Still think Flash is dead or very much alive?

[_keyframer]

I have loved Flash for decades. I still use it but I get asked if the application is really dead. I use Flash almost everyday for everything from designing, doodling, quick little animations or full featured client animation to video. With support for HTML5 and WebGL it's apparent that Adobe wants Flash to continue and adpat to the ever changing technology landscape.

Is has the general public been duped into thinking Flash (the authoring tool) is dead because the browser player (by the same name) is no longer supported? What do you guys think?

[Guest]

Absolutely - there's a significant issue with having a development tool with the same name of as a deprecated standard.

I've disabled all Flash plug-ins across all my computers, and I've never bothered to install the Flash Creative Cloud software on my computer because it is "Flash" which is deprecated.

I was unaware Flash (the software application) supported HTML5 and WebGL. Now I'll actually have to look into it. May be a good time for Adobe to rename it to something like Adobe Animation Studio or something to detach it from the Flash name since it doesn't "require" the animation to be a Flash animation. I've been dabbling with Adobe Edge Animate CC whenever I wanted to do any web-based animation work (well, that and Google's Web Designer software).

[_keyframer]

Completely agree that Adobe should rebrand Flash.

[Joseph Labrecque]

Check out all the MAX labs and sessions dedicated to Flash Professional - Adobe is putting some weight behind Flash Professional again:

• S5626 - Animating Nickelodeon’s riDUCKulously awesome series Breadwinners with Flash CC
  David Gerhard
  
• S5365 - Animating SVG with Flash Professional CC
  CJ Gammon
  
• S5445 - Animating with Fresh Styles: Techniques for TV with Flash Professional CC
  Mike Roush
  
• L5505 - Flash Professional CC: The Future of Animation Is Here!
  Dharmendra Kumar + Manoj Tharwani
  
• S4556 - Giving Flash Professional Another Look
  Joseph Labrecque
  
• S5425 - The Future Is Now: HTML5 Advertising with Flash Professional CC
  Cory Hudson
  
• L4555 - Unleashing the Creative Power of Flash Professional CC
  Joseph Labrecque
  
• S4566 - What’s New in Flash Professional CC, the Animation Tool of the Future
  Ajay Kumar Shukla
  
  
  

[_keyframer]

Thanks Joseph.

Here lies the issue. The Flash Player is still out there yet we see headlines that Google is killing it for their Chrome browser. Even though the player is still being used in various places, the PR behind it has led everyone to believe that Flash itself, across the board, is dead. Countless students always tell me they didn't think Flash is worth learning because its "dead", yet Adobe is clearly still developing the authoring tool for platforms beyond the player.

So yes, the tool itself is very much alive (I just downloaded a new prerelease build with new features) and the player itself is simply on life support. So how does Adobe rebrand the authoring tool so that it may potentially have more people learning and developing with this product.

[PaulSalazar]

Hi everyone.

Well for my self the issue depends of his focus.

For example in advertisement the flash player will be used for one year more, because since 2011 Google (double click) is working in move the standard to html5.

Web pages is "dead" because the mobile thinking and the use of Wordpress, wix, squarespace and others, don't have too much space for flash player.

But...

Mobile apps, gaming, video, ATMs or touch computers for presentation, definitely is a good option.

The problem is adobe flash program vs flash player.

Maybe a change of the name can helps to the user and the  board of directors understand the capabilities and uses of adobe flash program. Instance of thinking flash is flash player and  think is something wrong (Tabu)

[Joseph Labrecque]

Thing is that these headlines are either the result of poor journalism in tech reporting or they are obvious clickbait.

I would disagree that the Flash Player is on life support. Things are definitely added and improved upon with each release - life support would be only security fixes. chris.campbell‌ can probably shed some more light into that area.

As for Flash Professional, you know how much effort they are putting into the author tool, chris_georgenes‌. The hard part is getting people to know what's been done and how useful (and feature-rich) the application truly is! I think this is just the beginning.

[ProDesignTools]

And note that 3 of the MAX labs/sessions that Joseph posted have both the words "Flash Pro" and "Future" in their titles.

What’s New in Flash Professional CC, the Animation Tool of the Future

The Future Is Now: HTML5 Advertising with Flash Professional CC

Flash Professional CC: The Future of Animation Is Here!

I agree that a rebranding of Flash Professional would be something to consider, now that it can easily output not just Flash, but also HTML5 Canvas (which is increasingly being done), WebGL, Animated SVG, etc.  It is becoming more of an uber-level animation authoring tool.

[Jeff__Ward]

> because the browser player (by the same name) is no longer supported

Did I miss an announcement, or is this false?

[_keyframer]

Well, chrome just announced last week it no longer supports it. Facebook's video player doesn't support Flash. The web and mobile world has been shunning the Flash player for a while now. The player is, for all intents and purposes, on life support and has been for a while.

Google Chrome Blocks Adobe Flash Ads – and What That Means for You

[Joseph Labrecque]

This is only ads. Primary content written for Flash Player will still run just fine.

[Joseph Labrecque]

Flash Player is absolutely supported on desktop browsers:

• Adobe has a new release every quarter - active development.
• The standalone Flash Player runtime is updated 1.2 billion times per month directly from users going to Adobe.
• Integrated Flash Player is built into Google Chrome, Internet Explorer 11, and Microsoft Edge.
• Every ChromeBook includes Flash Player. Huge for educational content.
• 99% of Facebook games are written for Flash Player.
• Add this all up – Flash Player is (still) everywhere!

