Google, on Tuesday, launched a new tool which can convert .swf flash files into HTML5. The tool can help to support flash files on devices such as Apple’s iPad and iPhone which earlier lacked flash files compatibility . The idea behind Swiffy came from a Google intern and now a Googler who joined the mobile advertising team to explore support of flash animations on devices that don’t support Adobe Flash player.

Swiffy is a web based tool. It will not help an automatic conversion of .swf file present in any web page, rather it will convert an individual file which is uploaded to the site. After uploading a .swf file, it will give out the HTML5 code which can simply save and include it on your website using an <iframe> tag. The produced HTML5 file is around 10 percent larger than the original .swf file and is nearly as compact as the original file.

The conversion can be carried out on modern browsers with a high level of SVG support such as Chrome and Safari. This conversion is a two step process which first includes generation of JSON file by Swiffy compiler. Now this file is loaded and rendered using HTML, SVG and CSS by client-side JavaScript runtime. Since the product is in early stage, it might not support all kinds of .swf files. Some conversions can be viewed here.

Swiffy vs Wallaby :

Wallaby is Adobe's Flash-to-HTML5 conversion software unlike the web based property of Swiffy. You can carry out the conversion using the software on your system. Wallaby’s converted product can be edited and reused but Swiffy produces an efficient compressed output which can’t be easily edited. However, the quality of the conversion carried out by Swiffy seems better than that of the one carried out by Wallaby.

Google says that Adobe is quite happy to see the Flash platform extended to devices which don't support the Flash player and also adds that it it looking forward to collaborate with Adobe for such projects. Swiffy is in its initial stage and many optimizations are yet to be done.