The BBC is to introduce a new version of its iPlayer app for Android following Adobe’s decision to end support for Flash on devices running Google’s mobile platform.

The software developer recently announced that it will withdraw the Android version of its well-known media platform following the introduction of the operating system’s latest iteration, Jelly Bean.

Whilst iPlayer had previously used Flash to stream content to Android devices and will continue to do so, Flash will now be run through Adobe’s Air software. This provides a framework through which several programming languages can run simultaneously and provides extra versatility in a similar way to HTML5.

A recent shift in the mobile software industry has seen Flash being widely abandoned in favour of the newer HTML5 which offers greater functionality when used to create apps and websites.

The BBC has come under criticism for the lack of attention it has paid to its Android users of late after the corporation made programmes available for offline viewing on iOS devices but failed to introduce the same feature for those using other operating systems.

The new Adobe Air version of the iPlayer can already be accessed by users when viewing the BBC’s services via a mobile browser, with the updated version of the iPlayer app due to be released next week.