The ending is officially here for Adobe Flash. As previously announced, Adobe has confirmed that it will no longer provide support for Flash Player after December 31, 2020 and will block the execution of Flash content in Flash Player from January 12, 2021.
The writing has been on the wall for the end of Adobe Flash for years. In 2017, Adobe announced its plans to withdraw support for the Flash plug-in by the end of 2020 and is now delivering on that promise.
While Adobe has been working to slow Flash for the past three years, Apple’s message was consistent. The company emphasized on its WebKit blog at the time of Adobe’s announcement that the Flash transition began in 2010 for Apple users:
Apple users have been experiencing the web without Flash for some time. iPhone, iPad and iPod touch are never compatible with Flash. For the Mac, the Flash transition began in 2010, when Flash was no longer pre-installed. Today, if users install Flash, it remains off by default. Safari requires explicit approval on each site before running the Flash plugin.
But of course, the relationship between Apple and Adobe with regard to Flash has been tense for years, since Steve Jobs published his article “Reflections on Flash” in 2010 to address what was an important point of criticism at the time for iPhones and iPads as computer replacements.
I wanted to write down some of our thoughts on Adobe’s Flash products so that customers and critics can better understand why we don’t allow Flash on iPhones, iPods and iPads. Adobe characterized our decision as primarily business-oriented – they say we want to protect our App Store – but in reality it is based on technology issues. Adobe claims that we are a closed system and that Flash is open, but in fact the opposite is true.
In the letter, Jobs lamented Flash for its many shortcomings, including things like reliability, security, battery life and performance. Although Adobe contested Jobs’ claims at the time, Apple never brought Flash to the iPhone and iPad, and the fall of Flash began soon after.
Adobe has a website dedicated to providing information about Flash’s end-of-life plans, saying that users should uninstall Flash from their computers immediately to “help protect their systems”.
As Adobe will no longer support Flash Player after December 31, 2020 and will block Flash content from playing in Flash Player from January 12, 2021, Adobe strongly recommends that all users immediately uninstall Flash Player to help protect your systems. Some users may continue to see reminders from Adobe to uninstall Flash Player from their systems.
You can find more information on the Adobe website.
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