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Twitch is joining the trend of abandoning Adobe Flash in favor of HTML5. The highly popular video streaming platform has announced that it has started making the transition towards adopting a more stable and secure video player.
The service has already implemented the first steps. Many videos on the website now make uses of controls designed for Java and HTML5. The videos themselves are still being run by the Flash media player but it seems this will not be the case for long.
These new controls have been mostly introduced to main channel pages. They will afterwards become gradually available to the entire user base. The transition is nowhere near finalized, but Twitch has clearly announced on its blog that the release of a full HTML5-based video player is something we should be expecting in the near future.
The change should come as no surprise. Though Flash remains one of the most well-known media players out there it has started to show its age. Adobe is regularly supporting its program with updates but apparently that is not enough.
The player can no longer boast the reliability it once had. Furthermore, Flash is notorious for its many security problems. It has been a favored target for hackers across the years, allowing them to plant malicious software on those who use it. Though these security issues are often dealt with quickly by Adobe, every new update of the software seems to create another vulnerability.
Twitch is certainly not the only large company that decided to abandon the player. Google’s Youube has started making the transition to HTML5 since 2010, with the video sharing platform finally phasing Flash out entirely last year.
Mozzilla, the parent company of the Firefox browser, has launched heavy criticism towards Adobe for not being able to prevent critical vulnerabilities in the recent versions of Flash. Mozzilla then went on to block all of these vulnerable versions on Firefox in order to protect its users from malware infections.
Despite promises from Adobe that these problems will be dealt unit, most large browsers seem to be fed up with Flash and are currently testing other options. It is understandable why many are urging Twitch to make the transition to HTML5 as soon as possible.
With so many sites moving away from Flash, it remains to be seen if Adobe will be able to make a comeback and restore the Internet’s trust in its product.
Image Source: twodashstash.com
