Google just launched a new Google Labs project called “Swiffy“. It converts Flash SWF files to HTML5.

It lets you reuse Flash content on devices without a Flash player (ie: iPhones and iPads).

You may recall a similar tool from Adobe, called Wallaby. Here’s what Google has to say about that:

Wallaby is an installable tool that converts .fla files, whereas Swiffy is a web-based tool that converts .swf files. Wallaby focuses on reusing parts of a Flash file in HTML, and thus produces code that can be edited by the developer, whereas Swiffy generates an efficient format that is not that easily editable.

Adobe is pleased to see the Flash platform extended to devices which don’t support the Flash player. The result is that anyone creating rich or interactive ads can continue to get all the authoring benefits of Flash Pro and have the flexibility to run the ad in the Flash Player or HTML depending on what’s available on the system. Google and Adobe look forward to close collaboration around efforts like these.

Google has provided a Swiffy gallery showing side-by-side original Flash animations and their Swiffy conversion counterparts here.

To use Swiffy’s output on your own site, you can simply save the HTML file that is generated, and include it on your site using an iframe tag. You can preview the output on a mobile device as well.

Google says Swiffy currently supports a subset of SWF 8 and ActionScript 2.0, and the output works in all Webkit browsers such as Chrome and Mobile Safari.

Google says it is not sure whether or not Swiffy will be open source.