Avoid Using Flash Email

We all have heard or and seen HTML emails. Now some people are attempting to go further by trying to put Flash into emails and sending them out. At the current time, there are various problems with this and should be avoided.

Why it is not a good idea to put Flash in emails...

1. Hotmail, Gmail, and Yahoo will strip out your Flash.

To embedded Flash, you have to code your HTML using the <object> tag and the <embed> tags. Most web mail clients such as hotmail, gmail, and yahoo will strip out those tags and thereby remove your Flash media from your email. More precisely, yahoo will rewrite your <object> tag as <xobject>. Since there is no such thing as an <xobject> tag, yahoo is rendering that tag useless. Hotmail and Gmail does not bother with such things and simply deletes your <object> tags. The same thing happens with the <embed> tag.

2. Microsoft Outlook by default will not run Flash

Okay, let's say that you don't care about those users on web mail clients. This is not a good idea since more and more users are using web mail clients. But for the sake of the example, say that you only want to target Outlook users.

Well that too has problems, the default installation of Microsoft Outlook will not allow the playing of Flash media. That is if an user receives a Flash email, Outlook will pop up a dialog saying that your setting does not allow the playing of the ActiveX component. The user can have Outlook play Flash media only if the user explicitly changes his/her Outlook settings to allow for this. To perform this setting change, go to Outlook menu "Tools -> Options". Select the "Security Tab". And under the "Secure Content" setting, change the Zone to Internet. Now, do you think that the average user will know how to make this setting change to allow Flash content? And if they do, do you think that they will set their Outlook to that setting? Not likely. So most Outlook users will have a hard time seeing the Flash content of your email.

Alternatives:

Now that you understand some of the difficulties of having Flash in email. What are the alternatives?

1. If the Flash animation is simple enough, you can use an animate gif image instead. An animated gif is simply an image file and does not have the security restrictions that Flash media has.

2. If you really want the user to see Flash, you can put a link in the email that directs the user to a Flash web page hosted in a website. This is a much better alternative.

Links and Info:

Here external links to more info about Flash emails...

The Good, Bad, and Downright Ugly of Flash Email
Case Study Follow Up - Flash and Email