Electron 18.0.0 has been released! It includes upgrades to Chromium 100, V8 10.0, and Node.js 16.13.2. Read below for more details!

The Electron team is excited to announce the release of Electron 18.0.0! You can install it with npm via npm install electron@latest or download it from our releases website. Continue reading for details about this release and please share any feedback you have!

Notable Changes​

Electron Release Cadence Change​

As of Electron 15, Electron will release a new major stable version every 8 weeks. You can read the full details here.

Additionally, Electron has changed supported versions from latest three versions to latest four versions until May 2022. See our versioning document for more detailed information about versioning in Electron. After May 2022, we will return to supporting latest three versions.

Stack Changes​

• Chromium 100
  • New in Chrome 100
• Node.js 16.13.2
  • Node 16.13.2 blog post
• V8 10.0

Highlighted Features​

• Added ses.setCodeCachePath() API for setting code cache directory. #33286
• Removed the old BrowserWindowProxy-based implementation of window.open. This also removes the nativeWindowOpen option from webPreferences. #29405
• Added 'focus' and 'blur' events to WebContents. #25873
• Added Substitutions menu roles on macOS: showSubstitutions, toggleSmartQuotes, toggleSmartDashes, toggleTextReplacement. #32024
• Added a first-instance-ack event to the app.requestSingleInstanceLock() flow, allowing users to seamlessly transmit data from the first instance to the second instance. #31460
• Added support for more color formats in setBackgroundColor. #33364

See the 18.0.0 release notes for a full list of new features and changes.

Breaking & API Changes​

Below are breaking changes introduced in Electron 18. More information about these and future changes can be found on the Planned Breaking Changes page.

Removed: nativeWindowOpen​

Prior to Electron 15, window.open was by default shimmed to use BrowserWindowProxy. This meant that window.open('about:blank') did not work to open synchronously scriptable child windows, among other incompatibilities. Since Electron 15, nativeWindowOpen has been enabled by default.

See the documentation for window.open in Electron for more details. Removed in #29405

End of Support for 14.x.y​

Electron 14.x.y has reached end-of-support as per the project's support policy. Developers and applications are encouraged to upgrade to a newer version of Electron.

As of Electron 15, we have changed supported versions from latest three versions to latest four versions until May 2022 with Electron 19. After Electron 19, we will return to supporting the latest three versions. This version support change is part of our new cadence change. Please see our blog post for full details here.

What's Next​

In the short term, you can expect the team to continue to focus on keeping up with the development of the major components that make up Electron, including Chromium, Node, and V8. Although we are careful not to make promises about release dates, our plan is to release new major versions of Electron with new versions of those components approximately every 2 months.

You can find Electron's public timeline here.

More information about future changes can be found on the Planned Breaking Changes page.

The Electron team is excited to announce that we will be participating in Google Summer of Code for the first time this year!

What is Google Summer of Code?​

Google Summer of Code (GSoC) is a yearly mentoring program connecting open source software projects with potential contributors. Previously open only to students, anyone ages 18 and up can now register for GSoC.

For more information, check out the Summer of Code homepage.

How do I sign up?​

Are you interested in collaborating with Electron? If you are a new or beginner open source contributor, we welcome you to apply!

In order to be selected as an Electron contributor for Google Summer of Code, you will need to submit an application. Applications will open on April 4th, 2022 and close on April 19th, 2022. You can follow updates for Google: Summer of Code application guidelines here.

Want to apply? First, check out the five project idea drafts that we have prepared. All of the listed ideas are currently open for proposals. We are also open to accepting new ideas that are not on the proposed project list.

Your application should include:

• Your proposal, which is a written document that describes in detail what you plan to achieve over the course of the summer.
• Your background as a developer. If you have a resume, please include a copy, otherwise tell us about your past experience with an emphasis on relevant technical experience.

A detailed guide of what to submit as part of your Electron application is here.

You can also read through the official GSoC student/contributor guide for important tips on preparing your proposal.

If you want to discuss project proposals or have questions, come hang out in our #gsoc-general Discord channel!

References​

• Electron Proposal Guide
• Electron GitHub
• Project Ideas Document
• Google Summer of Code Student/Contributor Guide

Electron 17.0.0 has been released! It includes upgrades to Chromium 98, V8 9.8, and Node.js 16.13.0. Read below for more details!

The Electron team is excited to announce the release of Electron 17.0.0! You can install it with npm via npm install electron@latest or download it from our releases website. Continue reading for details about this release and please share any feedback you have!

