4.6: What happens if my visitors have an old version of Flash? Or no Flash at all?

23 Video requires that visitor have Adobe Flash Player 9.0 or greater installed in order to play video in a standard web browser. In general, this is the case for about 98-99% of all browsers (read more about Flash Player version penetration).

This leaves a small number of visitors with no access to your video content; either because they haven't installed Flash Player, or because their Flash Player is outdated. So what does these users see?

The boring history lesson: How embedding works in browsers

There are two ways of embedding Flash contents in a web browser:

1. A combination af <embed> and <object> HTML tags: This method is purely HTML-based, but users without the required Flash version will see an empty box when this method is used.
2. Embed and detection through JavaScript: This method is usually based on swfobject and is the recommended method used by Adobe. This method allows for detection of the installed (or not installed) software, for graceful error messages, and even for automatic upgrading of Flash Player. However, the method requires that JavaScript is enabled by the user, and the option might not be available on 3rd-party sites for security reasons.

How we use these methods − and how you can

23 Video uses the commonly established pattern to get the best of both worlds: When you use your 23 Video site, we're using the second method to maximize usability; when visitors share your videos through embedding on 3rd party sites we use the first method in order to maximize virality and security.

Through the 23 Video administration interface, you can get access to both options by enabling the JavaScript embeds in Admin? option under Distribution → Embedding. This allows you to use the more usable and advanced option whenever possible, for example when embedding content into your own content management system.

The configuration page for embedding gives you a number of extra, advanced options when you click the Show advanced embedding options link: You can set the message visitors without Flash see; you can specify which version of Flash to require, and you can disable automatic version uprades if you find them too intrusive.

But how does it actually look to my visitors?

No Flash Player or a very old version

Here we'll show a standard text message. The message can be customized through Distribution → Embedding → Show advanced embedding options.

Flash 6.0.65 to Flash 8: One-click upgrading to most recent version

This option is based on Adobe Flash Player's native Express Install feature. If you don't like the auto-upgrade option it can be disabled through Distribution → Embedding → Show advanced embedding options.

Flash 9.0 or greater: Play your videos!