Games on Facebook would still use Flash, it said, but it was looking into ways to change those too.
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Netflix said last week it had worked with Firefox on a new version of the browser’s HTML5-based video player that works seamlessly with the video-playing service.
“Not only did launching the HTML5 video player make development easier, but it also improved the video experience for people on Facebook”, Baulig wrote, pointing to faster-loading videos, more user interaction, and fewer glitches. The social network also says that people appear to be spending more time with the video content thanks to the change.
All Facebook videos now load via HTML5 by default.
But the social network isn’t about to become a Flash-free zone as the tech will continue to power games on there for the time being.
Facebook adopting HTML5 is the latest sign that Flash is in its final days, with other major websites such as Youtube switching to an HTML5 player earlier this year. A few other video-streaming sites still use the plugin, but the number holding out is shrinking fast.
Facebook initially wanted to make the switch a while back, but most of the older browsers had issues with the new standard. However, in practice we noticed that a lot of the older browsers would simply perform worse using the HTML5 player than they had with the old Flash player.
Facebook is far from the only entity to leave Flash behind in 2015.
However, HTML5 is very much the preferred choice today over Flash player. “Our customers have clearly communicated that they would like our creative applications to evolve to support multiple standards and we are committed to doing that”, Adobe said. According to Chris Goettl, product manager at Chris Shavlik, the APSB15-32 is “a priority 1” update for Adobe Flash Player that resolves 78 vulnerabilities.
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Facebook has stopped using Adobe’s Flash technology to show video across the entire social network.
