In the early 2000s, Flash was widely installed on desktop computers, and was often used to display interactive web pages and online games, and to play video and audio content. Adobe continues to develop Adobe Animate, which supports web standards such as HTML5 instead of the Flash format. The Flash Player was deprecated in 2017 and officially discontinued at the end of 2020 for all users outside China, as well as non-enterprise users, with many web browsers and operating systems scheduled to remove the Flash Player software around the same time. Following an open letter written by Steve Jobs in 2010 stating that he would not approve the use of Flash on Apple's iOS devices due to numerous security flaws, use of Flash declined as Adobe transitioned to the Adobe Air platform. Instead, Flash found a niche as the dominant platform for online multimedia content, particularly for browser games. Adobe AIR enables full-featured desktop and mobile applications to be developed with Flash and published for Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Wii U, and Nintendo Switch.įlash was initially used to create fully-interactive websites, but this approach was phased out with the introduction of HTML5. Programmers can implement Flash software using an IDE such as Adobe Animate, Adobe Flash Builder, Adobe Director, FlashDevelop, and Powerflasher FDT.

The ActionScript programming language allows the development of interactive animations, video games, web applications, desktop applications, and mobile applications. Adobe Flash Lite enabled viewing Flash content on older smartphones, but since has been discontinued and superseded by Adobe AIR. Adobe Flash Player (which is available on Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Linux) enables end users to view Flash content using web browsers. End users view Flash content via Flash Player (for web browsers), Adobe AIR (for desktop or mobile apps), or third-party players such as Scaleform (for video games). Software developers may produce applications and video games using Adobe Flash Builder, FlashDevelop, Flash Catalyst, or any text editor combined with the Apache Flex SDK.

It allows streaming of audio and video, and can capture mouse, keyboard, microphone, and camera input.Īrtists may produce Flash graphics and animations using Adobe Animate (formerly known as Adobe Flash Professional). outside ChinaĪdobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash and FutureSplash) is a multimedia software platform used for production of animations, rich internet applications, desktop applications, mobile apps, mobile games, and embedded web browser video players.įlash displays text, vector graphics, and raster graphics to provide animations, video games, and applications. Active only for enterprise users and all users in China, discontinued everywhere else, i.e.

Adobe Flash and Shockwave Players