Flash Player on Android

The Adobe Flash Player had a good run on Android OS, but it is now (November 2014) extinct. The last update to Flash for Android was released September 2013, so my notes about it (below) were moved off the main page to here. As of Android 4.3 (I haven't checked on newer versions of the system) Flash could still be installed even though it wasn't supported. The procedure for this is below.

September 20, 2013: No more bug fixes for Android. Quoting the Adobe Archived Flash Player version page: "On September 10th 2013, Adobe released Flash Player 11.1.111.73 for Android 2.x and 3.x and 11.1.115.81 for Android 4.0.x in keeping with statements made in our publicly available Flash Roadmap. This is the final update release of Flash Player for the Android operating system."

Official story: (Feb 15, 2013) Flash is supported on Android 2.x, 3.x and 4.0. It is not supported on 4.1 and later. Even when supported, the Flash Player must have been installed prior to August 2012, new installations are not supported. Adobe explained this in June 2012.
Reality: The Flash Player works fine on Android 4.1 and 4.2 whether it was installed prior to Aug. 2012 or not. The installation procedure, however, is very non-standard. Since the Flash Player no longer appears in the Play Store, installing or updating it requires side loading. For more on this, see my Nov. 21, 2012 blog: Updating Flash Player on Android now requires a hack.

1. Do Settings -> Security -> Unknown Sources checkbox ON in Android 4.x or
       Settings -> Applications -> Unknown Sources checkbox ON in Android 2.x
2. Get Flash from Adobe HERE. Scroll down a bit for the Android 4.x section and even further for Android 2.x.
3. Open the just-downloaded APK file to install the Flash Player
4. Turn off the Unknown Sources checkbox from the first step

As of the KitKat (4.4) release of Android, Flash only works with the Dolphin browser and only with a hacked copy of the Flash Player. See How to add Flash Player support on Moto X from MotoXhub Jan. 2014.

To manually see which version of the Flash Player is installed

• Android v2.x: Settings -> Applications -> Manage Applications -> subcategory -> Adobe Flash Player x (where x is a version number). The sub-category may be Third Party or it may be All. I have seen it both way on Android v2 devices.
• Android v4.2: Settings -> Application manager -> downloaded -> Adobe Flash Player

To configure Flash on Android, go to settings.adobe.com/flashplayer/mobile in a supported web browser.

In the old days, Flash could be updated on Android phones by browsing to the Android Marketplace. The link that used to work was market://details?id=com.adobe.flashplayer

• Smartphones that support Flash (from Adobe)
• Tablets that support Flash (from Adobe)
• Adobe Flash showcase for mobile
• Flash Player 10.3 for Android Release Notes from Adobe, as of May 18, 2011
• Flash Player 10.1 for Android 2.2 Release Notes from Adobe, as of Nov. 9, 2010