• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, July 26, 2017

Adobe said Tuesday it has finally agreed to "end-of-life Flash," and will stop updating and distributing the Flash Player at the end of 2020.

The company encourages content creators to migrate any existing Flash content to open formats such as HTML5, and points to the progress that Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Mozilla and others have made.

"As open standards like HTML5, WebGL and WebAssembly have matured over the past several years, most now provide many of the capabilities and functionalities that plugins pioneered and have become a viable alternative for content on the web," wrote Adobe in a post.

Google in early 2016 set a deadline to stop running display ads in the Flash format. At the time the company said the move to HTML5 meant it would stop running Display ads in the Adobe Flash format on the Google Display Network and through DoubleClick in January 2017.

Call Flash an innovation at the time, but as technology progressed, malicious thieves found ways to breach security that created holes to infuse viruses and malware. Those holes allowed for malware and other viruses to forge attacks on major desktop platforms, advertising, and operating systems.

Adobe began pushing content creators and those who focus on advertising creatives to HTML5 years ago. Sunsetting Flash doesn't mean an end to Adobe's streak in innovating the development of new web standards. In fact, the company said it will continue to actively participate in the creation as a way to advance technology. 

The company will continue to contribute to the HTML5 standard and participation in the WebAssembly Community Group.