] Some saw this move as Adobe abandoning Flex, and stepping away from the Flash Platform as a whole.[92][93] Sources from Apache say that "Enterprise application development is no longer a focus at Adobe. At least as Flash is concerned, Adobe is concentrating on games and video.",[92][94] and they conclude that "Flex Innovation is Exploding!".[94] The donated source code included a partly developed AS3 compiler (dubbed "Falcon") and theBlazeDS set of technologies.[93][94]
In 2013, theCrossBridge C++cross-compilation toolset was open sourced by Adobe and released onGitHub.[95][96] The project was formerly termed "Alchemy" and "Flash Runtime C++ Compiler", and targeted the game development market to enable C++ video games to run in Adobe Flash Player.[97]
Adobe has not been willing to make complete source code of the Flash Player available forfree software development and even thoughfree and open source alternatives such asShumway andGnash have been built, they are no longer under active development.[98]
On May 1, 2008, Adobe announced theOpen Screen Project, with the intent of providing a consistent application interface across devices such as personal computers,mobile devices, andconsumer electronics.[99] When the project was announced, seven goals were outlined: the abolition of licensing fees for Adobe Flash Player andAdobe AIR, the removal of restrictions on the use of theShockwave Flash (SWF) and Flash Video (FLV)file formats, the publishing ofapplication programming interfaces for porting Flash to new devices, and the publishing of The Flash Cast protocol and Action Message Format (AMF), which let Flash applications receive information from remote databases.[99]
As of February 2009[update], the specifications removing the restrictions on the use of SWF and FLV/F4V specs have been published.[100] The Flash Cast protocol—now known as the Mobile Content Delivery Protocol—and AMF protocols have also been made available,[100] with AMF available as an open source implementation,BlazeDS.
The list of mobile device providers who have joined the project includesPalm, Motorola, and Nokia,[101] who, together with Adobe, have announced a $10 million Open Screen Project fund.[102]
One of Flash's primary uses on the Internet when it was first released was for building fully immersive, interactive websites. These were typically highly creative site designs that provided more flexibility over what the current HTML standards could provide as well as operate over dial-up connections.[103] However, these sites limited accessibility by "breaking theBack Button", dumping visitors out of the Flash experience entirely by returning them to whatever page they had been on prior to first arriving at the site. Fully Flash-run sites fell out of favor for more strategic use of Flash plugins for video and other interactive features among standard HTML conventions, corresponding with the availability of HTML features likecascading style-sheets in the mid-00's.[104] At the same time, this also led to Flash being used for new apps, including video games and animations.[105] Precursors toYouTube featuring user-generated Flash animations and games such asNewgrounds became popular destinations, further helping to spread the use of Flash.[103]
Toward the end of the millennium, theWireless Application Protocol (WAP) was released, corresponding with development ofDynamic HTML. Fifteen years later, WAP had largely been replaced by full-capability implementations and theHTML5 standard included more support for interactive andvideo elements. Support for Flash in these mobile browsers was not included. In 2010,Apple'sSteve Jobs famously wroteThoughts on Flash, an open letter to Adobe criticizing the closed nature of the Flash platform and the inherent security problems with the application to explain why Flash was not supported oniOS.[106][107] Adobe created the Adobe AIR environment as a means to appease Apple's concerns, and spent time legally fighting Apple over terms of its App Store to allow AIR to be used on the iOS. While Adobe eventually won, allowing for other third-party development environments to get access to the iOS, Apple's decision to block Flash itself was considered the "death blow" to the Flash application.[105] In November 2011, about a year after Jobs' open letter, Adobe announced it would no longer be developing Flash and advised developers to switch to HTML5.[108]
In 2011, Adobe ended support for Flash on Android.[108] Adobe stated that Flash platform was transitioning to Adobe AIR andOpenFL, a multi-target open-source implementation of the Flash API.[109] In 2015, Adobe rebranded Flash Professional, the main Flash authoring environment, asAdobe Animate to emphasize its expanded support for HTML5 authoring, and stated that it would "encourage content creators to build with new web standards" rather than use Flash.[110]
