Mozilla on Wednesday announced plans to officially reduce Flash usage in Firefox.
Beginning next month, Firefox will block certain Flash content that is "not essential to the user experience," though the browser will still support legacy Flash content, according to a blog post from Firefox Engineering Manager Benjamin Smedberg.
"These and future changes will bring Firefox users enhanced security, improved battery life, faster page load, and better browser responsiveness," Smedberg wrote.
Those future changes include leaving Flash off by default. In 2017, the browser will require "click-to-activate" approval from users before a website runs a Flash plugin for any content.
Smedberg said the upcoming move to block specific Flash content is expected to reduce crashes and hangs by up to 10 percent. "Browser plugins, especially Flash, have enabled some of our favorite experiences on the Web, including videos and interactive content," he wrote. "But plugins often introduce stability, performance, and security issues for browsers. This is not a trade-off users should have to accept."
Ahead of next year's transition, Smedberg urged websites that currently use Flash or Silverlight for video or games to consider adopting HTML technologies "as soon as possible."
Mozilla's browser rivals are making similar moves. In May, Google announced a policy of "HTML5 by Default" for its Chrome browser. That came after Chrome 45 last year began automatically pausing less-important Flash content like ads, animations, and any "non-central" content.
In April, Microsoft said its Edge browser will now automatically pause certain kinds of Flash content while you're browsing the Web.
Facebook, Vimeo, Netflix, YouTube, and Twitch have also started the transition from Flash to HTML5.