EOL for Adobe Flash Player

EOL announcement

Advanced Alternatives

Now that Adobe Flash Player is coming to an end, users may be considering alternatives. It turns out that alternative technologies have exceeded Adobe Flash Player in certain features, like higher security and automatic updates. By alternative technologies, I refer to open standards, especially HTML5, WebGL, and WebAssembly that browser vendors are continuously integrating. Such open standards are software technologies built into web browsers; meanwhile, plug-ins such as Adobe Flash Player have been disregarded.  

   -HTML5 is a programming language that allows modification of appearance and content for web pages. This element allows users to do just about anything online from  animation to applications and from music to movies.

   -WebGL is a JavaScript API for providing interactive 2D and 3D graphics within browsers.

   -WebAssembly is a low-level assembly-like language with a compact binary format that runs with near-native performance and provides languages with low-level memory models (i.e., C++ and Rust) with a compilation target so they could run on the web.

Similar Alternatives

If users are still interested in having a similar alternative to Adobe Flash Player, they should look towards Lightspark Flash Player, a free open source LGPLv3-licensed Flash player and browser plugin. Lightspark Flash Player allows for multimedia content to be displayed, Internet applications to be run, and audio/video files to be streamed. This program supports Adobe’s newer Flash formats and AVM2 virtual machine. Though, this program is limited to Linux and Windows, and can be downloaded from software.informer.com.

For Mac users, Elmedia Player by Eltima Software is the best bet. This program is a third-party utility that supports various audio/video formats, including SWF files to be played locally on macOS. Like Lightspark Player, Elmedia Player is free of use and allows users to view Flash content with multiple options and controls designed within. This program also operates as a built-in browser, allowing users to navigate the web and stream online videos. Elmedia Plater can be downloaded from Eltima's official website.

What users should do

Keep in mind that users may still find Flash Play available for download through third-party website even after the EOL date. However, Flash Player downloads from third-party websites are considered unauthorized versions and could bring malware and viruses to users’ devices.

At this point, users may not notice that they haven’t even used Adobe Flash Player as of late. Major browser vendors and developers have recently leaned towards turning Adobe Flash Player off by default. That just shows how vital the advanced alternatives for Adobe Flash Player have become. If applicable, users are recommended to have it uninstalled from their devices as Adobe won’t support Flash Player after December 31st, 2020.

Summary

It has been approximately three years since Adobe announced their plan to discontinue Flash Player by the end of 2020. This decision was made public in order to allow developers, businesses and consumers to drift from using outdated Flash content to more advanced open standards, which have been integrated successfully.