In the latest update to Chrome, Google has taken a large step towards squashing Adobe Flash. Chrome will no longer autoplay Flash animations; it will require users to click to start them, which very few users are likely to do. In contrast, ads built in HTML5 will continue to be autoplayed.
The September update to Chrome, the world’s most popular browser, could be one of the final blows to a technology that is widely considered hard on computer performance, detrimental to battery life, and full of security risks. This move by Google is in line with a similar move by Mozilla in their July update to Firefox, which no longer supports Flash until Adobe fixes its gaping security holes.
This is the strongest signal yet by the industry to move away from Flash and towards HTML5 as the new standard. Facebook and Amazon have both announced their intent to move away from Flash in a growing effort to address security issues in their systems. Despite this push for HTML5, most advertisers are still heavily reliant on Flash.
Now with this latest update to Chrome, advertisers will have to rethink their use of Flash. With millions of dollars in advertising on the line, it looks like this is truly the beginning of the end for Flash.