Adobe Flash Player

This article is about the player. For an overview of the platform, see Adobe Flash.
"Shockwave Flash" redirects here. Not to be confused with Adobe Shockwave. For the file format sometimes referred to as "Shockwave Flash", see SWF.

Adobe Flash Player
Original author(s)FutureWave
Macromedia
Developer(s)Adobe
Zhongcheng
Harman
Initial releaseJanuary 1, 1996; 28 years ago (1996-01-01)
Stable release(s) [±]
Windows, macOS (China-specific variant)34.0.0.321[1] / September 10, 2024; 2 months ago (2024-09-10)[2]
Windows, macOS, Linux (Harman enterprise variant)50.x[3] / N/A
Linux (China-specific variant)34.0.0.137[4][5] / April 13, 2021; 3 years ago (2021-04-13)[2]
Windows, macOS, Linux, ChromeOS (Global variant, excluding China)32.0.0.465[6] / December 8, 2020; 3 years ago (2020-12-08)[7]
Internet Explorer 11 and Edge Legacy (Embedded - Windows 8 or later)32.0.0.445[6] / October 13, 2020; 4 years ago (2020-10-13)[7]
Android 4.0.x11.1.115.81 / September 10, 2013; 11 years ago (2013-09-10)[7]
Android 2.x and 3.x11.1.111.73 / September 10, 2013; 11 years ago (2013-09-10)[7]
Solaris11.2.202.223 / March 28, 2012; 12 years ago (2012-03-28)[7]
Preview release(s) [±]
Windows, macOS, Linux, ChromeOS32.0.0.380 Beta / May 14, 2020; 4 years ago (2020-05-14)[8]
Written inActionScript
Operating systemWindows, macOS, Linux, ChromeOS, Solaris, BlackBerry Tablet OS, Android, Pocket PC
PlatformWeb browsers and ActiveX-based software
Available inAfrikaans, Arabic, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Telugu, Turkish, Vietnamese, Xhosa, Yiddish, and Zulu[9]
TypeRuntime system and browser extension
LicenseFreeware
Website

Adobe Flash Player (known in Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Google Chrome as Shockwave Flash)[10] was a computer program for viewing multimedia content, executing rich Internet applications, and streaming audio and video content created on the Adobe Flash platform. It can run from a web browser as a browser plug-in or independently on supported devices. Originally created by FutureWave under the name FutureSplash Player, it was renamed to Macromedia Flash Player after Macromedia acquired FutureWave in 1996. After Adobe acquired Macromedia in 2005, it was developed and distributed by Adobe as Adobe Flash Player. It is currently developed and distributed by Zhongcheng for users in China, and by Harman International for enterprise users outside of China, in collaboration with Adobe.

Flash Player ran on SWF files that can be created using Adobe Flash Professional, Adobe Flash Builder, or third-party tools such as FlashDevelop. Flash Player supports video and raster graphics; vector graphics; 3D graphics; embedded audio; and an object-oriented scripting language called ActionScript, which is based on ECMAScript (similar to JavaScript). Internet Explorer 11 and Microsoft Edge Legacy since Windows 8, along with Google Chrome on all versions of Windows, came bundled with a sandboxed Adobe Flash Player plug-in.[11][12][13][14][15]

Flash Player once had a large user base, and was required to run many web games, animations, and graphical user interface (GUI) elements embedded in web pages. Adobe stated in 2013 that more than 400 million, out of over 1 billion connected desktops, updated to new versions of Flash Player within six weeks of release.[16] However, Flash Player became increasingly criticized for poor performance, consumption of battery on mobile devices, the number of security vulnerabilities that had been discovered in the software, and its nature as a closed platform controlled by Adobe. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was highly critical of Flash Player, having published an open letter criticising the platform and detailing Apple's reasoning for not supporting Flash on its iOS device family. Its usage further waned due to more modern web standards which replaced some of Flash's functionality, reducing the need for third-party plugins.[17][18][19]

This led to the eventual deprecation of the platform. Flash Player was officially discontinued on 31 December 2020, and its download page was removed two days later. Since 12 January 2021, Flash Player (original global variants) versions newer than 32.0.0.371, released in May 2020, refuse to play Flash content and instead display a static warning message.[20] The software remains supported in mainland China and in some enterprise variants.[21]

  1. ^ "Adobe - Flash Player". flash.cn (in Simplified Chinese). Zhongcheng Network Technology Co., Ltd. Retrieved July 14, 2021.
  2. ^ a b "_flash_install_packages_". flash.cn. Zhongcheng Network Technology Co., Ltd. Retrieved July 13, 2021.
  3. ^ "ADOBE® FLASH® PLAYER ENTERPRISE SUPPORT". harman.com. Harman International. Retrieved November 21, 2021.
  4. ^ "Flash Player官方下载中心". Flash (in Simplified Chinese). Flash.cn. Retrieved June 12, 2021.
  5. ^ "关于Linux操作系统下Flash Player个人版停用的公告". Flash (in Simplified Chinese). Flash.cn. May 10, 2021. Retrieved June 12, 2021.
  6. ^ a b "Adobe - Flash Player". Adobe.com. Adobe Systems. Retrieved December 8, 2020.
  7. ^ a b c d e "Archived Flash Player versions". Adobe.com. Adobe Systems. Retrieved October 20, 2015.
  8. ^ "Download Flash Player 32 Beta". labs.adobe.com. Adobe Systems. Retrieved May 19, 2020.
  9. ^ "Adobe Flash Player Download". Adobe Systems. Archived from the original on August 9, 2016. Retrieved August 10, 2016.
  10. ^ "Why You Should Ditch Adobe Shockwave". Krebs on Security. May 14, 2014. Archived from the original on May 25, 2014. Retrieved February 21, 2015.
  11. ^ Integrated Adobe Flash Player Plug-in Archived January 31, 2013, at the Wayback Machine, Chrome team blog
  12. ^ Porting Flash to sandboxed PPAPI platform Archived July 25, 2018, at the Wayback Machine, Official Chromium Blog
  13. ^ "Flash Player issues | Windows 8". Adobe Systems. Archived from the original on December 20, 2016. Retrieved December 15, 2016.
  14. ^ "Flash Player Issues | Windows 10 | Internet Explorer". Adobe Systems. Archived from the original on December 20, 2016. Retrieved December 15, 2016.
  15. ^ "Flash Player issues | Windows 10 | Microsoft Edge". Adobe Systems. Archived from the original on December 20, 2016. Retrieved December 15, 2016.
  16. ^ "Adobe Flash Runtimes Statistics". Adobe Systems Incorporated. Archived from the original on January 6, 2013. Retrieved January 2, 2013.
  17. ^ Barrett, Brian (July 15, 2015). "Flash. Must. Die". Wired.com. Condé Nast. Archived from the original on May 16, 2017. Retrieved May 9, 2017.
  18. ^ Vaughan-Nichols, Steven J. (June 16, 2016). "How to really fix the latest Adobe Flash security hole". ZDNet. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on May 23, 2017. Retrieved May 9, 2017.
  19. ^ Collins, Katie (March 11, 2016). "Adobe rushes out emergency update for 'critical' Flash security flaw". CNET. Archived from the original on March 25, 2017. Retrieved May 9, 2017.
  20. ^ Cimpanu, Catalin (December 9, 2020). "Adobe to block Flash content from running on January 12, 2021". ZDNet. Red Ventures. Retrieved January 21, 2021.
  21. ^ "重橙网络" [Flash Center]. www.flash.cn. Retrieved October 8, 2021. the exclusive and official distributor of Adobe Flash Player