Where Do I Download the Flash Player For My Device?

[Traveller]

The following is a reprint of a June 29, 2012 article from PCMag.com by Chloe Albanesius titled "Adobe Drops Flash Player Support in Android 4.1"

The most recent version of Android, dubbed Jelly Bean, may have the most up-to-date features, but it won't have support for Adobe's Flash Player.

Adobe confirmed in a Friday blog post that "there will be no certified implementations of Flash Player for Android 4.1."

Typically, Adobe's partners will integrate Flash Player into their devices at the factory level or via a system update. Android-based devices without this certified version of Flash have usually been able to download it via the Google Play store, "and in most cases it worked," Adobe said.

"However, with Android 4.1 this is no longer going to be the case, as we have not continued developing and testing Flash Player for this new version of Android and its available browser options," Adobe said.

As a result, starting Aug. 15, access to Flash Player via Google Play will be limited to devices that already have the program installed.

"Devices that do not have Flash Player already installed are increasingly likely to be incompatible with Flash Player and will no longer be able to install it from the Google Play Store after August 15," Adobe said.

The news shouldn't be too much of a shock. In November, Adobe confirmed that it would no longer develop Flash for mobile devices. Several weeks later, Adobe said it would release one more version of Flash Player for the mobile Web to accommodate Android 4.0, but that would be the final update.

Adobe warned today that "the current version of Flash Player may exhibit unpredictable behavior" on devices upgraded from Android 4.0 to 4.1. "We recommend uninstalling Flash Player on devices which have been upgraded to Android 4.1."

Going forward, Adobe will focus on "enabling Flash developers to package native apps with Adobe AIR for all the major app stores." Last year, Adobe admitted that Apple's decision not to support Flash Player on iOS was one of the major factors in the demise of Flash Player for the mobile Web.

Despite Adobe removing the Flash Player from the Play Store, throughout androidtablets.net requests are made asking where the Play Store can be downloaded. Most of the answers lead to a third party site with an old version of the Player, but there's no need to go to a dodgy site and get it. Adobe understands that users will still want to use Flash Player and has made it available with all their other archived versions at Archived Flash Player versions.

Please note the following: Flash Player will run on Android 4.1 devices and later but is not officially compatible with these versions of Android. At some point, the Flash Player will "break", likely because of a bug in the Player itself. If such a bug is found it will not be fixed. Users should look into alternatives, such as browsers with HTML5 support.