In July 2017, Adobedeprecated Flash, and announced itsEnd-Of-Life (EOL) at the end of 2020, and will cease support, distribution, and security updates for Flash Player.[6]
With Flash's EOL announced, many browsers took steps to gradually restrict Flash content (caution users before launching it, eventually blocking all content without an option to play it). By January 2021, all major browsers were blocking all Flash content unconditionally. OnlyIE11, niche browser forks, and some browsers built forChina plan to continue support. Furthermore, excluding the China variant of Flash, Flash execution software has a built-in kill switch which prevents it from playing Flash after January 12, 2021.[111] In January 2021, Microsoft released an optional update KB4577586 which removes Flash Player from Windows; in July 2021 this update was pushed out as a security update and applied automatically to all remaining systems.[112]
As early as 2014, around the same time that Adobe began encouraging Flash developers to transition their works to HTML5 standards, others began efforts topreserve existing Flash content through emulation of Flash in open standards. While some Flash applications were utilitarian, several applications had been shown to be experimental art, while others had laid the foundation ofindependent video game development.[113] An early project wasMozilla'sShumway, an open source project that attempted to emulate the Flash standard in HTML5, but the project was shuttered as the team found that more developers were switching to HTML5 than seeking to keep their content in Flash, coupled with the difficulties in assuring full compatibility. Google had developed theSwiffy application, released in 2014, to convert Flash applications to HTML5-compatible scripts for viewing on mobile devices, but it was shut down in 2016.[113]
Closer to Flash's EOL date in 2020, there were more concentrated efforts simply to preserve existing Flash applications, including websites, video games, and animations beyond Flash's EOL.[105][114][115] In November 2020, theInternet Archive integratedRuffle within its Emularity system to emulate Flash games and animations without the security holes, opening a new collection for creators and users to save and preserve Flash content.[116][117] By October 2023, theFlashpoint Archive has collected more than 160,000 Flash applications, excluding those that were commercial products, and offered as a freely available archive for users to download.[118][119]Kongregate, one of the larger sites that offered Flash games, has been working with theStrong Museum of Play to preserve its games.[113]
Flash source files are in theFLA format and contain graphics and animation, as well as embedded assets such as bitmap images, audio files, and FLV video files. The Flash source file format was a proprietary format and Adobe Animate and Adobe Flash Pro were the only available authoring tools capable of editing such files. Flash source files (.fla) may be compiled into Flash movie files (.swf) using Adobe Animate. Note that FLA files can be edited, but output (.swf) files cannot.
Flash movie files were in theSWF format, traditionally called "ShockWave Flash" movies, "Flash movies", or "Flash applications", usually have a .swffile extension, and may be used in the form of a web page plug-in, strictly "played" in a standalone Flash Player, or incorporated into a self-executing Projector movie (with the .exe extension inMicrosoft Windows). Flash Video files[spec 1] have a .flv file extension and are either used from within .swf files or played through a flv-aware player, such asVLC, orQuickTime andWindows Media Player with externalcodecs added.
The use of vector graphics combined with program code allows Flash files to be smaller—and thus allows streams to use lessbandwidth—than the corresponding bitmaps or video clips. For content in a single format (such as just text, video, or audio), other alternatives may provide better performance and consume lessCPU power than the corresponding Flash movie, for example, when using transparency or making large screen updates such as photographic or text fades.
In addition to a vector-rendering engine, the Flash Player includes a virtual machine called the ActionScript Virtual Machine (AVM) for scripting interactivity at run-time, with video, MP3-based audio, and bitmap graphics. As of Flash Player 8, it offered two video codecs:On2 TechnologiesVP6 andSorenson Spark, and run-timeJPEG, Progressive JPEG,PNG,GIF and (DWG) AutoCAD Drawing file (WMV) Windows Metafile capability.
Flash Player 11 introduced a full 3Dshader API, calledStage3D, which is fairly similar toWebGL.[120][121] Stage3D enables GPU-accelerated rendering of3D graphics within Flash games and applications, and has been used to buildAngry Birds, and a couple of other notable games.
