For a while now we’ve all been thinking how stupid it was for Flash to leave Android behind, after all, it ran pretty well on the platform. Of course, there was always the battery drain and the odd instability issue but, for the most part, flash more than served its purpose on Android and when it came to tablets it was a worthy addition to the platform. If phones and tablets are supposed to be the future then, why can’t see most of the web?
Well, it’s no use pointing the finger squarely at Google, Adobe are more to blame for this than anyone else and they’ve also left Linux users in the lurch with Google having to pick up the slack by maintaining its own version of the player. Adobe seem pretty content to get on with HTML5 solutions but, let’s face it, we’ve been hearing about it for so long now that I don’t think we’ll ever see it get as big as flash was. To this end, Jelly Bean marked the beginning of Android not coming with flash like it always used it and it’s also disappeared from the Play Store. This isn’t a new problem but, as more and more people are getting on to Jelly Bean, it’s a head-scratcher as to why it doesn’t work any more so, let’s go ahead and describe the process of getting it back! This also works for the Nexus 4 and the Nexus 10.
- First of all what you want to do is go ahead and download a version of Flash Player, you can do that by following this link, if you’re on ICS or above you’ll want for Android 4.0 and below that the list for Android 2.3 and below.
- If you’re doing this on the PC then you’ll want to transfer the .APK to your phone and then install it there, if you’re on your phone the download should appear in the notification bar and you can just go ahead and click it.
- That’s it! There are no guarantees that this will run as well as it would on 2.3 or 4.0 but, it does work and it’s better to have than not have. If you’re looking to play Flash Videos on the Nexus 10, these will only run through Dolphin or third-party, ICS Browser+ is worth a look as well. As for the Nexus 4 it’s the same deal but, you can download the AOSP browser here.