Notable Changes​

Electron Release Cadence Change​

As of Electron 15, Electron will release a new major stable version every 8 weeks. You can read the full details here.

Additionally, Electron has changed supported versions from latest three versions to latest four versions until May 2022. See our versioning document for more detailed information about versioning in Electron. After May 2022, we will return to supporting latest three versions.

Stack Changes​

• Chromium 98
  • New in Chrome 98
• Node.js 16.13.0
  • Node 16.13.0 blog post
• V8 9.8

Highlighted Features​

• Added webContents.getMediaSourceId(), can be used with getUserMedia to get a stream for a WebContents. #31204
• Deprecates webContents.getPrinters() and introduces webContents.getPrintersAsync(). #31023
• desktopCapturer.getSources is now only available in the main process. #30720

See the 17.0.0 release notes for a full list of new features and changes.

Breaking Changes​

Below are breaking changes introduced in Electron 17. More information about these and future changes can be found on the Planned Breaking Changes page.

desktopCapturer.getSources in the renderer​

The desktopCapturer.getSources API is now only available in the main process. This has been changed in order to improve the default security of Electron apps.

API Changes​

There were no API changes in Electron 17.

Removed/Deprecated Changes​

• Usage of the desktopCapturer.getSources API in the renderer has been removed. See here for details on how to replace this API in your app.

End of Support for 13.x.y​

Electron 13.x.y has reached end-of-support as per the project's support policy. Developers and applications are encouraged to upgrade to a newer version of Electron.

As of Electron 15, we have changed supported versions from latest three versions to latest four versions until May 2022 with Electron 19. After Electron 19, we will return to supporting the latest three versions. This version support change is part of our new cadence change. Please see our blog post for full details here.

What's Next​

In the short term, you can expect the team to continue to focus on keeping up with the development of the major components that make up Electron, including Chromium, Node, and V8. Although we are careful not to make promises about release dates, our plan is to release new major versions of Electron with new versions of those components approximately every 2 months.

You can find Electron's public timeline here.

More information about future changes can be found on the Planned Breaking Changes page.

Spectron will be deprecated on February 1st, 2022.

Beginning in February 2022, Spectron will be officially deprecated by the Electron team.

Why Deprecate Spectron?​

While Spectron has consistently put out new releases for each new version of Electron, the project has had very little maintenance and improvements for well over a year, and currently has no full-time maintainers. With the remote module moving outside of Electron core and into an external module in Electron 14, Spectron will require a major rewrite to continue working reliably.

After reviewing several available options for Spectron's continued maintenance, the Electron team has decided to deprecate Spectron in 2022.

Deprecation Timeline​

The following is our planned deprecation timeline:

• November 2021 - January 2022: The Electron team will continue to accept pull requests from the community.
• January 2022: A final version of announcement warning about Spectron's deprecation will be released.
• February 1, 2022: Spectron's repo will be marked as "archived". No more pull requests will be accepted.

Following February 1st, 2022, Electron will continue to leave the Spectron repo up indefinitely, so that others are welcome to fork or use the existing code for their projects. We hope this will help provide a longer transition to any projects that may still depend on Spectron.

Alternatives to Spectron​

If you're currently using Spectron in your project and would like to migrate to an alternative testing solution, you can read our guide for automated testing here.

We currently have several other recommended alternatives to Spectron, including Playwright and WebDriverIO. Official tutorials for each option can be found in our Automated Testing documentation.

What's Next​

We here on the Electron team appreciate you using Spectron and Electron. We understand that many of you depend on Spectron for testing your apps, and we want to make this transition as painless for you as possible. Thank you for choosing Electron!

Electron 16.0.0 has been released! It includes upgrades to Chromium 96, V8 9.6, and Node.js 16.9.1. Read below for more details!

The Electron team is excited to announce the release of Electron 16.0.0! You can install it with npm via npm install electron@latest or download it from our releases website. Continue reading for details about this release and please share any feedback you have!

Notable Changes​

Electron Release Cadence Change​

As of Electron 15, Electron will release a new major stable version every 8 weeks. You can read the full details here.

Additionally, Electron has changed supported versions from latest three versions to latest four versions until May 2022. See our versioning document for more detailed information about versioning in Electron. After May 2022, we will return to supporting latest three versions.

