It looks like it is finally happening. The popular video game streaming service Twitch is ditching Flash for HTML5. The company owned by Amazon will be starting the transition slow at the beginning. The existing video player on the website is going to get new controls based on JavaScript and HTML5 and get rid of the current Flash controls. While it is possible that you won’t see the new design on your account at the moment, the changes will definitely make their way onto the service with time.
The move initiated by Twitch is only half the battle, however, because the video below the controls still uses Flash in order to work. Twitch said that this is a crucial step in releasing a full HTML5 player for the service and to keep waiting as it will release more updates regarding the HTML5 transition.
The fact that Twitch is taking its sweet time with the Flash to HTML5 transition shouldn’t come as a big surprise. This kind of transition isn’t exactly easy to do, however the service does have a significant advantage: it’s been done before by others.
In 2010 in January, Google first announced a beta version of a player using HTML5. A couple of months later, the popular video sharing service YouTube started to discuss how HTML5 videos perform when being compared to Flash videos, and upgraded its embed code on the website. The embed code is how YouTube videos are being distributed on the Internet. After that, the company owned by Google stayed quiet for a few years. However, the work was fully in progress and YouTube gave out hints that the change was a certainty.
In 2014 in May, YouTube began using a default player powered by HTML5 on most of its videos and on most of the browsers. Some of the content excluded from this transition was primarily from some of the YouTube partners, like Vevo. In 2015, January, YouTube completely removed the Flash player and started using the HTML5 player by default.
Now it looks like Twitch is ditching Flash as well, and while the transition will probably not take the company five years to complete, it will, however, go through a few versions before deciding on the best one. HTML5 was looked at as an appealing substitute for Flash in 2010 but now it’s considered the best choice.
And if you add the security issues faced by Flash in the recent time in the equation, you will come to the conclusion that it’s a no-brainer. In a few more years, nearly all the videos online will be powered by HTML5.
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