Dive Brief:
- Flash isn’t totally disappearing from the latest version of Apple’s Safari browser, but it will be hidden and disabled, according to Apple's blog.
- Apple explained in the post that the new version of Safari will have all legacy plug-ins — such as Flash, Java, Silverlight and QuickTime — disabled in order to convince websites to deliver HTML5.
- If HTML5 isn’t available, users will be prompted with the option to activate the requested plug-in on a case-by-case basis.
Dive Insight:
Adobe’s Flash has been on the way out for some time. The plug-in was dropped from both Chrome and Firefox's browsers last summer, while Facebook’s chief of security last year called for Adobe to announce a “kill date” for the plug-in.
The key knocks against Flash are that it is notoriously insecure, it is a known entry point for malicious activity, and as a plug-in, it uses too many resources when running on users’ computers.
By now, marketers should have already transitioned away from Flash content, including Flash ads that for the most part don’t get served any longer on many of the major web browsers, but the news that Apple is disabling the plug-in by default should serve as a reminder.
“The entire rich media advertising space was initially built on Flash," Steve Lee, SVP and CTO of Tremor, previously told Marketing Dive. "However, HTML5 capability that is native to browsers has long caught up to Flash. Those who have not switched over from flash rich media to HTML5 rich media ad units will have to scramble to do so.”
In the Apple blog post, software engineer Ricky Mondello explained the experience users will have when visiting a website with Flash, but without an HTML5 fallback: “Most websites that detect that Flash isn’t available, but don’t have an HTML5 fallback, display a “Flash isn’t installed” message with a link to download Flash from Adobe. If a user clicks on one of those links, Safari will inform them that the plug-in is already installed and offer to activate it just one time or every time the website is visited. The default option is to activate it only once. We have similar handling for the other common plug-ins.”