Stack Changes​

• Chromium 96
  • New in Chrome 96
• Node.js 16.9.1
  • Node 16.9.1 blog post
• V8 9.6
  • V8 9.6 blog post

Highlighted Features​

• Now supports the WebHID API. #30213
• Add data parameter to app.requestSingleInstanceLock to share data between instances. #30891
• Pass securityOrigin to media permissions request handler. #31357
• Add commandLine.removeSwitch. #30933

See the 16.0.0 release notes for a full list of new features and changes.

Breaking Changes​

Below are breaking changes introduced in Electron 16. More information about these and future changes can be found on the Planned Breaking Changes page.

Building Native Modules​

If your project uses node-gyp to build native modules, you may need to call it with --force-process-config depending on your project's setup and your Electron version. More information about this change can be found at #2497.

Behavior Changed: crashReporter implementation switched to Crashpad on Linux​

The underlying implementation of the crashReporter API on Linux has changed from Breakpad to Crashpad, bringing it in line with Windows and Mac. As a result of this, child processes are now automatically monitored, and calling process.crashReporter.start in Node child processes is no longer needed (and is not advisable, as it will start a second instance of the Crashpad reporter).

There are also some subtle changes to how annotations will be reported on Linux, including that long values will no longer be split between annotations appended with __1, __2 and so on, and instead will be truncated at the (new, longer) annotation value limit.

API Changes​

There were no API changes in Electron 16.

Removed/Deprecated Changes​

• Usage of the desktopCapturer.getSources API in the renderer has been deprecated and will be removed. This change improves the default security of Electron apps. See here for details on how to replace this API in your app.

End of Support for 12.x.y​

Electron 12.x.y has reached end-of-support as per the project's support policy. Developers and applications are encouraged to upgrade to a newer version of Electron.

As of Electron 15, we have changed supported versions from latest three versions to latest four versions until May 2022 with Electron 19. After Electron 19, we will return to supporting the latest three versions. This version support change is part of our new cadence change. Please see our blog post for full details here.

What's Next​

In the short term, you can expect the team to continue to focus on keeping up with the development of the major components that make up Electron, including Chromium, Node, and V8. Although we are careful not to make promises about release dates, our plan is to release new major versions of Electron with new versions of those components approximately every 2 months.

You can find Electron's public timeline here.

More information about future changes can be found on the Planned Breaking Changes page.

The Electron project will pause for the month of December 2021, then return to full speed in January 2022.

via GIPHY

What will be the same in December​

1. Zero-day and other major security-related releases will be published as necessary. Security incidents should be reported via SECURITY.md.
2. Code of Conduct reports and moderation will continue.

What will be different in December​

1. No new Beta or Stable releases in December. No Nightly releases for the last two weeks of December.
2. With few exceptions, no pull request reviews or merges.
3. No issue tracker updates on any repositories.
4. No Discord debugging help from maintainers.
5. No social media content updates.

Why is this happening?​

In short, while maintainers are happy and engaged with the project, THE WORLD IS TIRED. December is a quiet month for most companies, so we want to give our maintainers a chance to recharge. We encourage other projects to consider similar measures.

Should I be worried about the future of Electron?​

No. We are able to take this step because the project is in good shape. Everyone is looking forward to 2022, and we expect good things to come!

Electron 15.0.0 has been released! It includes upgrades to Chromium 94, V8 9.4, and Node.js 16.5.0. We've added API updates to window.open, bug fixes, and general improvements. Read below for more details!

The Electron team is excited to announce the release of Electron 15.0.0! You can install it with npm via npm install electron@latest or download it from our releases website. Continue reading for details about this release and please share any feedback you have!

Notable Changes​

Electron Release Cadence Change​

Starting with Electron 15, Electron will release a new major stable version every 8 weeks. You can read the full details here.

Additionally, Electron will be changing supported versions from latest three versions to latest four versions until May 2022. See our versioning documentfor more detailed information about versioning in Electron.

Stack Changes​

• Chromium 94
  • New in Chrome 94
• Node.js 16.5.0
  • Node 16.5.0 blog post
• V8 9.4
  • V8 9.4 blog post

Highlight Features​

• nativeWindowOpen: true is no longer experimental, and is now the default.
• Added safeStorage string encryption API. #30430
• Added 'frame-created' event to WebContents which emits when a frame is created in the page. #30801
• Added resize edge info to BrowserWindow's will-resize event. #29199

See the 15.0.0 release notes for a full list of new features and changes.

