What’s New in Electron 16.0? Features, Lifecycle Changes, and Upgrade Guide
Electron 16.0 was released on November 17, adopting an eight‑week release cycle, ending support for older versions, introducing experimental WebHID API, deprecating certain renderer APIs, and updating core components to Chromium 96, V8 9.6, and Node.js 16.9.1, with download instructions provided.
Electron 16.0, the popular open‑source cross‑platform framework, was officially released on November 17.
The project now follows a new eight‑week release cadence, replacing the previous 12‑week schedule.
End of life for Electron 12
Since Electron 15.0, only the last four versions receive limited support; starting with the release of version 19.0 in May 2022, support will be limited to the three most recent versions. Consequently, version 12.x reaches its end‑of‑support date, and version 16.0 will also cease support in May 2022.
Future roadmap: Electron 17.0 is planned for February 1 2022, Electron 18.0 one month later, and Electron 19.0 two months after that, slightly deviating from the new cadence.
New features in Electron 16.0
The release introduces experimental support for the WebHID API, which enables web pages to communicate with HID devices as defined by the WICG draft. The API is still a draft and not yet a W3C Recommendation.
Other changes include removal of the app.requestSingleInstanceLock parameter and the addition of commandLine.removeSwitchChromium for sharing application data.
Major changes and updates
One backward‑incompatible change deprecates desktopCapturer.getSources in the renderer process; it will be removed and become available only in the main process, improving application security.
Electron 16.0 updates its core components to Chromium 96, V8 9.6, and Node.js 16.9.1.
The latest version can be installed via npm ( npm install electron@latest) or downloaded from the official website or GitHub release page.
Signed-in readers can open the original source through BestHub's protected redirect.
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