3GP to SWF Converter

How to Convert 3GP to SWF Online

1. Upload Your 3GP File: Drag and drop or click "Add Files" to select 3GP or 3G2 files. Old Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola RAZR, and BlackBerry recordings (2003-2012), feature-phone camera captures, and MMS attachments all work. Batch is supported for converting an entire folder of legacy phone clips at once.
2. Pick the Internal Video Codec: SWF output defaults to FLV (Sorenson Spark, the H.263 variant Flash Player has shipped with since version 6) — the safest choice for standalone Flash projectors and Ruffle. FLASHSV / FLASHSV2 are screen-video codecs better suited to slide captures than phone footage. MJPEG is also exposed but produces much larger SWFs. Set a quality preset (Highest down to Lowest) or fine-tune with CRF / qscale (1 = highest, 31 = lowest for MPEG-style codecs).
3. Set Resolution and Audio Codec (Optional): 3GP source is typically 176x144 (QCIF), 320x240 (QVGA), or 352x288 (CIF) — pick a resolution preset (480p / 360p / 240p / Original) or a fixed dimension preset, or scale by percentage. Default audio is MP3; switch to MP2 for stricter Flash 6-era compatibility or ADPCM for very small voice-only clips. Trim a section using start time + duration in HH:MM:SS.sss format.
4. Convert and Download: Click Convert. Files process in your browser session — no sign-up, no watermark, no upload to a third-party server.

Why Convert 3GP to SWF?

3GP (3GPP Multimedia File) was designed by 3GPP for UMTS / 3G phones and ruled the feature-phone era from roughly 2003 to 2012 — Nokia N-series, Sony Ericsson Walkman phones, Motorola RAZR, BlackBerry, early flip-phones. It uses H.263 or low-profile H.264 video plus AMR-NB audio in a stripped-down MP4 container tuned for 64-128 kbps cellular networks. SWF (Small Web Format, originally Shockwave Flash) was Adobe Flash's container for vector animation, web games, and embedded video from the late 1990s through the early 2010s. Adobe officially end-of-lifed Flash Player on December 31, 2020, and Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Safari all removed Flash support in early 2021. Both formats are now legacy — but a few specific situations still call for 3GP -> SWF conversion:

• Flash-era e-learning and LMS courses — Articulate Presenter, Adobe Captivate, and Lectora projects from 2005-2015 commonly delivered video as SWF. If you're rebuilding a legacy course on an internal LMS that still has a Flash player, dropping in archived 3GP phone clips (training recordings, field footage, voicemail evidence) requires SWF wrapping to match the rest of the course.
• Flash game and Newgrounds-era preservation — Flash games and animations from 2003-2012 occasionally embedded user-supplied phone video as SWF assets. Preservation projects rebuilding these for Ruffle or Flashpoint sometimes need the original 3GP source re-wrapped as SWF for authenticity.
• Internal corporate kiosks and signage built before 2015 — Some closed-network kiosks and digital-signage controllers still run a Flash projector executable. Replacing burnt-out video assets sourced from old phones requires SWF, not MP4.
• Standalone Flash projector playback — Adobe's offline Flash Player projector still runs on Windows and macOS for archival use. SWF is the only format it plays. Useful for museum exhibits, historical software demos, and Flash-era portfolios where the original phone-camera 3GP footage needs to play inside the same projector window as the rest of the exhibit.
• Format-completeness for archival projects — The Internet Archive's Flash collection, university media libraries, and personal Flash-era portfolios sometimes require all assets in SWF wrapping for authenticity, even when modern playback uses Ruffle.

For anything modern — websites, mobile, social media, email — convert to 3GP to MP4 or 3GP to WebM instead. SWF will not play in any 2026 browser without an emulator.

3GP vs SWF — Format Comparison

Codec Choice for the SWF Output

Frequently Asked Questions

Will the SWF I create play in a 2026 browser?

No — and this is unavoidable, not a tool limitation. Adobe Flash Player reached end-of-life on December 31, 2020, and Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Safari removed the Flash plugin in early 2021. The only ways to play a SWF in 2026 are: Adobe's standalone Flash Player projector (still downloadable from Adobe's archives, runs offline), the Ruffle open-source Flash emulator (browser extension or desktop app), or Flashpoint (curated Flash preservation project). If your goal is web playback of old phone footage, convert to 3GP to MP4 instead.

Why convert 3GP to SWF specifically — what's the realistic use case?

Almost always one of three things: (1) repackaging a 3GP clip into an existing Flash-era e-learning course or LMS that still uses a Flash projector; (2) preserving a Flash game / animation that originally embedded phone-camera video, for emulator playback through Ruffle or Flashpoint; (3) feeding a closed-network kiosk or signage controller from before 2015 that only ingests SWF. If you don't have one of these specific targets, MP4 is the right answer.

Will the source 3GP's quality survive — or improve — in SWF?

It will not improve, and it will likely degrade slightly. The source 3GP was encoded at 64-256 kbps for 2G / 3G networks at 176x144 or 320x240, which is already low. SWF then re-wraps that footage in FLV / Sorenson H.263 — a less efficient codec than even the original 3GP's H.263 baseline in most cases. Expect a generational re-encode loss similar to a 2008 YouTube re-upload. Upscaling resolution at the same time only enlarges the existing pixels; it doesn't add detail.

What audio codec ends up inside the SWF?

MP3 by default — that's what Flash authoring tools have always encoded SWF audio as. MP2 is also exposed for stricter Flash 6 / 7-era compatibility, and ADPCM for very small voice-only clips (it's the codec Flash uses for embedded button sounds). The 3GP source typically has AMR-NB (narrowband, 8 kHz, 4.75-12.2 kbps) or AAC-LC; both are decoded fully and re-encoded to MP3 at a higher bitrate.

Does Ruffle play the SWF this tool produces?

Ruffle's video support has improved significantly through 2025-2026 and plays Sorenson FLV inside SWF reliably on most modern builds. ScreenVideo (FLASHSV / FLASHSV2) and very old or exotic codecs are partial or unsupported. For best Ruffle compatibility, stick with the default FLV / Sorenson selection.

Does the converter work for 3G2 files too?

Yes. 3G2 is the CDMA cousin of 3GP — used by Verizon, Sprint, US Cellular, and KDDI au feature phones. The container layout is nearly identical, just with codec preferences tuned for CDMA networks (often QCELP voice instead of AMR-NB). Drop 3G2 files into the same upload area; they convert to SWF with the same options.

Why is my SWF a different size than the original 3GP?

Two effects compete. (1) FLV / Sorenson H.263 is less efficient than the H.264 baseline some newer 3GP files use, so at the same resolution the SWF tends to be larger. (2) But SWFs are usually downscaled to 480p-or-smaller because that's the Flash-era norm, which shrinks file size. Net result: SWFs from QCIF / QVGA 3GP source are usually similar in size or slightly larger; SWFs from H.264-based 3GP can grow noticeably. Drop the quality preset or set a target file size if you need to control the output.

Can I trim or cut the 3GP while converting to SWF?

Yes. Use the trim section to enter a start time and duration. Both accept seconds (12.5) or HH:MM:SS.sss format (00:00:30.500). Useful for dropping the 1-2 seconds of dead air feature phones often record before the actual footage starts, or for clipping a single highlight out of an old voicemail-video archive.

Will the SWF play on mobile?

No. Flash Player for mobile was discontinued in 2012 and never returned. iOS never supported Flash. The converter itself runs in any modern mobile browser, but the SWF output won't play on any phone or tablet without a desktop-class emulator. For mobile-friendly playback of old phone footage, convert to 3GP to MP4 instead.