Breaking Changes​

Below are breaking changes introduced in Electron 15. More information about these and future changes can be found on the Planned Breaking Changes page.

Default Changed: nativeWindowOpen defaults to true​

Prior to Electron 15, window.open was by default shimmed to use BrowserWindowProxy. This meant that window.open('about:blank') did not work to open synchronously scriptable child windows, among other incompatibilities. nativeWindowOpen: true is no longer experimental, and is now the default.

See the documentation for window.open in Electron for more details.

API Changes​

• Added 'frame-created' event to WebContents which emits when a frame is created in the page. #30801
• Added safeStorage string encryption API. #30430
• Added signal option to dialog.showMessageBox. #26102
• Added an Electron Fuse for enforcing code signatures on the app.asar file your application loads. Requires the latest asar module (v3.1.0 or higher). #30900
• Added fuses to disable NODE_OPTIONS and --inspect debug arguments in packaged apps. #30420
• Added new MenuItem.userAccelerator property to read user-assigned macOS accelerator overrides. #26682
• Added new app.runningUnderARM64Translation property to detect when running under Rosetta on Apple Silicon, or WOW on Windows for ARM. #29168
• Added new imageAnimationPolicy web preference to control how images are animated. #29095
• Added support for sending Blobs over the context bridge. #29247

Removed/Deprecated Changes​

No APIs have been removed or deprecated.

Supported Versions​

Starting in Electron 15, we will change supported versions from latest three versions to latest four versions until May 2022 with Electron 19. After Electron 19, we will return to supporting the latest three versions. This version support change is part of our new cadence change. Please see our blog post for full details here.

Developers and applications are encouraged to upgrade to a newer version of Electron.

What's Next​

In the short term, you can expect the team to continue to focus on keeping up with the development of the major components that make up Electron, including Chromium, Node, and V8. Although we are careful not to make promises about release dates, our plan is release new major versions of Electron with new versions of those components approximately quarterly.

You can find Electron's public timeline here.

More information about future changes can be found on the Planned Breaking Changes page.

Electron 14.0.0 has been released! It includes upgrades to Chromium 93 and V8 9.3. We've added several API updates, bug fixes, and general improvements. Read below for more details!

The Electron team is excited to announce the release of Electron 14.0.0! You can install it with npm via npm install electron@latest or download it from our releases website. Continue reading for details about this release and please share any feedback you have!

Notable Changes​

Electron Release Cadence Change​

Beginning in September 2021 with Electron 15, Electron will release a new major stable version every 8 weeks. You can read the full details here. Electron 15 will begin beta on September 1, 2021 and stable release will be on September 21, 2021. You can find Electron's public timeline here. Additionally, Electron will be changing supported versions from latest three versions to latest four versions until May 2022. See see our versioning document for more detailed information about versioning in Electron.

Stack Changes​

• Chromium 93
  • New in Chrome 93
  • New in Chrome 92
• Node.js 14.17.0
  • Node 14.17.0 blog post
• V8 9.3
  • V8 9.3 blog post
  • V8 9.2 blog post

Highlight Features​

• Default Changed: nativeWindowOpen now defaults to true. (see docs)
• Child windows no longer inherit BrowserWindow construction options from their parents. #28550
• Added new session.storagePath API to get the path on disk for session-specific data. #28665
• Added process.contextId used by @electron/remote. #28007
• Added experimental cookie encryption support behind an Electron Fuse. #29492

See the 14.0.0 release notes for a full list of new features and changes.

Breaking Changes​

Below are breaking changes introduced in Electron 14. More information about these and future changes can be found on the Planned Breaking Changes page.

Removed: app.allowRendererProcessReuse​

The app.allowRendererProcessReuse property has been removed as part of our plan to more closely align with Chromium's process model for security, performance and maintainability.

For more detailed information see #18397.

Removed: Browser Window Affinity​

The affinity option when constructing a new BrowserWindow has been removed as part of our plan to more closely align with Chromium's process model for security, performance and maintainability.

For more detailed information see #18397.

API Changed: window.open()​

The optional parameter frameName no longer sets the title of the window. This behavior now follows the specification described by the native documentation for the windowName parameter.

If you were using this parameter to set the title of a window, you can instead use the win.setTitle(title) method.

Removed: worldSafeExecuteJavaScript​

worldSafeExecuteJavaScript has been removed with no alternative. Please ensure your code works with this property enabled. It has been enabled by default since Electron 12.

