History of Adobe Flash

Flash grew out of a chain of thought that started in the 1980s with some ideas Jonathan Gay had at school, then at college and later while working for Silicon Beach Software and its successors.[1] In January 1993, Charlie Jackson, Jonathan Gay, and Michelle Welsh started a small software company called FutureWave Software and created their first product, SmartSketch. A drawing application, SmartSketch was designed to make creating computer graphics as simple as drawing on paper. Although SmartSketch was an innovative drawing application, it didn’t gain enough of a foothold in its market. As the Internet began to thrive, FutureWave began to realize the potential for a vector-based web animation tool that might easily challenge Macromedia’s often slow-to-download Shockwave technology. In 1995, FutureWave modified SmartSketch by adding frame-by-frame animation features and re-released it as FutureSplash Animator on Macintosh and PC. By that time, the company had added a second programmer Robert Tatsumi, an artist Adam Grofcsik, and a PR specialist Ralph Mittman. The product was offered to Adobe and used by Microsoft in its early (MSN) work with the Internet. In December 1996, Macromedia acquired the vector-based animation software and later released it as Flash 1.0.

• Macromedia Flash 2 (1997) Features: Support of stereo sound, enhanced bitmap integration, buttons, the Library, and the capability to tween color changes.
• Macromedia Flash 3 (1998) Features: Brought improvements to animation, playback, and publishing, as well as the introduction of simple script commands for interactivity. Macromedia ships its 100,000th Flash product this year, as well.
• Macromedia Flash 4 (1999) Features: Achieved 100 million installations of the Flash Player, thanks in part to its inclusion with Microsoft Internet Explorer 5. Flash 4 saw the introduction of streaming MP3s and the Motion Tween. Initially, the Flash Player plug-in was not bundled with popular web browsers and users had to visit Macromedia website to download it, but as of year 2000, the Flash Player was already being distributed with all AOL, Netscape and Internet Explorer browsers. Two years later it shipped with all releases of Windows XP. The install-base of the Flash Player reached 92% of all Internet users.
• Macromedia Flash 5 (2000) Features: Flash 5 was a major leap forward in capability, with the evolution of Flash’s scripting capabilities as released as ActionScript. Flash 5 also saw the ability to customize the authoring environment’s interface.
• Macromedia Generator was the first initiative from Macromedia to separate design from content in Flash files. Generator 2.0 was released in April 2000 and featured real-time server-side generation of Flash content in its Enterprise Edition. Generator was discontinued in 2002 in favor of new technologies such as Flash Remoting, which allows for seamless transmission of data between the server and the client, and ColdFusion Server.
  In October 2000, usability guru Jakob Nielsen
  wrote a polemic article regarding usability of Flash content entitled “Flash 99% Bad“. (Macromedia later hired Nielsen to help them improve Flash usability.)
• In September 2001, a survey made for Macromedia by Media Metrix showed that out of the 10 biggest websites in the United States, 7 were making use of Flash content.
• On March 15, 2002, Macromedia announced the availability of Macromedia Flash MX and Macromedia Flash Player 6, with support for video, application components, shared libraries, and accessibility.
• Flash Communication Server MX, also released in 2002, allowed video to be streamed to Flash Player 6 (otherwise the video could be embedded into the Flash movie).
• Flash MX 2004 was released in September 2003, with features such as faster runtime performance up to 8 times with the enhanced compiler and the new Macromedia Flash Player 7, ability to create charts, graphs and additional text effects with the new support for extensions (sold separately), high fidelity import of PDF and Adobe Illustrator 10 files, mobile and device development and a forms-based development environment. ActionScript 2.0 was also introduced, giving developers a formal Object-Oriented approach to ActionScript. V2 Components replaced Flash MX’s components, being rewritten from the ground up to take advantage of ActionScript 2.0 and Object-Oriented principles. Flash MX 2004 was the first release of Flash to be segmented into “Basic” and “Professional” versions. The Basic version was targeted at traditional Flash animators while the Professional version brought more advanced capabilities that developers would use, for example the data components.
• In 2004, the “Flash Platform” was introduced. This expanded Flash to more than the Flash authoring tool. Flex 1.0 and Breeze 1.0 were released, both of which utilized the Flash Player as a delivery method but relied on tools other than the Flash authoring program to create Flash applications and presentations. Flash Lite 1.1 was also released, enabling mobile phones to play Flash content.
• Macromedia Flash 8 (2005) is touted by Macromedia as the most significant upgrade to Flash since Flash 5. New features included filter effects and blending modes, bitmap caching, a new video codec called On2 VP6, an enhanced type rendering engine called FlashType, an emulator for mobile devices, and several enhancements to the ActionScript 2.0 spec, such as the BitmapData class, several geometric classes, and the ConvolutionFilter and DisplacmentMapFilter classes.
• Flash Lite 2 was also released in 2005, which brought its capabilities in line with Flash Player 7.
• On December 3, 2005, Adobe Systems acquired Macromedia and its product portfolio (including Flash).[2]
• Adobe Flash Player 9 was released for Windows and Mac OS in 2006, which marked the first time a Flash Player major release occurred without a simultaneous Flash authoring program major release. Flex 2.0 was released in conjunction with Flash Player 9, and the player will be continued when Flash Authoring 9 is released in 2007. For the first time in the history of Flash, the Flash Player will have had an opportunity to become widely installed before the release of the equivalent Flash program.
• Adobe Flash Player 9 was released for Linux in January 2007.^[3]
• Adobe Flash CS3 in 2007, originated from Flash 8 with several updates for integrating into other Adobe products, is released as a bundled software of the Adobe Creative Suite 3. This currently-newest version also brings ActionScript 3.0 and a new xml engine to the Flash authoring tool. Also has an improved and optimized GUI like the rest of the CS3 suite.