Virtually all browser plugins for video arefree of charge and cross-platform, including Adobe's offering of Flash Video, which was introduced with Flash version 6. Flash Video had been a popular choice for websites due to the largeinstalled user base and programmability of Flash. In 2010, Apple publicly criticized Adobe Flash, including its implementation of video playback for not taking advantage of hardware acceleration, one reason Flash was not to be found on Apple's mobile devices. Soon after Apple's criticism, Adobe demoed and released a beta version of Flash 10.1, which used available GPU hardware acceleration even on a Mac. Flash 10.2 beta, released December 2010, added hardware acceleration for the whole video rendering pipeline.
Flash Player supports two distinct modes of video playback, andhardware accelerated video decoding may not be used for older video content. Such content causes excessiveCPU usage compared to comparable content played with other players.
Software Rendered Video
Flash Player supports software rendered video since version 6. Such video supports vector animations displayed above the video content. This obligation may, depending on graphicAPIs exposed by the operating system, prohibit using avideo overlay, like a traditionalmultimedia player would use, with the consequence thatcolor space conversion and scaling must happen in software.[127]
Hardware Accelerated Video
Flash Player supports hardware accelerated video playback since version 10.2, forH.264, F4V, andFLV video formats. Such video is displayed above all Flash content and takes advantage ofvideo codec chipsets installed on the user's device. Developers must specifically use the "StageVideo" technology within Flash Player in order for hardware decoding to be enabled. Flash Player internally uses technologies such asDirectX Video Acceleration andOpenGL to do so.
In tests done byArs Technica in 2008 and 2009, Adobe Flash Player performed better onWindows thanMac OS X andLinux with the same hardware.[128][129]Performance has later improved for the latter two, on Mac OS X with Flash Player 10.1,[130] and on Linux with Flash Player 11.[131]
Flash Audio is most commonly encoded inMP3[citation needed]; however, it can also useADPCM (an IMA ADPCM variation that can use 2, 3, 4, or 5 bits per sample), Nellymoser (Nellymoser Asao Codec) andSpeex audio codecs. Flash allows sample rates of 5512, 11025, 22050 and 44100 Hz (but Speex uses 16 kHz and Nellymoser Asao can also use 8 kHz and 16 kHz).[132] It cannot have a 48 kHz audio sample rate, which is the standard TV and DVD sample rate.[citation needed]
On August 20, 2007, Adobe announced on its blog that with Update 3 of Flash Player 9, Flash Video will also implement some parts of theMPEG-4 international standards.[133] Specifically, Flash Player will work with video compressed inH.264 (MPEG-4 Part 10), audio compressed usingAAC (MPEG-4 Part 3), the F4V, MP4 (MPEG-4 Part 14), M4V, M4A,3GP, andMOV multimediacontainer formats,3GPPTimed Text specification (MPEG-4 Part 17), which is a standardized subtitle format and partial parsing capability for the "ilst" atom, which is theID3 equivalentiTunes uses to storemetadata.MPEG-4 Part 2 andH.263 will not work in F4V file format. Adobe also announced that it will be gradually moving away from the FLV format to the standard ISO base media file format (MPEG-4 Part 12) owing to functional limits with the FLV structure when streaming H.264. The final release of the Flash Player implementing some parts of MPEG-4 standards had become available in Fall 2007.[134]
Adobe Flash Player 10.1 does not have acoustic echo cancellation, unlike the VoIP offerings of Skype and Google Voice, making this and earlier versions of Flash less suitable for group calling or meetings. Flash Player 10.3 Beta incorporates acoustic echo cancellation.
Flash programs useActionScript programming language. It is an enhanced superset of theECMAScript programming language, with a classicalJava-style class model, rather thanJavaScript's prototype model.
In October 1998, Macromedia disclosed the Flash Version 3 Specification on its website. It did this in response to many new and often semi-open formats competing with SWF, such as Xara'sFlare and Sharp's Extended Vector Animation formats. Several developers quickly created aC library for producing SWF. In February 1999, MorphInk 99 was introduced, the first third-party program to create SWF files. Macromedia also hired Middlesoft to create a freely availabledevelopers' kit for the SWF file format versions 3 to 5.
