Adobe will discontinue development of Flash for Android 4.1 this summer, starting August 15th, as the firm looks to focus on the new HTML5 technology for video and rich media displays in the future.
Adobe confirmed in a Friday blog post that “there will be no certified implementations of Flash Player for Android 4.1.”
Typically, Adobe’s partners will integrate Flash Player into their devices at the factory level or via a system update. Android-based devices without this certified version of Flash have usually been able to download it via the Google Play store, “and in most cases it worked,” Adobe said.
“However, with Android 4.1 this is no longer going to be the case, as we have not continued developing and testing Flash Player for this new version of Android and its available browser options,” Adobe said.
As a result, starting Aug. 15, access to Flash Player via Google Play will be limited to devices that already have the program installed.
“Devices that do not have Flash Player already installed are increasingly likely to be incompatible with Flash Player and will no longer be able to install it from the Google Play Store after August 15,” Adobe said.
In November, Adobe confirmed that it would no longer develop Flash for mobile devices. Several weeks later, Adobe said it would release one more version of Flash Player for the mobile Web to accommodate Android 4.0, but that would be the final update.
Adobe warned today that “the current version of Flash Player may exhibit unpredictable behavior” on devices upgraded from Android 4.0 to 4.1. “We recommend uninstalling Flash Player on devices which have been upgraded to Android 4.1.”
Going forward, Adobe will focus on “enabling Flash developers to package native apps with Adobe AIR for all the major app stores.”
Last year, Adobe admitted that Apple’s decision not to support Flash Player on iOS was one of the major factors in the demise of Flash Player for the mobile Web.
Read the official blog post here