One area Adobe is focusing on (as of February 2009) is the deployment of Rich Internet Applications (RIAs). To this end, they released Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR), a cross-platform runtime environment which can be used to build, using Adobe Flash, rich Internet applications that can be deployed as a desktop application. It surpassed 100 million installations worldwide in february 2009.. This is mainly due to the fact that it is installed silently when Acrobat Reader is installed. Many users are unaware of its residence on their system.

Two additional components designed for large-scale implementation have been proposed by Adobe for future releases of Flash: first, the option to require an ad to be played in full before the main video piece is played; and second, the integration of digital rights management (DRM) capabilities. This way Adobe can give companies the option to link an advertisement with content and make sure that both are played and remain unchanged. The current status of these two projects is unclear.

Flash Player for smart phones is expected to be available to handset manufacturers at the end of 2009.

Open Screen Project

On May 1, 2008 Adobe announced Open Screen Project, which hopes to provide a consistent application interface across devices such as personal computers, mobile devices and consumer electronics. When the project was announced, several goals were outlined: the abolition of licensing fees for Adobe Flash Player and Adobe Integrated Runtime, the removal of restrictions on the use of the Shockwave Flash (SWF) and Flash Video (FLV) file format, the publishing of application programming interfaces for porting Flash to new devices and the publishing of The Flash Cast protocol and Action Message Format (AMF), which let Flash applications receive information from remote databases.

As of February 2009, the specifications removing the restrictions on the use of SWF and FLV/F4V specs have been published. The Flash Cast protocol—now known as the Mobile Content Delivery Protocol—and AMF protocols have also been made available, with AMF available as an open source implementation, BlazeDS. Work on the device porting layers is in the early stages. Adobe intends to remove the licensing fees for Flash Player and Adobe AIR for devices at their release for the Open Screen Project.

The list of mobile device providers who have joined the project includes Palm, Motorola and Nokia, who, together with Adobe, have announced a $10 million Open Screen Project fund.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

UPDATE: Last years of Adobe Flash

By 2008, Adobe Flash was still one of the most important technologies on the web. It powered online video players, browser games, animated websites, educational content, interactive advertisements, and early rich internet applications. For many users, “the web” meant pages filled with Flash animations and embedded Flash video. Yet 2008 also marked the beginning of the period in which Flash’s dominance started to weaken, not because it disappeared suddenly, but because the web around it changed faster than Adobe could adapt.

In May 2008, Adobe launched the Open Screen Project, an initiative meant to expand Flash beyond the desktop browser. The idea was ambitious: Flash content should run consistently across computers, mobile phones, televisions, set-top boxes, and other consumer electronics. Adobe wanted Flash Player and Adobe AIR to become universal runtime environments for rich media and applications. This strategy reflected the central problem Adobe faced at the time. Flash was powerful on desktop computers, but the future of computing was clearly moving toward mobile devices, touchscreens, and lower-power hardware.

Adobe AIR, released in 2008, was another important part of this strategy. It allowed developers to use Flash, ActionScript, Flex, HTML, and JavaScript to build applications that could run outside the browser as desktop or mobile apps. For developers already familiar with Flash, AIR offered a way to transform web skills into installable software. In the short term, this helped Flash remain relevant in gaming, media, and enterprise applications. In the long term, however, AIR also showed that Adobe was trying to reposition Flash as more than a browser plug-in.

The decisive challenge came from Apple. The iPhone, introduced in 2007, did not support Flash, and by 2008 this absence had become a major public issue. Many websites still depended on Flash video or Flash-based navigation, and users noticed that these experiences did not work on the iPhone. Adobe hoped to bring Flash to Apple’s mobile devices, but Apple resisted. The conflict became symbolic: Adobe represented the older plug-in-based web, while Apple presented itself as defending performance, security, battery life, and native mobile experience.

In April 2010, Steve Jobs published his famous open letter “Thoughts on Flash,” explaining why Apple would not allow Flash on the iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad. Jobs argued that Flash was proprietary, unreliable, insecure, poorly suited to touch interfaces, and too demanding for mobile batteries. Adobe rejected many of these criticisms, but the letter shaped public perception. It made Flash appear not simply old, but incompatible with the mobile future.

