Flash Designs Being Discontinued

ADOBE FLASH WILL NO LONGER BE SUPPORTED

Before the end of 2020, Adobe Systems will officially stop updating and distributing Adobe Flash. As of late 2019, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Microsoft Internet Explorer have already discontinued the use and support of Flash in their browsers, and while currently it can still be enabled through certain browser settings, it will be blocked completely from these browsers at the end of 2020. 

You can read more about Adobe’s decision to stop offering Flash here: https://theblog.adobe.com/adobe-flash-update/

What about Flash-based tour designs?

Ultimately, there is no way to ‘clone’ Flash designs and create exact copies of them in HTML5 and still have the same experience. To overcome this hurdle, we have been creating new HTML5 designs that take advantage of the flexibility offered by the HTML5 platform while delivering everything that Flash designs can do and much more!

In an effort to ease our customers' transition into a world without Flash designs, and to avoid issues that could arise due to Flash no longer being supported, we want to make the transition to HTML5 only tour designs before the end of 2019, and we’ll need your help to ensure the smoothest transition for you and your clients.

The benefits of HTML5

At this point, it’s important to state that there are many advantages to using HTML5 to create Tourbuzz tours, including but not limited to:

• 100% Mobile friendly
• More designs available
• Extended color options
• Faster video and image loading
• Higher quality videos and images 
• HLS (HTTP Live Streaming) video player
• Increased security
• SEO friendly (Search engine optimization)
• Increased viewer reach % and accessibility - over 6% more unique visitors to HTML5 tours

Key Differences

• In an attempt to present a more pleasant and user-friendly experience on the web, browsers like Chrome, Safari, and Firefox do not allow music/audio to autoplay.
  • https://help.tourbuzz.com/article/229-why-is-audio-muted-what-is-the-click-to-listen-button-can-music-auto-play
• Zephyr design will be improved by adding the option to display images in a full-screen mode.

Important Dates

November 4th, 2019

• You will have access to a ‘batch processor’ to bulk convert all your current Flash design tours to an HTML5 design of your choice.
  • Communication will be sent out on November 1st to guide you through the batch processor process and features.
  • If your design setting is set by default to a Flash design, then the default design will switch to the HTML5 design of your choice from the batch processor.

December 2nd, 2019

• General migration: All Tours still set to a Flash design will be automatically changed to Zephyr by default (by us).
  • You have no action to take.
• Flash designs option will not be available anymore.

COMMUNICATION IS THE KEY!

Communicate the move to your customers.

It’s important that you send out a communication to your clients to keep them informed of the migration to HTML5 designs, letting them know that you need to move to HTML5 only tour designs before the end of 2019, as Adobe will be phasing out Flash in 2020. 

We've created the following communications template that you can use in whole, or in part, to help communicate this change to your customers:

Final Thoughts

We know change is hard, and this change by Adobe means we all have to adapt to a world without Flash - but do know that we’re here to help make this as painless as possible for you and your customers. Our support team is on hand to help you identify appropriate HTML5 tour designs that will be suitable replacements for your customers currently using Flash designs.

Supporting Documentation

• HTML5 designs overview
• How to customize Zephyr design for your agents?
• How to assign a design to a tour
• How to define a default design for tours

Please do reach out to our customer support team at hello@urbanimmersive.com if you have any questions, concerns, or feedback along the way.