Should Windows Phone support Adobe Flash?

[ntice_521]

I hate flash as much as anyone, but the reality is that you need it. It's used EVERYWHERE these days and it's not getting less popular. It's just stubbornness not to support it.

 

[maclancer]

I think WP should have flash support. There is no movement in the general public to sway from flash on websites unlike the magical fairy land that apple lives in where the future is html5. That may be in like ten years. Right now most sites are useless on mobile platforms except android. You can still download flash support for it. Please WP add flash support.

Well, I don't know where you live buddy but all three major mobile smartphones (Android, iOS and WP) does not support flash and all of these three, WP is doing a very poor job supporting HTML5.... I hope WP 8.1 make a big difference and start supporting HTML5 the way iOS and Android are doing.

 

[willied]

I'd love it if it had Flash. Sure, Flash has its problems, but I've never had any security issues using it.

 

[Keith Wallace]

Flash is a borderline virus at times. Whenever I have issues with my browser, there's one sure-fire way to fix them. I open up the Task Manager, go to Processes, and kill Flash. The browser immediately stops being stupid, and all of the video ads have now crashed and left me alone as well. Flash needs to die, though the down side would be that a new standard for bothering me with ads would come out.

 

[Reflexx]

Well, I don't know where you live buddy but all three major mobile smartphones (Android, iOS and WP) does not support flash and all of these three, WP is doing a very poor job supporting HTML5.... I hope WP 8.1 make a big difference and start supporting HTML5 the way iOS and Android are doing.

It supports HTML5 just fine.

What you may be experiencing is a website that fails to detect that it's being viewed by a mobile device (especially if you're using desktop mode). So the website may be defaulting to a Flash version.

 

[Reflexx]

This is the first sentence in the article, don't you think Microsoft's whitelist (or blacklist) efforts (with IE Metro) help prevent this? What if Flash on WP only worked with legitimate content providers such as television networks, e.g. CBS? Or the current solution with IE on Windows 8.1 where a number of sites are blacklisted and prevented from fully working on the Metro browser?

If people are so worried, the white llist would be a great solution as opposed to a black list where you have to keep up.

 

[maclancer]

It supports HTML5 just fine.

What you may be experiencing is a website that fails to detect that it's being viewed by a mobile device (especially if you're using desktop mode). So the website may be defaulting to a Flash version.

Html5 in ie10 is very limited, try to go to a website that stream videos with html5... Good luck! And this is in mobile version.

 

[Reflexx]

It's too easy for hackers to impersonate legitimate sites. I doubt if Microsoft would be able to keep up with all potential vulnerabilities if Adobe Flash were enabled on all devices. It would turn into a "whack-a-mole" type scenario, trying to stay one step ahead of the hackers.

With a whitelist, it isn't whack a mole.
Also, WP has tint market share. The chances of hackers going through all the trouble to target WP through Flash is near nil. It's not like MS would just sit there and never update.

 

[Reflexx]

That might be due to the low market share of RT. There was basically no malware for OS X either, until Flashback trojan in 2012. That was mostly because Mac OS X had such little market share that it wasn't worthwhile for hackers to exploit.

And WP has low market share.

Maybe by the time WP has enough market share for hackers to care we'll actually have apps and HTML5 wil have matured to catch up.
For now, we have limited options.

 

[maclancer]

And WP has low market share.

Maybe by the time WP has enough market share for hackers to care we'll actually have apps and HTML5 wil have matured to catch up.
For now, we have limited options.

Html5 may change with the improvements and better features in WP 8.1

 

[Michael Alan Goff]

I say yes, but primarily because I'm worried that if it doesn't we're going to get it stripped from ARM Tablets when the to merge.

 

[Reflexx]

Html5 may change with the improvements and better features in WP 8.1

HTML5 itself isn't anywhere near as close to Flash in terms of performance yet. It's not about browser implementation. The technology itself isn't very mature. It's moving ay a brisk pace, but it hasn't caught up yet.

 

[Reflexx]

Html5 in ie10 is very limited, try to go to a website that stream videos with html5... Good luck! And this is in mobile version.

Could you give specific examples please? HTML5 functionality has been fine for me as long as the site recognizes that I'm using a mobile browser.
If the site has code that isn't compliant, and instead is something from an offshoot of HTML5 that hasn't been accepted as a standard, then that's the site not IE.

 

[Blacklac]

Flash is still all over the web, so I say yes. WP should have it.

 

[Blacklac]

I doubt that Windows Phone 8.1 will come with flash. Not single smartphone out there support flash (Android, iOS and Windows Phone)

Blackberry does.

I can't believe people don't realize companies can implement Flash themselves. They don't need Adobe to make "mobile" versions.

 

[iyae]

Could you give specific examples please? HTML5 functionality has been fine for me as long as the site recognizes that I'm using a mobile browser.
If the site has code that isn't compliant, and instead is something from an offshoot of HTML5 that hasn't been accepted as a standard, then that's the site not IE.

quick example; html5 audio in WP IE sucks. I had to disable sound for mobile browsers for my flappydoge hack because the phone couldn't handle it (lag when triggering sounds, and not all sounds would play). Worked fine in a desktop browser. And no, it wasn't my code; coding html audio tags is pretty straightforward.

I'm not defending flash (I'm not a fan of it) but you are wrong on this front. Sorry.

 

[Blacklac]

BlackBerry used to be the most secure platform too. However, this might not be the case with Adobe Flash vulnerabilities. BlackBerry 10 Haunted by Adobe Flash Vulnerabilities | SecurityWeek.Com

The thing with mobile devices, its almost completely up to the user to determine the devices level of security. Sure, Blackberry's network is secure, but you have to manually manage the on-device encryption and application permissions yourself. If a Blackberry user didn't use on-device encryption or allowed every application permission asked, it wouldn't be a very secure device. Most people don't have secure devices.

That said, I haven't heard of Blackberry being legitimately compromised due to a loophole in Flash. I don't know enough about Blackberry security to know what a Flash loophole could really do.

 

[James8561]

no. flash is heavy and battery-intensive and full of security problems, right up there with Java except a bit less.

 

[bilzkh]

no. flash is heavy and battery-intensive and full of security problems, right up there with Java except a bit less.

I think it should be an option, even if turned off by default.

Again, the reality is that Microsoft did build Flash into IE Metro, we have an example of an integrated and *limited* solution alive and working today on the tablets of hundreds of thousands if not a million-plus people. I'd like to know how many Windows RT users are experiencing security problems as a result of Flash on IE Metro.

Anyways, I think a limited solution with whitelisted websites that activates only when there's no HTML5 would be good.

 

[Nik Rolls]

No one uses Flash for the web any more. At least, no one worth their salt. Even games are easier to make in HTML than Flash nowadays, and the popular game builders can export to HTML with 100% compatibility. Why should we support developers resting on their laurels and continuing to build things in such a resource-hogging, platform-limiting behemoth?

The sooner platforms stop supporting Flash the sooner it will die.