What happens after Flash is dead?

Aug 24, 2015

I am under pressure to define content development strategies in a post-Flash world.

The regular articles about the need to end the life of Flash and the actions now being taken to limit its use on websites are creating some concern within my customers and my company.

  • What is Articulate's stance on the future of Flash?
  • What will replace this technology?
  • How will the Learning Management industry respond?
  • What is the situation (and opportunity) regarding legacy content?

Does anyone have any insight on this and is this a general concern?  If not, should we not be formulating new content development strategies now?

I would appreciate any views or suggestions

3 Replies
Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Martin,

Thanks for reaching out here and I know there has been a lot of talk and speculation about Flash recently. Our software still relies on Flash to run as you'll see in the system requirements, and if you run into issues with the published output in browsers such as Firefox, we've confirmed it works with the latest version of Flash player.  

We don't have an option to publish for HTML5 only, but it's something other users have asked for before and you're welcome to chime in and share your thoughts here as well. 

Martin Dean

Hi Ashley

Thanks for your prompt response and it is nice to hear from you again.

I would be very interested to be kept abreast of any thinking about SL2 in the 'post-Flash' era. Also, if anyone has had any insight about how LMS providers might react to the growing concerns about Flash. It seems that the 'press' is more concerned with banner advertising and eLearning is not represented as a huge use-case for Flash.

Perhaps Articulate has some clout with Adobe and can get some sensible answers from them?

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Martin, 

As we continue to hear information and modify our approach, we'll be certain to post here in the forums, update our documentation and share through our Facebook, Twitter and Word of Mouth blog.  

Personally, I don't know that Flash could "go away" anytime soon, given that lots of people still use browsers such as IE 8 and you can see how different browser will handle HTML5 content on sites such as HTML5test.com.  I often refer to them when thinking about how Chrome is supported on a desktop computer but IE11 isn't. 

I don't know how much clout we'd carry with Adobe...they are the creators of Captivate after all. ;-) 

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