Why Facebook Switched From Flash to HTML5 Video

Daniel Baulig, Facebook:

We recently switched to HTML5 from a Flash-based video player for all Facebook web video surfaces, including videos in News Feed, on Pages, and in the Facebook embedded video player. We are continuing to work together with Adobe to deliver a reliable and secure Flash experience for games on our platform, but have shipped the change for video to all browsers by default.

From development velocity to accessibility features, HTML5 offers a lot of benefits. Moving to HTML5 best enables us to continue to innovate quickly and at scale, given Facebook’s large size and complex needs.

“Security” isn’t mentioned, but don’t forget that Alex Stamos, Facebook’s new chief security officer, has called on Adobe to announce an end-of-life date for Flash Player.

★ Monday, 21 December 2015