You will be affected by this change if you use either webFrame.executeJavaScript or webFrame.executeJavaScriptInIsolatedWorld. You will need to ensure that values returned by either of those methods are supported by the Context Bridge API as these methods use the same value passing semantics.

Default Changed: nativeWindowOpen defaults to true​

Prior to Electron 14, window.open was by default shimmed to use BrowserWindowProxy. This meant that window.open('about:blank') did not work to open synchronously scriptable child windows, among other incompatibilities. nativeWindowOpen is no longer experimental, and is now the default.

See the documentation for window.open in Electron for more details.

Removed: BrowserWindowConstructorOptions inheriting from parent windows​

Prior to Electron 14, windows opened with window.open would inherit BrowserWindow constructor options such as transparent and resizable from their parent window. Beginning with Electron 14, this behavior has been removed and windows will not inherit any BrowserWindow constructor options from their parents.

Instead, explicitly set options for the new window with setWindowOpenHandler:

webContents.setWindowOpenHandler((details) => {
  return {
    action: 'allow',
    overrideBrowserWindowOptions: {
      // ...
    },
  };
});

Removed: additionalFeatures​

The deprecated additionalFeatures property in the new-window and did-create-window events of WebContents has been removed. Since new-window uses positional arguments, the argument is still present, but will always be the empty array []. (Note: the new-window event itself is already deprecated and has been replaced by setWindowOpenHandler.) Bare keys in window features will now present as keys with the value true in the options object.

// Removed in Electron 14
// Triggered by window.open('...', '', 'my-key')
webContents.on('did-create-window', (window, details) => {
  if (details.additionalFeatures.includes('my-key')) {
    // ...
  }
});

// Replace with
webContents.on('did-create-window', (window, details) => {
  if (details.options['my-key']) {
    // ...
  }
});

Removed: remote module​

Deprecated in Electron 12, the remote module has now been removed from Electron itself and extracted into a separate package, @electron/remote. The @electron/remote module bridges JavaScript objects from the main process to the renderer process. This lets you access main-process-only objects as if they were available in the renderer process. This is a direct replacement for the remote module. See the module's readme for migration instructions and reference.

API Changes​

• Added BrowserWindow.isFocusable() method to determine whether a window is focusable. #28642
• Added WebFrameMain.visibilityState instance property. #28706
• Added disposition, referrer and postBody to the details object passed to the window open handler registered with setWindowOpenHandler. #28518
• Added process.contextId used by @electron/remote. #28007
• Added experimental cookie encryption support behind an Electron Fuse. #29492
• Added missing resourceType conversions for webRequest listener details: font, ping, cspReport, media, webSocket. #30050
• Added new session.storagePath API to get the path on disk for session-specific data. #28665
• Added support for Windows Control Overlay on macOS. #29986
• Added support for directing Chromium logging to a file with --log-file=.../path/to/file.log. Also, it's now possible to enable logging from JavaScript by appending command-line switches during the first JS tick. #29963
• Added support for the des-ede3 cipher in node crypto. #27897
• Added a ContextBridgeMutability feature that allows context bridge objects to be mutated. #27348

Removed/Deprecated Changes​

The following APIs have been removed or are now deprecated:

• The remote module has been removed after being deprecated in Electron 12. #25734
• Child windows no longer inherit BrowserWindow construction options from their parents. #28550
• Removed deprecated additionalFeatures property from new-window and did-create-window WebContents events. #28548
• Removed the deprecated app.allowRendererProcessReuse and BrowserWindow affinity options. #26874
• The submitURL option for crashReporter.start is no longer a required argument when uploadToServer is false. #28105

End of Support for 11.x.y​

Electron 11.x.y has reached end-of-support as per the project's support policy. Developers and applications are encouraged to upgrade to a newer version of Electron.

What's Next​

In the short term, you can expect the team to continue to focus on keeping up with the development of the major components that make up Electron, including Chromium, Node, and V8. Although we are careful not to make promises about release dates, our plan is release new major versions of Electron with new versions of those components approximately quarterly.

For information on planned breaking changes in upcoming versions of Electron, see our Planned Breaking Changes.

Over the past weeks, we’ve received several questions about the differences between the new WebView2 and Electron.

Both teams have the expressed goal of making web-tech the best it can be on the Desktop, and a shared comprehensive comparison is being discussed.

Electron and WebView2 are fast-moving and constantly evolving projects. We have assembled a brief snapshot of similarities and differences between Electron and WebView2 as they exist today.

