Firefox will disable Flash by default this year

Mozilla has released a path map for the Firefox plugin, which is scheduled to show that it will disable Flash by default this year. Plugins can affect security and performance for users, and Mozilla says it has been moving toward a web browser that doesn’t require plugins.

Two years ago, Adobe announced that it would terminate the remaining NPAPI plug-in Flash technical support, stop updating and releasing Flash Player by the end of 2020, and encourage content creators to migrate any existing Flash content to New open format.

In order to transition from Flash, Firefox is working with other browsers to gradually and carefully reduce Flash usage. Mozilla specifically lists future plans for abandoning Flash:

2019

Firefox will disable the Flash plugin by default. Users will not be prompted to enable Flash, but it will still be possible to activate Flash on certain sites using browser settings.

2020

In early 2020, Flash support will be completely removed from consumer versions of Firefox. The Firefox Extended Support Release (ESR) will continue to support for Flash until the end of 2020.

2021

When Adobe stops shipping security updates for Flash at the end of 2020, Firefox will refuse to load the plugin.