RIP Flash: Adobe finally ready to pull the plug

Software maker Adobe says it will stop distributing and updating its Flash Player in three years, ending the era of the popular plugin used regularly to play videos or other content in web browsers.

Adobe cites maturing open standards including HTML5, WebGL and WebAssembly capable of performing the job of plugins as a reason for charting Flash's end. Adobe is encouraging content creators to migrate anything running Flash to one of these open standards.

"Over time, we’ve seen helper apps evolve to become plugins, and more recently, have seen many of these

plugin capabilities get incorporated into open web standards," said Adobe in a statement Tuesday. "Today, most browser vendors are integrating capabilities once provided by plugins directly into browsers and deprecating plugins."

Adobe says it will continue to update Flash through 2020, as companies roll out plans to migrate away from the plugin.

Google, Microsoft and Mozilla say they are working to remove Flash support from its Web browsers -- Chrome, Edge, Internet Explorer, and Firefox -- by the 2020 deadline. 

Meanwhile, Facebook says it's working on a "migration path" for games hosted on the social network currently running on Flash.

The 2020 end-of-life timeline marks the end of a long run for Flash, once considered a critical plugin for running games, videos, and other web content.

However, Flash has been widely criticized for presenting a significant security risk, prompting multiple calls from media outlets to uninstall it as a safety measure.

In April 2010, Apple co-founder and then-CEO Steve Jobs famously blasted Flash, explaining why the tech giant would not support the plugin on its iOS devices.

"Flash was created during the PC era – for PCs and mice," Jobs wrote. "But the mobile era is about low power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards – all areas where Flash falls short."

Forrester analyst Jeffery Hammond said in a blog post Jobs' decision was a big reason why we're seeing the end of Flash approaching. "As developers shifted their efforts from web to mobile, and to the iPhone in particular, Apple’s decision to deny Flash support on iOS resulted in native mobile development becoming more popular."