Architecture Overview​

Electron and WebView2 both build from the Chromium source for rendering web content. Strictly speaking, WebView2 builds from the Edge source, but Edge is built using a fork of the Chromium source. Electron does not share any DLLs with Chrome. WebView2 binaries hard link against Edge (Stable channel as of Edge 90), so they share disk and some working set. See Evergreen distribution mode for more info.

Electron apps always bundle and distribute the exact version of Electron with which they were developed. WebView2 has two options in distribution. You can bundle the exact WebView2 library your application was developed with, or you can use a shared-runtime version that may already be present on the system. WebView2 provides tools for each approach, including a bootstrapping installer in case the shared runtime is missing. WebView2 is shipped inbox starting with Windows 11.

Applications that bundle their frameworks are responsible for updating those frameworks, including minor security releases. For apps using the shared WebView2 runtime, WebView2 has its own updater, similar to Chrome or Edge, that runs independent of your application. Updating the application's code or any of its other dependencies is still a responsibility for the developer, same as with Electron. Neither Electron nor WebView2 is managed by Windows Update.

Both Electron and WebView2 inherit Chromium’s multi-process architecture - namely, a single main process that communicates with one-or-more renderer processes. These processes are entirely separate from other applications running on the system. Every Electron application is a separate process tree, containing a root browser-process, some utility processes, and zero or more render processes. WebView2 apps that use the same user data folder (like a suite of apps would do), share non-renderer processes. WebView2 apps using different data folders do not share processes.

• ElectronJS Process Model:

  

• WebView2 Based Application Process Model:

  

Read more about WebView2’s process model and Electron’s process model here.

Electron provides APIs for common desktop application needs such as menus, file system access, notifications, and more. WebView2 is a component meant to be integrated into an application framework such as WinForms, WPF, WinUI, or Win32. WebView2 does not provide operating system APIs outside the web standard via JavaScript.

Node.js is integrated into Electron. Electron applications may use any Node.js API, module, or node-native-addon from the renderer and main processes. A WebView2 application does not assume which language or framework the rest of your application is written in. Your JavaScript code must proxy any operating system access through the application-host process.

Electron strives to maintain compatibility with the web API, including APIs developed from the Fugu Project. We have a snapshot of Electron’s Fugu API compatibility. WebView2 maintains a similar list of API differences from Edge.

Electron has a configurable security model for web content, from full-access to full-sandbox. WebView2 content is always sandboxed. Electron has comprehensive security documentation on choosing your security model. WebView2 also has security best practices.

The Electron source is maintained and available on GitHub. Applications can modify can build their own brands of Electron. The WebView2 source is not available on GitHub.

Quick Summary:

Performance Discussion​

When it comes to rendering your web content, we expect little performance difference between Electron, WebView2, and any other Chromium-based renderer. We created scaffolding for apps built using Electron, C++ + WebView2, and C# + WebView2 for those interested to investigate potential performance differences.

There are a few differences that come into play outside of rendering web content, and folks from Electron, WebView2, Edge, and others have expressed interest in working on a detailed comparison including PWAs.

Inter-Process Communication (IPC)​

There is one difference we want to highlight immediately, as we believe it is often a performance consideration in Electron apps.

In Chromium, the browser process acts as an IPC broker between sandboxed renderers and the rest of the system. While Electron allows unsandboxed render processes, many apps choose to enable the sandbox for added security. WebView2 always has the sandbox enabled, so for most Electron and WebView2 apps IPC can impact overall performance.

Even though Electron and WebView2 have a similar process models, the underlying IPC differs. Communicating between JavaScript and C++ or C# requires marshalling, most commonly to a JSON string. JSON serialization/parsing is an expensive operation, and IPC-bottlenecks can negatively impact performance. Starting with Edge 93, WV2 will use CBOR for network events.

Electron supports direct IPC between any two processes via the MessagePorts API, which utilize the structured clone algorithm. Applications which leverage this can avoid paying the JSON-serialization tax when sending objects between processes.

Summary​

Electron and WebView2 have a number of differences, but don't expect much difference with respect to how they perform rendering web content. Ultimately, an app’s architecture and JavaScript libraries/frameworks have a larger impact on memory and performance than anything else because Chromium is Chromium regardless of where it is running.

Special thanks to the WebView2 team for reviewing this post, and ensuring we have an up-to-date view of the WebView2 architecture. They welcome any feedback on the project.

