Adobe Is Killing Flash

Adobe Systems IncorporatedADBEMacromedia in 2005 and took control of a popular product known as Flash, a software used for viewing multimedia, executing rich internet applications, and streaming video and audio.

Over the years Adobe's Flash became an essential part of the web but that is no longer the case. Recently, open standards like HTML5, WebGL and WebAssembly have matured and provided most of the functionalities that plugins provided and have replaced Flash as a viable alternative for content on the web.

As such, Adobe confirmed in a press release that it will stop updating and distributing the Flash Player at the end of 2020. The company is also encouraging content creators to begin the process of migrating Flash content to any of the new open formats available.

"Where we've seen a need to push content and interactivity forward, we've innovated to meet those needs," Adobe's press release read. "Where a format didn't exist, we invented one — such as with Flash and Shockwave. And over time, as the web evolved, these new formats were adopted by the community, in some cases formed the basis for open standards, and became an essential part of the web."

In the meantime, Adobe reaffirmed its commitment to continue supporting Flash through 2020 and will also release new security patches and features as needed.

Adobe's stock appears to be unaffected by the news report as it was trading nearly flat mid-Tuesday afternoon.

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