Google Chrome recently announced that it is dropping support for Flash in favor of the newer and more powerful HTML5. The changes will come in September, starting with the Google Chrome 53 update.
Once the changes are rolled out, Chrome will begin to block Flash, such as contents that loads behind the screen, a feature that can sometimes affect casual web browsing. HTML5, on the other hand, does not require much resource. This opens up for improvements in terms of battery life, page loading, and all around responsiveness across the Internet.
Most of the changes targeted by Chrome are toward Flash widgets that are used by many websites for tracking and analytics purposes. These non-visible widgets can slow down Internet browsing experience, and sometimes cause instability issues or reduce battery life for laptops and other mobile devices. Google added that publishers are already starting to convert these Flash widgets into HTML5.
Following the support for HTML5 starting with Chrome 53, the Internet browser will implement the language as its default component. These changes will roll out in December, starting with Chrome 55.
In cases where websites supports only Flash, Chrome will give users the option to enable Flash when they try to visit these kind of websites. Chrome began blocking ads running on Flash since last year.
According to Engadget, with the implementation of HTML5 on Chrome, users will most likely have a more streamlined Internet experience. Among the benefits of embracing HTML5 includes fewer hang-ups, especially when browsing websites that are heavy on Flash contents. Moreover, Flash-heavy websites tend to crash more often compared to the ones that supports HTML5.
Google discussed its intention to make HTML5 its default language of Chrome back in May. At around this time, Google said that it will release a "temporary whitelist" that contains the top 10 Flash-heavy websites in order to reduce user impact and over-prompting. Among the most notable websites included on the list are YouTube, Twitch, Facebook, and Yahoo, according to Ars Technica.