Macromedia made the Flash Files specifications for versions 6 and later available only under anon-disclosure agreement, but they are widely available from various sites.
In April 2006, the Flash SWF file format specification was released with details on the then newest version format (Flash 8). Although still lacking specific information on the incorporated video compression formats (On2, Sorenson Spark, etc.), this new documentation covered all the new features offered in Flash v8 including new ActionScript commands, expressive filter controls, and so on. The file format specification document is offered only to developers who agree to a license agreement that permits them to use the specifications only to develop programs that can export to the Flash file format. The license does not allow the use of the specifications to create programs that can be used for playback of Flash files. The Flash 9 specification was made available under similar restrictions.[135]
In June 2009, Adobe launched theOpen Screen Project (Adobe link), which made the SWF specification available without restrictions. Previously, developers could not use the specification for making SWF-compatible players, but only for making SWF-exporting authoring software. The specification still omits information on codecs such asSorenson Spark, however.[136]
The Adobe Animate authoring program is primarily used to design graphics and animation and publish the same for websites, web applications, and video games. The program also offers limited support for audio and video embedding and ActionScript scripting.
Adobe releasedAdobe LiveMotion, designed to create interactive animation content and export it to a variety of formats, including SWF. LiveMotion failed to gain any notable user base.[specify]
In February 2003, Macromedia purchased Presedia, which had developed a Flash authoring tool that automatically converted PowerPoint files into Flash. Macromedia subsequently released the new product as Breeze, which included many new enhancements.
The Flash 4 Linux project was an initiative to develop anopen sourceLinux application as an alternative to Adobe Animate. Development plans included authoring capacity for 2D animation, andtweening, as well as outputting SWF file formats. F4L evolved into an editor that was capable of authoring 2D animation and publishing of SWF files. Flash 4 Linux was renamed UIRA. UIRA intended to combine the resources and knowledge of the F4L project and the Qflash project, both of which were Open Source applications that aimed to provide an alternative to the proprietary Adobe Flash.
Apache Flex SDK – a free, open source SDK to compile Flash-basedrich internet applications from source code. The Apache Flex ActionScript 3.0 compiler generates SWF files fromActionScript 3 files. Flex was the primary ActionScript 3 compiler and was actively developed by Adobe before it was donated toApache Software Foundation in 2011.
Adobe Animate – primarily used to design graphics and animation, but supports ActionScript scripting and debugging.
Adobe Flash Builder – enterprise application development & debugging, contains theFlex SDK with UI and charting components.
Adobe Scout – a visual profiler to optimize the performance of Flash content.
Third-party development tools have been created to assist developers in creating software applications and video games with Flash.
FlashDevelop is afree and open source Flash ActionScript IDE, which includes a project manager and debugger for building applications on Flash Player and Adobe AIR.
Powerflasher FDT is a commercial ActionScript IDE similar to FlashDevelop.
Haxe is an open source, high-level object-oriented programming language geared towards web-content creation that can compile SWF files from Haxe programs. As of 2012,Haxe can build programs for Flash Player that perform faster than the same application built with the Adobe Flex SDK compiler, due to additionalcompiler optimizations supported in Haxe.[citation needed]
SWFTools (specifically, swfc) is an open-source ActionScript 3.0 compiler which generates SWF files from script files, which includesSVG tags.
swfmill andMTASC also provide tools to create SWF files by compiling text, ActionScript or XML files intoFlash animations
Ming library, to create SWF files programmatically, has interfaces forC,PHP,C++,Perl,Python, andRuby. It is able to import and export graphics from XML into SWF.
Adobe Flash Player is the multimedia and application player originally developed byMacromedia and acquired by Adobe Systems. It playsSWF files, which can be created by Adobe Animate,Apache Flex, or a number of other Adobe Systems and 3rd party tools. It has support for a scripting language called ActionScript, which can be used to display Flash Video from an SWF file.
