Editing Adobe Flash (section)

== About ==
Flash displays text, [[vector graphics]], and [[raster graphics]] to provide animations, video games, and applications. It allows streaming of [[Flash Video|audio and video]], and can capture mouse, keyboard, microphone, and camera input.

[[Digital art|Artists]] may produce Flash graphics and animations using [[Adobe Animate]] (formerly known as Adobe Flash Professional). [[Programmer|Software developers]] may produce applications and video games using [[Adobe Flash Builder]], FlashDevelop, [[Flash Catalyst]], or any text editor combined with the [[Apache Flex]] SDK. End users view Flash content via [[Adobe Flash Player|Flash Player]] (for web browsers), [[Adobe AIR]] (for desktop or [[mobile app]]s), or third-party players such as [[Scaleform]] (for video games). Adobe Flash Player (which is available on [[Microsoft Windows]], [[macOS]], and [[Linux]]) enables end users to view Flash content using [[web browser]]s. [[Adobe Flash Lite]] enabled viewing Flash content on older [[Mobile operating system|smartphones]], but since has been discontinued and superseded by Adobe AIR.

The [[ActionScript]] programming language allows the development of interactive animations, video games, web applications, desktop applications, and mobile applications. Programmers can implement Flash software using an IDE such as Adobe Animate, Adobe Flash Builder, [[Adobe Director]], FlashDevelop, and [[Powerflasher FDT]]. Adobe AIR enables full-featured desktop and mobile applications to be developed with Flash and published for [[Microsoft Windows|Windows]], [[macOS]], [[Android (operating system)|Android]], [[IOS version history|iOS]], [[Xbox One]], [[PlayStation 4]], [[Wii U]], and [[Nintendo Switch]].

Flash was initially used to create fully-interactive websites, but this approach was phased out with the introduction of [[HTML5]]. Instead, Flash found a niche as the dominant platform for online multimedia content, particularly for [[browser game]]s. Following an [[Thoughts on Flash|open letter written by Steve Jobs]] in 2010 stating that he would not approve the use of Flash on [[Apple Inc.|Apple]]'s [[iOS]] devices due to numerous security flaws, use of Flash declined as Adobe transitioned to the [[Adobe AIR]] platform. The Flash Player was deprecated in 2017 and officially discontinued at the end of 2020 for all users outside mainland China, as well as non-enterprise users,<ref name="Adobe Flash EOL">{{cite web|title=Flash & The Future of Interactive Content|publisher=[[Adobe Inc.]]|date=July 25, 2017|url=https://theblog.adobe.com/adobe-flash-update/|access-date=July 1, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171202123704/https://theblog.adobe.com/adobe-flash-update/|archive-date=December 2, 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref> with many web browsers and operating systems scheduled to remove the Flash Player software around the same time. Adobe continues to develop Adobe Animate, which supports web standards such as HTML5 instead of the Flash format.<ref>[https://forums.adobe.com/message/9723938#9723938 AIR Roadmap Update] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171206204642/https://forums.adobe.com/message/9723938#9723938 |date=December 6, 2017 }}, Chris Campbell, Adobe Blog, July 25, 2017 9:08 AM</ref>