Google Chrome to block flash content from next month

Google has announced that its Chrome browser will start blocking Flash content in favour of HTML5 from next month. This will be a part of the Chrome v53 update of the browser. The company notes in its blog that more than 90% of Flash on the internet loads “behind the scenes” and is used to support things like page analytics. Anthony LaForge, curator of Flash in Chrome states, “HTML5 is much lighter and faster, and publishers are switching over to speed up page loading and save you more battery life. You’ll see an improvement in responsiveness and efficiency for many sites.”

This change will be similar to the Chrome v42 update that the company pushed out last year, which made most Flash-based content click-to-play. Google noted that this improved page load times, which led to lesser battery consumption. Further, the company also announced that in December 2016, Chrome's v55 update would make HTML5 the default experience, except for sites that only support Flash. For such sites, uses will be prompted to enable Flash when they first visit the website.

This matches up to an earlier report which stated that Google was planning to block Flash content and start implementing HTML5 by the end of the year. As per the report, only the top 10 domains would have Flash enabled by default and these websites would be selected based on Chrome's internal metrics. This list would expire after a year and would be refreshed periodically.

Follow Us

Shrey Pacheco

Writer, gamer, and hater of public transport. View Full Profile