Scaleform GFx is a commercial alternative Flash player that features fully hardware-accelerated 2D graphics rendering using theGPU. Scaleform has high conformance with both Flash 10 ActionScript 3[137] and Flash 8 ActionScript 2. Scaleform GFx is a game development middleware solution that helps create graphical user interfaces orHUDs within 3D video games. It does not work with web browsers.
IrfanView, an image viewer, uses Flash Player to display SWF files.
OpenFL, a cross-platform open-source implementation of the Adobe Flash API,[109] supports importing SWF assets.[138]
Lightspark is a free and open-source SWF player that supports most of ActionScript 3.0 and has aMozilla-compatibleplug-in.[139] It will fall back on Gnash, a free SWF player supporting ActionScript 1.0 and 2.0 (AVM1) code. Lightspark supportsOpenGL-based rendering for 3D content. The player is also compatible withH.264 Flash videos onYouTube.
Gnash aimed to create a software player and browser plugin replacement for the Adobe Flash Player. Gnash can playSWF files up to version 7, and 80% of ActionScript 2.0.[140] Gnash runs on Windows, Linux and other platforms for the 32-bit, 64-bit, and other operating systems, but development has slowed significantly in recent years.
Shumway was an open source Flash Player released by Mozilla in November 2012. It was built in JavaScript and is thus compatible with modern web browsers.[141][142][143] In early October 2013, Shumway was included by default in the Firefox nightly branch.[144] Shumway rendered Flash contents by translating contents inside Flash files to HTML5 elements, and running an ActionScript interpreter inJavaScript.[145] It supported both AVM1 and AVM2, and ActionScript versions 1, 2, and 3.[146] Development of Shumway ceased in early 2016.[147]
In the same year that Shumway was abandoned, work began onRuffle, a flash emulator written inRust. It also runs in web browsers, by compiling down toWebAssembly and using HTML5Canvas.[148] In 2020, theInternet Archive added support for emulating SWF by adding Ruffle to its emulation scheme.[149] As of March 2023, Ruffle states that it supports 95% of the AS1/2 language and 73% of the AS1/2 APIs, but does not correctly run most AS3 (AVM2) applications.[citation needed]
TheActiveX version is anActiveX control for use inInternet Explorer and any other Windows applications that support ActiveX technology. ThePlug-in versions are available for browsers supporting eitherNPAPI orPPAPI plug-ins onMicrosoft Windows,macOS, andLinux. Theprojector version is a standalone player that can openSWF files directly.[150]
Adobe Flash Player was previously available for a variety of mobile operating systems, includingAndroid (between versions2.2[151] and4.0.4)[152].,Pocket PC/Windows CE,QNX (e.g., onBlackBerry PlayBook),Symbian,Palm OS, andwebOS (since version 2.0[153]). Flash Player forsmartphones was originally made available to handset manufacturers at the end of 2009.[154] In November 2011, Adobe announced the withdrawal of support for Flash Player on mobile devices.[155]
In 2011 Adobe reaffirmed its commitment to "aggressively contribute" to HTML5.[156][157] Adobe announced the end of Flash for mobile platforms or TV, instead focusing on HTML5 for browser content and Adobe AIR for the various mobileapplication stores[158][159][160][161] and described it as "the beginning of the end".[162] BlackBerry LTD (formerly known as RIM) announced that it would continue to develop Flash Player for the PlayBook.[163]
There is no Adobe Flash Player for iOS devices (iPhone,iPad, andiPod Touch). However, Flash content can be made to run on iOS devices in a variety of ways:
Flash content can be bundled inside an Adobe AIR app, which will then run on iOS devices. (Apple did not allow this for a while, but they relaxed those restrictions in September 2010.[164])
If the content is Flash video being served by Adobe Flash Media Server 4.5, the server will translate and send the video as HTTP Dynamic Streaming or HTTP Live Streaming, both of which can be played by iOS devices.[165]
Some specialized mobile browsers manage to accommodate Flash via streaming content from the cloud directly to a user's device. Some examples are Photon Browser[166] and Puffin Web Browser.[167]
Adobe Flash Lite is a lightweight version of Adobe Flash Player intended for mobile phones[172][self-published source?] and other portable electronic devices likeChumby andiRiver.
