Apple plans to disable plug-ins from Flash, Java, Silverlight and QuickTime in Safari 10, which will ship with macOS Sierra, the tech giant’s next desktop OS.
It is understood Apple is going to prioritise HTML5 content over all other content types.
However, if a website explicitly requires a certain plug-in it can be activated similarly with a click of a button as in Google’s Chrome.
“On websites that offer both Flash and HTML5 implementations of content, Safari users will now always experience the modern HTML5 implementation, delivering improved performance and battery life,” Apple developer Ricky Mondello said on the WebKit blog.
“This policy and its benefits apply equally to all websites; Safari has no built-in list of exceptions. If a website really does require a legacy plug-in, users can explicitly activate it on that website.”
Apple revealed Safari 10 at its Worldwide Developers Conference this week, which will come with Apple Pay capabilities
It is understood that Google is also adopting a similar strategy to promote HTML5 in Chrome, making it the default content experience for websites. Microsoft is also strongly advocating HTML5 because it is more stable.
Adobe Systems, the creator of Flash, has begun offering tools to develop HTML5 content while continuing to support Flash.