How to Install Adobe Flash on Android Lollipop 5.0/5.0.1/5.0.2

Download and Install Flash Player on Android Lollipop 5.0/5.0.1/5.0.2 – The primary reason why I got an Android phone was the fact that it supported Adobe Flash – well, at least up until Android 4.1. That software update was the death knell of Flash on mobile devices. The thing is that a lot of websites still use the platform. One great example is Miniclip.com. It has games that run great on tablets or even your regular smartphones. What are gamers and power users to do with Adobe ironically closing off support for Flash on a supposedly ‘open’ platform? Well, the great thing is that there are still ways to force Flash on your Android smartphone running on 4.1 Jelly Bean as well as 5.0/5.0.1/5.0.2 Lollipop.

Flashfox loading taggalaxy.de, a website running entirely on Flash.

Should I Install Flash on My Android Phone?

Before we proceed with the steps though, you should know about the advantages and disadvantages of having Flash enabled on your Android phone.

Pros

– A lot of websites still use, and work best with Flash (Youtube as well as BBC iPlayer).

– You can play games even without downloading an app so long as you have Flash and a supported browser installed on your mobile device.

– Most mobile devices right now have x86 processors (like the Intel Z3000 Series), which also happen to be the platforms that Flash was optimized to run on.

Cons

– There’s a possibility that mobile devices that use older and/or ARM-based processors would have their batteries drained easily.

Download and Install Flash Player on Android Lollipop

Option 1 – Enabling Flash Support without Root

Unlike most hacks or tricks, there’s no need for you to root your Android phone in order to be able to install and use Flash. There are actually a lot of popular methods for getting it to work on mobile devices. For this article, we’ll be detailing just two that we’ve found worked without any issues. The first is by using the Puffin browser while the second is by using Flashfox/Flashfox Pro (both applications are available for download on the Google Play Store).

The Puffin browser is really easy to use but Flash support is only free for the first 14 days once it’s installed on your device. Flashfox is similar to Puffin but you can use it for free provided you’re okay with ads popping up at random.

Option 2 – Manually Installing the Flash APK

For now, you might want to just use Flashfox since it’s the only one that we’ve verified to work well on Lollipop (as well as with Jelly Bean and Kit Kat). If you want to manually install the Flash apk, then that might require a little effort on your part.

To do this, you’ll first need to download the latest Flash apk from the official Adobe site.

Before you install the apk, make sure you allow your phone the option to install from unknown sources (settings – security – allow unknown sources).

Locate the apk on your mobile device to start the installation process.

Once the apk is installed, make sure to download either Flashfox or Mozilla Firefox on your mobile device. You can then enable Flash on these browsers’ settings so that you can access content from sites like Miniclip. The apparent drawback of this method though is that it is not guaranteed to work on older versions of Android (Jelly Bean and Kit Kat). There’s also the possibility that it will get patched in succeeding Lollipop updates.

Conclusion

There are obvious trade-offs for having Flash enabled on your Android device. First would be the hit your battery might take due to how resource intensive the technology is for ARM processors. Next would be the fact that although there are still a lot of Flash websites around, most developers are moving on to HTML5 as a cross-platform solution. If you’re really intent on getting Flash running on your Android Lollipop mobile device, I’d personally recommend using Flashfox. Not only is it easy to install but it works on a wider range of devices than most of the other apps/methods we discussed earlier. However, I would caution using it as your main browser to ensure that you don’t deplete your phone’s battery too quickly.