Eventhough Adobe no longer supports flash for Android, many websites still rely on flash. Android users using their default browsers or chrome cant view the contents of many interactive websites, online video streaming sites, catchup TV and gaming websites.
Flash player is no longer available from play store, but if you want to view the flash content on your Android tablet or phone, you can either
- Download a browser with built-in flash support like Puffin, Boat , Now, Photon from play store (many of these are not free and you may have to pay for flash support once the trial period expires)
- Download flash player outside play store and use it with one of the free browsers like Dolphin, Mozilla Firefox that support flash player plug-in.
Since the first method is fairly straight forward, this article explains the second method which is a free work around.
Step 1. Temporarily change the security setting to allow the Android to install apps from unknown sources.
Go to Settings → Security → Unknown sources and check the box for "Allow installation of applications from both trusted and unknown sources". This will let you install an app outside playstore.
Step 2. Get the correct version of flash player
Check your android version in Settings → About (or About device) → Android Version
If your version is older than Android 4.3 (Jelly Bean) i.e, between Android 2.2 and 4.3, you can download the flash player from Adobe Archives. The latest version available from the archive is Flash Player 11.1.115.81
If you are running the new Android 4.4(KitKat), Adobe no longer supports flash for these, but you can download a hacked version of flash player by user surviveland at xda developers forum or from the Dolphin browser's support website.
Step 3. Revert the security setting by unchecking the unknown sources
Step 4. Download the dolphin browser from play store. You may also use firefox but dolphin is easier.
Step 5. Change the flash setting in Dolphin Browser to always on. Go to Settings → Web Content → Flash Player → Always On
Once you have completed these steps you can use the dolphin browser to browse any website that uses flash. Firefox also supports the flash plugin, but some websites might recognize your tablet or phone as a mobile device and block the flash content. You can get around this by installing the phony plugin for Firefox.
