Important Note: Adobe Flash Player (including Shockwave Flash) reached its official End of Life on December 31, 2020 . Google Chrome and other major browsers have fully removed Flash support. This guide is for legacy systems, offline intranet environments, or specific enterprise needs only. What Is Shockwave Flash? "Shockwave Flash" is the name Chrome gives to Adobe Flash Player’s NPAPI/PPAPI plugin. It was historically used to play multimedia content, animations, and older web games.