Adobe Flash Player

Software Overview

Adobe Flash Player is a freeware application used to play Flash content, which includes video, audio, animations, and Internet applications. While it was widely adopted in the 2000s for playing movies and games on the web and mobile devices, it declined in usage and Adobe stopped supporting the software on December 31, 2020. Adobe recommends that users uninstall Flash Player to protect their computers.

At one point, Flash Player was installed on nearly all Internet-connected desktops and compatible with popular web browsers, such as Google Chrome (bundled with the browser), Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, and Opera. It ran as a web browser plugin, on supported mobile devices, and directly on operating systems. The player enabled you to run media-rich applications on sites, such as YouTube and supported 3D graphics, vector and raster graphics, embedded ActionScript language, and streaming video and audio.

Flash Player offered 2D or 3D GPU hardware accelerating graphics rendering by Adobe, which optimizes OpenGL and DirectX graphics. The application supported high-quality HD video with codecs such as H.264 and AAC and allowed you to deliver content protected through Adobe Access, which provided UltraViolet approved DRM technology. By using this feature, users could deliver secure content through live broadcasts, HD rental, subscription, and video-on-demand methods.

Summary

If you streamed any multimedia on the Internet in the 2000s, you most likely used Flash Player since it was utilized by web browsers and many mobile devices to deliver rich multimedia content. However, as technology progressed and more efficient video solutions, such as HTML5, were adopted, Adobe Flash Player decreased in usage and was eventually discontinued.

Primary File Type

.SWFShockwave Flash Movie

Supported File Types

Additional Related File Types