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Swiffy: Google Launches New Tool for Converting Flash Into HTML5

Frederic Lardinois

28 Jun 2011 — 1 min read

Google just launched a new tool that makes it easy to convert basic Flash animations into HTML5. Swiffy, as this new tool is called, is now available in Google Labs. While Google doesn’t specifically mention Apple or iOS in its announcement, it’s clear that this tool is geared towards bringing existing Flash content to these devices.

To convert an animation, users just have to upload the .swf Flash file to Swiffy and within seconds, Google’s software will create an HTML5 version of it. There are some limits to the current implementation, though. The tool does not support some of the most advanced interactive features that ActionScript offers Flash developers, for example, so converting a complex Flash game into HTML5 with Swiffy is currently not an option.

The converted animations work best in WebKit-based browsers like Google’s own Chrome and Apple’s Safari.

It’s worth noting that Adobe (the developer behind Flash), also offers a conversion tool. Adobe’s tool, however, Google notes, “focuses on reusing parts of a Flash file in HTML, and thus produces code that can be edited by the developer, whereas Swiffy generates an efficient format that is not that easily editable.”

Give it a Try

In testing the service, I came across a number of limitations (missing audio, images etc.), but overall, it worked surprisingly well. Google has also created a set of demos (including some interactive ones) to give you an idea what these conversions look like – though all of these obviously work flawlessly.

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