Beginning in September 2021, Electron will release a new major stable version every 8 weeks.

In 2019, Electron moved to a 12 week release cycle to match Chromium's 6 week release cycle. Recently, both Chrome and Microsoft announced changes that made us reconsider Electron's current release cadence:

1. Chromium plans to release a new milestone every 4 weeks, starting with Chrome 94 on September 21st, 2021. This release cadence also adds a new Extended Stable option every 8 weeks, which will contain all updated security fixes.

2. The Microsoft Store will require Chromium-based apps to be no older than within 2 major versions. As an example, if the latest released major version of Chromium is 85, any browser based on Chromium must be on at least Chromium version 83 or higher. This rule includes Electron apps.

Beginning in September 2021, Electron will release a new major stable version every 8 weeks, to match Chromium's 8 week Extended Stable releases.

Our first release with Chromium Extended Stable will be Electron 15 on September 21st, 2021.

Knowing that a release cadence change will impact other downstream applications, we wanted to let our developer community know as soon as possible. Read on for more details about our 2021 release schedule.

Electron 15: Temporary Alpha​

Given that our original Electron 15 release targeted a non-Extended Stable version (Chromium's Extended Stable versions are based on their even-numbered versions), we needed to change our original target release date. However, an Electron app must use the most recent 2 major versions of Chromium to be accepted to the Microsoft Store, which made waiting for two Chromium versions untenable.

With these two requirements, our team faced a timing dilemma. Moving Electron 15 to include Chromium M94 would allow app developers to get on the very first Extended Stable version of Chromium; however, it would also shorten the beta-to-stable cycle to only 3 weeks.

To help with this switchover, Electron will offer a temporary alpha build, only for the Electron 15 release. This alpha build will allow developers more time to test and plan for an Electron 15 release, with a more stable build than our current nightlies.

The alpha channel build will ship for Electron 15 on July 20th, 2021. It will transition to a beta release on September 1st, 2021 with a stable release target of September 21st, 2021. Subsequent Electron releases will not have alpha releases.

2021 Plan for Releases​

Below is our current release schedule for 2021:

Adding the alpha channel extends the development time before Electron 15's launch from 3 weeks to 9 weeks - closer to our new 8 week cycle, while still meeting the requirements for Windows Store submission.

To further help app developers, for the remainder of 2021 until May 2022, we will also be extending our supported versions policy from the latest 3 versions to the latest 4 versions of Electron. That means that even if you can't immediately alter your upgrade schedule, older versions of Electron will still receive security updates and fixes.

Addressing Concerns​

There's a reason we're publishing this post well before this release cycle change is scheduled. We know that a faster release cycle will have a real impact on Electron apps - some of which may already find our major release cadence aggressive.

We've tried to address common concerns below:

❓ Why even make this change? Why not keep the 12 week release cadence?​

To deliver the most up-to-date versions of Chromium in Electron, our schedule needs to track theirs. More information around Chromium's release cycle can be found here.

Additionally, the current 12 week release cadence would be untenable with the Microsoft Store's new submission requirements. Even apps on the latest stable version of Electron would experience a roughly two week period where their app may be rejected under the new security requirements.

Every new Chromium release contains new features, bug fixes / security fixes, and V8 improvements. We want you, as app developers, to have these changes in a timely manner, so our stable release dates will continue to match every other Chromium stable release. As an app developer, you'll have access to new Chromium and V8 features and fixes sooner than before.

❓ The existing 12 week release schedule already moves quickly. What steps are the team taking to make upgrading easier?​

One advantage of more frequent releases is having smaller releases. We understand that upgrading Electron's major versions can be difficult. We hope that smaller releases will introduce fewer major Chromium and Node changes, as well as fewer breaking changes, per release.

❓ Will there been an alpha release available for future Electron versions?​

There are no plans to support a permanent alpha release at this time. This alpha is only intended for Electron 15, as a way to help developers upgrade more easily in the shortened release period.

❓ Will Electron extend the number of supported versions?​

We will be extending our supported version policy from the latest three versions to the latest four versions of Electron until May 2022, with the release of Electron 19. After Electron 19 is released, we'll return to supporting the latest three major versions, as well as the beta and nightly releases.

Questions?​

📨 If you have questions or concerns, please mail us at info@electronjs.org or join our Discord. We know this is a change that will impact many apps and developers, and your feedback is very important to us. We want to hear from you!