The Death of Flash Technology and How to Repurpose Your Flash Content

Jump back two decades, and Flash was the future – it was the platform of choice for not only online learning opportunities but plenty of other content too. Then, the nostalgia of many people worldwide took a hit in 2017 when Adobe announced that it would eventually cut its support for the application. Towards the end of 2020, Adobe cut the cord, which means that Flash is no longer updated or distributed.

It was a sad day, but it now means that many people have Flash content that they need to repurpose (you don’t want all that hard work to waste!).

Repurposing to HTML5

Short for Hypertext Markup Language, this is essentially a coding language used by the World Wide Web so that all users can see content online. Don’t worry, the ‘5’ after the name just tells you that this is the fifth generation of the technology.

For most businesses and content creators, switching to HTML5 will be the goal as it’s currently one of the most popular formats around. Whether you produce elearning development tools, develop apps, dabble in animation, or produce any other content for the web, HTML5 will welcome you with open arms.

If you want to switch your content to HTML5, the easiest way to achieve this is with the source files. For those who still have them, go into your chosen development tool and see if there’s an option to publish in HTML5; most modern tools now have this option. Those lucky enough will publish to HTML5, and the content will work just as well as Flash with very few amendments required.

One of the most significant benefits of HTML5 is that it works across all devices. Therefore, be sure to check your content on both desktop and mobile devices. If the conversion process goes awry, you may need to adjust the source files to accommodate the change.

What if you no longer have the source files? Do not fear; most content creators clean up their hard drives from time to time (especially when they think they no longer need source files!). In this case, you can convert content from Adobe Flash to HTML5 using an online tool. At the moment, Google Web Designer and Adobe Edge are the two most popular.

If you’re to choose a third-party tool, make sure you read reviews and ensure that the tool is safe. The online tools in this niche have saved thousands of animations, games, and online courses since their introduction to the market.

HTML5 is the most popular option after Flash because it accommodates mobile users, is high in quality, offers a positive experience to end-users, gets a good page ranking, has offline browsing features, and provides consistency across several browsers.

Other Options

If you don’t like the HTML5 option, you might decide to start from scratch. Of course, this is time-consuming and unnecessary with advanced conversion tools available. However, you may review your online course and decide that it’s outdated compared to the competition. If so, you’ll find some fantastic tools to get you back off the ground again.

Otherwise, potential alternatives include WebGL, Ruffle (an emulator for Flash content), and WebAssembly. This being said, HTML5 seems to have the best proposition moving forward and is likely to be the best long-term solution.

Flash is dead, but this doesn’t mean that your content needs to suffer the same fate!