the future of flash

[martin_nz]

It is said that the development of flash player will be stopped at the end of 2020

Will the development of the game and app for Android,ios,windows,mac also stop?

[Joseph Labrecque]

Would be nice if Adobe would share some more info, wouldn't it?

[martin_nz]

Dear adobe authorities, please provide a clear answer

[ClayUUID]

I don't even understand what you mean by "the game and app". What game? What app?

[kdmemory]

I think martin nz means the platforms AIR for Desktop, iOS and Android, doesn't he?

[martin_nz]

yeah

we can make game and app by as3 in flash(animate) based on air in android now , is different in ios

air or native exporting is not first priority for flash developers ,as3 is first priority

i have this question : what will happen for android,ios,windows,mac development by as3 in animate?

[martin_nz]

i am waiting for a clear answer from adobe responsibles

will stop android,ios,win,mac exporting in animate cc (based on as3) after 2020 ?

this question is based on this adobe statement  : https://theblog.adobe.com/adobe-flash-update/

Thanks

[resdesign]

This paragraph seems to indicate that the HTML5 part of ANCC will remain.

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.

[kdmemory]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/martin+nz  wrote

i am waiting for a clear answer from adobe responsibles

will stop android,ios,win,mac exporting in animate cc (based on as3) after 2020 ?

this question is based on this adobe statement  : https://theblog.adobe.com/adobe-flash-update/

I guess that Animate CC and Mobile Device Packaging will live on. What will stop in 2020 (and is already in heavy decline) is everything build for the Flash Player.

"Specifically, we will stop updating and distributing the Flash Player at the end of 2020 and encourage content creators to migrate any existing Flash content to .. open formats."

So AIR for Desktop, Android and iOS will live on. And Actionscript 3 as well. No need to drop out.

Klaus

[martin_nz · Accepted solution]

Hi

I found the definitive answer here

https://forums.adobe.com/message/9723772

air for win,mac,android,ios will stay stronger than before

[Rolf_Rahbek]

Martin, that sounds promising. But the post is 3 month old and the title is 'Locked by Moderator, Not on subject anymore,AIR Roadmap Update'. .... I think it's very important subject, still! Not getting any info about this subject from Adobe for month worries me  ;(

[martin_nz]

Rolf , The main news is also for 3 months ago(flash player end of life)

And that clear answer is after it(air for win,mac,android,ios will stay stronger than before)

really there is nothing to worry about and no need to more info about it !

[asmith101]

That's older than 3 months. It appears the date was updated when they locked the thread. It's from July 2017.

[martin_nz]

Asmith101: Construction date is not important

that post was updated after original news(flash player end of life)

and It is mentioned in the news this is important

you can see this paragraph from it post :

With the news today regarding Flash Player, I'm sure many of you have questions regarding AIR and its future roadmap.  Let me start by saying that today's announcement was not about AIR, and instead focuses entirely on Flash Player and the browser plugin environment.  Adobe remains committed to AIR and we believe it continues to be a great desktop and mobile development platform.

that is really clear

[asmith101]

That's the issue, the "news today" is not news from today. That link is to the article from July of 2017. Nothing here has been updated. The update was to lock the thread. We have received no more information about the future of AIR since July of 2017.

To be sure, we know that AIR is not going to die at the same time Flash Player does. Adobe HAS assured us it will live longer than that. But we don't know how much longer, and we have very good reason to not put much faith in its long term survival. The company has stopped paying the creators of AIR's two biggest frameworks - Starling and Feathers UI. And there is no clear revenue model for Adobe AIR that would lead us to believe they have reason to sustain it longer than they must. I think we should expect them to make another announcement in the future that AIR will be discontinued.

[martin_nz]

our discussion was about relation of main news and that link , i spoke that link is after main news

this is important , we have not more info about "flash end of life" and same news is cleared by that link

we have not any news about "flash end of life" after that clear link about air , so we have not clear reason for AIR discontinue by Adobe

[asmith101]

Martin, I think you're misunderstanding us. Rolf raised a very good point, and it's secondary to your initial question. Yes, we know that AIR is not going to be discontinued at the same time as the web player. But Rolf pointed out that the last time Adobe addressed this was a significantly long time ago. And since that time, we have seen other reasons to be concerned about this. What we're saying is that even though Adobe has not given any new official messaging on this subject, we don't have a high level of confidence that such a message won't come at some point. Why would Adobe continue to pay developers to support AIR? What's in it for them? Animate CC sales? Animate has already largely been refashioned to target HTML5. And in any case, the vast majority of revenue driving Animate CC from Flash came from users targeting the Flash web player, not AIR.

Adobe has already shown how unwilling they are to invest money where they don't see the potential for return. They cancelled AS4 when they saw the industry shifting towards HTML5. They've now dropped the Flash web player sooner than they originally stated officially would happen. And most recently they canceled their funding for Starling and Feathers, the only two "high profile" frameworks for AIR. At the same time, since that forum message and corresponding news article that both date from July of 2017, we have not seen Adobe do anything to turn AIR into a product that can create revenue. There are no announcements about plans or ideas that could expand their appeal and grow their audience. We used to hear about that sort of thing as the company sought to make Flash monetarily viable. At this point, it appears extremely likely that AIR is a money loser for the company. And that in the past has been the recipe for those end of life announcements.

I'm not disagreeing with you that the last official message Adobe gave was that AIR would continue. I'm saying that because that message came nearly 2 years ago, and because Adobe has done nothing since then to make AIR viable, there's little reason to have high confidence in AIR's longevity. The company and its shareholders don't like to throw away money, and right now, that seems to be what they're doing with AIR.

[martin_nz]

As I said in previous messages : No matter what the output is made by what technology

we want just (output for "Android , ios , web , windows , mac" by Action Script)

This has already been done , and so far, Adobe has not been said that this will not continue

adobe has used Html5 instead of flash player

It can be repeated for Air If it is needed in the future

i think Adobe gave us answer for rumors one time and is not need Adobe give us every day

good luck

[asmith101]

I'm not quite sure what you mean by, "Adobe has used HTML5 instead of Flash Player. It can be repeated for AIR if it is needed in the future." To be sure, Adobe has not given developers an automatic conversion from ActionScript to JavaScript. If you use Animate's feature to generate HTML5 canvas content, you will need to rewrite frame scripts in JavaScript to target CreateJS or some other JS framework. And if you have any external classes and libraries, you will need to rewrite those as well. We need to understand that there will be no silver bullet here. When AIR is discontinued, do not expect Adobe to put huge engineering effort into creating a smooth path forward.

There are some community efforts to create AS3 to JS converters, and some of these have come pretty far. But it is a mistake to not realize that at some point in time, perhaps not many years from now, ActionScript will no longer be viable.

To be honest, I think people who really like the Flash API and want to target all of these platforms with a language similar to ActionScript should take a serious look at OpenFL. It is by far the strongest community-led effort, and in my opinion it is the best chance Flash developers have to ensure the future of Flash-like development.

Finally, remember that Adobe's decision makers are not the same as the people who develop Flash. We heard from the latter. But it is the former, the people higher up in the company, who make the call, And in the past, they have shown that their decisions are driven by their shareholders' interests - as they should be. The development team may get caught off guard by Adobe's business decisions quite as much as we do.

[martin_nz]

yes i know , createjs written same as as3 , that is enough

In the previous code, small changes are required

Anyway, the flash software(animate) has Html5 output and that is one uptodate tools

and i think this will be continue in the future (we have not any official statement opposite this from adobe)

Thanks for taking part in the discussion