Adobe has made an official announcement that it is renaming its much-maligned Flash Player to Adobe Animate CC in order to upgrade its technical support to HTML5, although it is making few changes to the streaming audio and video player. While rebranding allows the freeware to run on the latest version of the web page-creating language, it maintains the same closed system and security holes.
Adobe shared that more developers are using HTML5 to create Web content using Flash Professional CC. In fact, the language produces over one-third of all Flash content, according to Macworld.
Adobe Animate CC will officially launch early 2016. Its new features will include easy-access high-end stock art, and 360-degree canvas rotation.
However, the software's changes will not fix the security vulnerabilities that have been a problem with Flash Player for several years. The development tool has just changed its focus.
Forrester Research's principal analyst Jeffrey Hammonds explained that the market is shifting. Web-based advertising is slowly moving from Adobe Flash to HTML5, so the rebranding is a symbol of the shift that has been going on for quite a while.
Facebook called for an end date for Flash Player earlier this year. However, an Adobe representative explained that a ton of Flash content still exists such as videos and games, so the company feels it is responsible to keep the tool as stable and secure as possible, according to Wired.
Adobe could have an end date planned for Flash. However, it would make sense for the company to patch any security holes until that time arrives.
Facebook has been working with Adobe to fix Flash security issues related to games on the social network. However, this does not mean it now supports Flash Player being killed later rather than sooner.
The bottom line is that Adobe seems to have admitted that Flash will become less and less popular as a development tool. It might later end it forever.
Hammond explained that if Adobe's Flash Player dies, it could cause many old websites to break on desktops and laptops. That is because developers have been building on mobile devices in the past few years.