Chrome to start blocking auto-playing Flash animations tomorrow

Back in June, Google announced that future versions of Chrome browser would by default pause automatically-playing Flash animations. This new functionality is going live tomorrow (September 1st).

Google Chrome will pause Flash animations that are not „central to the webpage” (like ads) while keeping „central content” (e.g.: a video) playing without any interruption.

Initially, Google claimed that the reason for introducing the Flash-blocking feature was trying to improve laptop battery life, as Flash uses quite a significant amount of CPU power. Stopping Flash ads from playing automatically should indeed result in a slight improvement in this matter. However, it’s not the only reason why users should welcome the new feature. Reducing the use of Flash can also potentially limit spreading of security exploits via numerous vulnerabilities in the format.

Google admits the update to Chrome might not always be 100% accurate, but at the same time assures that should the browser pause the „central” content by mistake, user will be able to just click it and make it play again.

The change only applies to the desktop version, since the mobile Chrome has not been supporting Flash for quite a while now.

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