At the same time, HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, and related browser technologies were improving rapidly. Features that once required Flash—video playback, animation, audio, canvas graphics, and interactive interfaces—were increasingly possible using open web standards. This did not happen overnight. In the late 2000s and early 2010s, Flash still offered advantages for cross-browser video, games, and complex media. But the direction of travel was clear: browser makers wanted fewer plug-ins, users wanted faster and safer pages, and developers wanted content that worked on phones and tablets without special installation.

In 2011, Adobe made one of the most important decisions in Flash history: it stopped developing Flash Player for mobile browsers. Instead, the company shifted its mobile strategy toward Adobe AIR for packaged applications and toward HTML5 for browser-based content. This was a turning point. Flash could still exist on desktop browsers and inside apps, but it had lost the battle to become the universal runtime of the mobile web.

After 2011, Flash entered a long period of decline. It did not vanish immediately because too much content still depended on it. Online games, educational platforms, enterprise training modules, video players, and advertising systems continued to use Flash. Many companies had large libraries of SWF files and ActionScript code. Replacing them required time, money, and technical migration. For several years, Flash survived because the installed base was enormous.

Security problems accelerated the decline. Flash Player became a frequent target for attackers, and users were repeatedly asked to install urgent updates. For browser vendors, Flash represented both a technical burden and a security risk. The plug-in model itself was becoming outdated. Modern browsers increasingly preferred built-in capabilities, sandboxing, automatic updates, and standards-based APIs. Flash, by contrast, looked like an external dependency from an earlier era of the web.

In 2015, Adobe made another symbolic move: it announced that Flash Professional would be renamed Adobe Animate CC. This was not merely a branding change. It acknowledged that animation for the web was no longer centered on the Flash Player. Adobe Animate would continue to support Flash formats, but it also emphasized HTML5 Canvas, WebGL, video, and other modern outputs. The creative tool survived, but the Flash identity was being retired.

Browser makers then began actively reducing Flash support. Google Chrome moved toward HTML5 by default and gradually made Flash click-to-play. Mozilla, Microsoft, and Apple also restricted or removed Flash support in stages. For users, this meant that Flash content became harder to access. For developers, it was a clear signal that new projects should not depend on Flash.

In July 2017, Adobe announced the formal end of Flash Player. The company gave developers and businesses more than three years to migrate their content, setting the end-of-life date for December 31, 2020. This was not a sudden death sentence but a managed retirement. Adobe coordinated the decision with major browser vendors, which had already been moving away from plug-ins and toward HTML5, WebGL, WebAssembly, and other open standards.

On December 31, 2020, Adobe officially ended support for Flash Player. After that date, Adobe no longer provided updates or security patches. In January 2021, Adobe also blocked Flash content from running in Flash Player, and major browsers disabled Flash support. For ordinary users, Flash effectively disappeared from the modern web.

The end of Flash Player did not mean the end of Flash’s cultural legacy. Many classic browser games, animations, and interactive works had been created in Flash. Communities and preservation projects worked to archive old SWF content, recognizing that Flash was part of internet history. It had shaped the aesthetics of early web animation, independent games, online cartoons, and interactive storytelling.

Adobe AIR also continued in a different form. In 2019, Adobe transferred ongoing platform support and development of AIR to HARMAN, allowing some enterprise and application ecosystems to continue using AIR beyond the official decline of Flash Player. This showed that parts of the Flash platform remained useful even after the browser plug-in had become obsolete.

Adobe Animate, the descendant of Flash Professional, continued as a 2D animation and multimedia authoring tool. In 2026, Adobe placed Animate in maintenance mode, meaning it would remain available and receive security and bug fixes, but no longer receive major new features. This decision underlined the final transformation of Flash: from a dominant web runtime into a legacy creative lineage.

The history of Adobe Flash after 2008 is therefore not simply a story of failure. It is a story of technological transition. Flash succeeded because it solved real problems for the early web: animation, video, games, and interactivity at a time when browsers were limited. It declined because the web matured. What once required a proprietary plug-in became possible through open standards supported directly by browsers.

From 2008 to 2020, Flash moved from dominance to managed retirement. It was challenged by the smartphone revolution, criticized for performance and security, displaced by HTML5, and finally removed from browsers. Yet its influence remains visible in online animation, web games, interactive design, and the broader history of digital creativity. Flash helped make the web richer, more visual, and more playful. Its disappearance marked the end of one era and the consolidation of another: the modern standards-based web.

Key factual sources used:

• Adobe states that Flash support ended on 31 December 2020, that Flash content was blocked beginning 12 January 2021, and that open standards such as HTML5, WebGL and WebAssembly had become viable alternatives. (adobe.com)
• Adobe’s AIR update says AIR was released in 2008 and that ongoing support and feature development moved to HARMAN in 2019. (blog.adobe.com)
• Adobe announced in 2015 that Flash Professional would become Adobe Animate CC in early 2016, emphasizing HTML5 Canvas and WebGL support. (blog.adobe.com)
• Google’s Chrome team explained in 2016 that Chrome would de-emphasize Flash in favor of HTML5 for security, power consumption, and speed reasons. (blog.google)
• Adobe’s current Animate FAQ says Animate is now in maintenance mode and is not being discontinued or removed. (helpx.adobe.com)