OpenFL is an open-source software framework that mirrors the Adobe Flash API. It allows developers to build a single application against the OpenFL APIs, and simultaneously target multiple platforms including iOS, Android, HTML5 (choice of Canvas, WebGL, SVG or DOM), Windows, macOS, Linux, WebAssembly, Flash, AIR, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, Xbox One, Wii U, TiVo, Raspberry Pi, and Node.js.[173] OpenFL mirrors the Flash API for graphical operations. OpenFL applications can be written inHaxe, JavaScript (EcmaScript 5 or 6+), or TypeScript.[174]
HTML5 is often cited as an alternative to Adobe Flash technology usage on web pages. Adobe released a tool that converts Flash to HTML5,[176] and in June 2011, Google released an experimental tool that does the same.[177][178] In January 2015,YouTube defaulted to HTML5 players to better support more devices.[179]
CreateJS is a library that while available separately was also adopted by Adobe as a replacement for Wallaby inCS6. Unlike Wallaby, which was a standalone program, the "Toolkit for CreateJS" only works as a plug-in insideFlash Professional; it generates output for theHTML5 canvas, animated with JavaScript.[182][183] Around December 2013, the toolkit was integrated directly into Flash Professional CC.[184][185]
The following tools run Flash content in an HTML5-enabled browser, but do not convert to a HTML5 webpage:
Websites built with Adobe Flash will not function on most modern mobile devices runningGoogle Android oriOS (iPhone,iPad). The only alternative is using HTML5 andresponsive web design to build websites that support both desktop and mobile devices.
However, Flash is still used to build mobile games using Adobe AIR. Such games will not work in mobile web browsers but must be installed via the appropriateapp store.
The reliance on Adobe for decoding Flash made its use on theWorld Wide Web a concern—the completeness of its public specifications are debated, and no complete implementation of Flash is publicly available insource code form with a license that permits reuse. Generally, public specifications are what makes a format re-implementable (seefuture proofing data storage), and reusable codebases can beported to new platforms without the endorsement of the format creator.
Adobe's restrictions on the use of the SWF/FLV specifications were lifted in February 2009 (seeAdobe's Open Screen Project). However, despite efforts of projects like Gnash,Swfdec, andLightspark, a complete free Flash player is yet to be seen, as of September 2011. For example, Gnash cannot use SWF v10 yet.[187] Notably, Gnash was listed on theFree Software Foundation's high priority list, from at least 2007, to its removal in January 2017.[188]
Notable advocates of free software, open standards, and the World Wide Web have warned against the use of Flash:
Companies building websites should beware of proprietaryrich-media technologies like Adobe's Flash and Microsoft's Silverlight. (...) You're producing content for your users and there's someone in the middle deciding whether users should see your content.
Representing open standards, inventor ofCSS and co-author of HTML5,Håkon Wium Lie explained in a Google tech talk of 2007, entitled "the <video> element", the proposal ofTheora as the format forHTML video:[190]
I believe very strongly, that we need to agree on some kind of baseline video format if [the video element] is going to succeed. Flash is today the baseline format on the web. The problem with Flash is that it's not an open standard.
Usability consultantJakob Nielsen published an Alertbox in 2000 entitled,Flash: 99% Bad, stating that "Flash tends to degrade websites for three reasons: it encourages design abuse, it breaks with the Web's fundamental interaction principles, and it distracts attention from the site's core value."[192] Some problems have been at least partially fixed since Nielsen's complaints: text size can be controlled using full page zoom and it has been possible for authors to include alternative text in Flash since Flash Player 6.
Some websites rely heavily on Flash and become unusable without Flash Player, or with Flash blocked.
Flash content is usually embedded using theobject orembedHTML element.[193] A web browser that does not fully implement one of these elements displays the replacement text, if supplied by the web page. Often, a plugin is required for the browser to fully implement these elements, though some users cannot or will not install it.