[chris.campbell]

Joseph Labrecque wrote:

Flash Player is absolutely supported on desktop browsers:

• Adobe has a new release every quarter - active development.
• The standalone Flash Player runtime is updated 1.2 billion times per month directly from users going to Adobe.
• Integrated Flash Player is built into Google Chrome, Internet Explorer 11, and Microsoft Edge.
• Every ChromeBook includes Flash Player. Huge for educational content.
• 99% of Facebook games are written for Flash Player.
• Add this all up – Flash Player is (still) everywhere!

I'd just like to reiterate what Joseph has said regarding Flash Player.  We're still very much alive and relevant and I believe our ubiquity is better than ever!  Our team (Flash Player and AIR) releases updates on a *monthly* basis, with new features every quarter.  We're absolutely committed to security and our customers.  We've got an unbelievable amount of installations out there.  I can't think of any other single piece of software that has this type of install base.  We've got major partners, like Microsoft and Google, who have embedded Flash Player into their platforms so that their customers are guaranteed to have a secure, smooth and friction-less experience on the web.

Personally, If I was developing a web based application or game, I would definitely evaluate Flash Player as a technology platform.  If you need the capabilities that it provides and you need to make sure that all of your customers will have them (even those with older systems & browsers), then Flash Player remains a great option.

[zwetan_uk]

let me add to the list

• you have a "flash version" parameter in google analytics
  Measurement Protocol Parameter Reference  |       Analytics Measurement Protocol  |       Google Dev...
• search google for
  site:play.google.com "id=air." you will get 500K+ results
  https://www.google.fr/search?q=site:play.google.com+%22id%3Dair.%22
• as a plugin Flash is the only plugin who followed the wave of PPAPI,
  now almost all browsers have stopped support for the old NPAPI
  and will support only PPAPI plugins
• the Flash plugin benefit from HTML too, anywhere you can publish HTML you can embed it
  for ex: Atom/Electron allow to publish desktop apps based on HTML, it supports Flash too
  electron/using-pepper-flash-plugin.md at master · atom/electron · GitHub

and I will answer this to the "flash is dead" meme that the tech industry keep repeating for the last 5 years

users do not care which technology is used

the same way developers could use Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, Java, ASP.NET, etc. to build the backend of a website

users do not care a bit which language or technology is used by the developers to build an application

keep making great content: animation, apps, games, etc., cool web and/or desktop and/or mobile apps
and users will come (the classic: "build it and they will come")

shameless plug:

• you can also build command-line app with AS3
  check out Corsaair/redtamarin · GitHub
• you can also use ActionScript 3.0 server side
  checkout as3lang/www.as3lang.org · GitHub
  and http://as3lang.org/

combine Flash, AIR and Redtamarin and you can publish your AS3 code everywhere

[Joseph Labrecque]

I think the absolute biggest problem is that "Flash" means specific things to different people. For instance- some people think "Flash" is video... some ads... some games... no one seems to ever see the big picture and that is where the "tech journalists" fail most of all.

[Cptn_Uncanny]

I would disagree that anything about it is dead, including the player.

I work primarily in games and have a webgame project: http://tetrageddon.com because of the limitations of HTML5 (which I will not get into) I chose Flash and they require the flashplayer to run, as many browser games do.

In all the time the project has existed, its games played by players & popular youtubers, and showcased at various events (GDC, E3), as well as being written about in a lot of notable publications, not one person has batted an eye that it's Flash (some even thought this impressive) or that it requires the player.

This is not a "small" project by far. It's received a lot of recognition and won awards. It's coming to Steam (as a result of being a finalist/winer at IGF)... This is a Flash project. It would NOT have been possible without the platform or the player.

In my opinion, and where I'm coming from, Adobe would make a hugely detrimental mistake by discontinuing the player. From my understanding this year's "dead" debate was for banner ads.

It is unfortunate that poor journalism has drug the platform through the mud like this. It's a great game development tool (among many things), and I find the player a huge plus. If it weren't for the flash player I would have switched production to something else (like Unity).

I also find the conversation ridiculous. From all the plugins out there, and all the media formats that exist on the internet, and considering that even Java applets have a place on the internet, the flash player is the only thing that "should die". If something where really dead it wouldn't require this much press to convince people of it.

[molotowitzz]

In our company we use Flash player for our key financial product, which serves tens of thousands customers internationally on a "paid basis". Maintenance involves minimum effort, everything just works as we wrote it years ago and we can still fluently improve it with new features of Flash player. We have also some feature-limited HTML alternative (paralel development), which targets mobile browsers, but it is less homogenous and sometimes less performant. Our iOS and Android AIR apps share codebase with the Flash application. If this continues to work, we aren't going anywhere.

[_keyframer]

Thanks to everyone for enlightening me. On the outside looking in, it seems the player is barely breathing. But I see now many still rely on it quite a bit. Good to hear.

[Joseph Labrecque]

I think it really does all depend upon perspective!

[Carm01]

It sad that you all are so blind that not one mention of the first 5 months of 2015 there were 62 security Vulnerabilities discovered in Flash how many of those are patched?

It seems like this is just some PR and adobe fanboy garbage to sidestep the issue that flash is a huge security risk. All you Adobe fanboys just do a google search on the security risk of flash

The only reason Adobe will not put a kill date on flash is because they are still making huge profits for flash period. Flash ir 2 decades old. Adobe has a mentality of a brick when it comes to this. A multi billion dollar company that only sees profit and could care less about the security risk their product poses period.

Adobe = mentality of a brick when it comes to flash!

open your eyes looks like 215 year to date: https://www.cvedetails.com/vulnerability-list/vendor_id-53/product_id-6761/Adobe-Flash-Player.html

Regards

[JAGUAR6CY]

DEAD.

Solved? Flash player jerky and freezes browser