Twitch Transitioning From Flash to HTML5

Game streaming platform Twitch is finally switching from the notoriously unsafe Adobe Flash to HTML5, following in the steps of YouTube, which made the same change to its videos in January this year. The HTML5 rollout, which also includes JavaScript controls, will be gradual, and the underlying videos will still be powered by Flash for the time being. Twitch calls it “an important step to releasing the much-anticipated full HTML5 player” and that users should “stay tuned for more HTML5 updates.”

Luckily for Twitch, it is well placed to learn lessons from YouTube’s transition over the last six months, and longer since Google has been doing some stellar work with HTML5 since 2010. Five years ago, Google revealed a test version of the HTML5 video player it had been developing, a system that came to be used by YouTube this year. The prototype HTML5 player out-performed its Flash equivalent, and the code made it easier to embed videos.

Twitch’s transition to HTML5 shouldn’t take five years, like YouTube, but it is bound to be a slow and meticulous process. Short of taking the site down for a few months, which I’m sure owner Amazon would be loath to do, a creeping change should help Twitch move away from Flash as painlessly for its users as possible.

Thank you The Trigger for providing us with this information.