Since Flash can be used to produce content (such as advertisements) that some users find obnoxious or take a large amount of bandwidth to download, some web browsers, by default, do not play Flash content until the user clicks on it, e.g.Konqueror,K-Meleon.
Most current browsers have a feature to block plugins, playing one only when the user clicks it. Opera versions since 10.5 feature native Flash blocking. Opera Turbo requires the user to click to play Flash content, and the browser also allows the user to enable this option permanently. Both Chrome[194] and Firefox[195] have an option to enable "click to play plugins". Equivalent "Flash blocker" extensions are also available for many popular browsers: Firefox hasFlashblock andNoScript, Internet Explorer has Foxie, which contains a number of features, one of them named Flashblock. WebKit-based browsers under macOS, such as Apple's Safari, have ClickToFlash.[196] In June 2015, Google announced that Chrome will "pause" advertisements and "non-central" Flash content by default.[197]
Firefox (from version 46) rewrites old Flash-onlyYouTube embed code into YouTube's modern embedded player that is capable of using eitherHTML video or Flash.[198] Such embed code is used by non-YouTube sites to embed YouTube's videos, and can still be encountered, for example, on old blogs and forums.
However, there are ways to pass this error in absence of flash player by deleting the validation code in HTML. This also depends on browser vision.
For many years Adobe Flash Player's security record[199] has led many security experts to recommend against installing the player, or to block Flash content.[200][201] TheUS-CERT has recommended blocking Flash,[202] and security researcherCharlie Miller recommended "not to install Flash";[203] however, for people still using Flash,Intego recommended that users get trusted updates "only directly from the vendor that publishes them."[204] Adobe Flash Player has over 1078CVE entries,[205] of which over 842 lead toarbitrary code execution, and past vulnerabilities have enabled spying via web cameras.[206][207][208][209] Security experts have long predicted the demise of Flash, saying that with the rise of HTML5 "...the need for browser plugins such as Flash is diminishing".[210]
Active moves by third parties to limit the risk began withSteve Jobs in 2010 saying that Apple would not allow Flash on theiPhone,iPod Touch, andiPad – citing abysmal security as one reason.[211] Flash often used the ability to dynamically change parts of the runtime on languages on OSX to improve their own performance, but caused general instability. In July 2015, a series of newly discovered vulnerabilities resulted inFacebook's chief security officer,Alex Stamos, issuing a call to Adobe to discontinue the software entirely[212] and theMozilla Firefox web browser,Google Chrome, andApple Safari to blacklist all earlier versions of Flash Player.[213][214][215]
Like theHTTP cookie, aflash cookie (also known as a "Local Shared Object") can be used to save application data. Flash cookies are not shared acrossdomains. An August 2009 study by theAshkan Soltani and a team of researchers atUC Berkeley found that 50% of websites using Flash were also employing flash cookies, yet privacy policies rarely disclosed them, and user controls forprivacy preferences were lacking.[216] Most browsers' cache and history suppress or delete functions did not affect Flash Player's writing Local Shared Objects to its own cache in version 10.2 and earlier, at which point the user community was much less aware of the existence and function of Flash cookies than HTTP cookies.[217] Thus, users with those versions, having deleted HTTP cookies and purged browser history files and caches, may believe that they have purged all tracking data from their computers when in fact Flash browsing history remains. Adobe's own FlashWebsite Storage Settings panel, a submenu of theSettings Manager web application, and othereditors and toolkits can manage settings for and delete Flash Local Shared Objects.[218]
^Although it is discontinued by Adobe Inc., for the Chinese market it is developed by Zhongcheng and for the international enterprise market it is developed byHarman International.
^"Adobe Open Screen Project".ZDNet.Archived from the original on August 11, 2011. RetrievedMarch 21, 2012.Starting today, there will be no restrictions on the use of the SWF specification or the FLV and F4V specifications that make up video in Flash. Formerly, to look at the SWF specification users had to sign a licensing agreement not to use it to create competing players
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