Ionic has released the fifth major version of its Capacitor runtime, which enables developers to create cross-platform apps for iOS, Android, and progressive web apps with JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. The open-source runtime also includes official plugins that offer a direct connection between JavaScript and commonly used native APIs, while community plugins provide additional functions.
Capacitor 5 is compatible with Android 13 and uses Xcode 14.1, allowing it to adapt to changes in the Google Play Store and App Store. For example, the Google Play Store will require Android 13 or higher from August 2023, and Capacitor 5 can handle the new permission changes without needing further work on the native layer. Similarly, since April 2023, all iOS and iPadOS apps submitted to the App Store must be created with Xcode 14.1 and the iOS 16.1 SDK, which Capacitor 5 supports with a minimum Xcode version of 14.1.
Beyond these compatibility updates, Capacitor 5 includes several other changes aimed at improving the app development experience. For example, it uses the modern iOS theme system to change the default animation for the status bar from slide to fade, and it offers API innovations that should make it easier for developers to create Swift plugins in the future. The development team has also fixed bugs related to Android auto-completion and support for newer Huawei devices, which previously could not use Capacitor’s pre-installed Google services.
To upgrade to Capacitor 5, the development team recommends using the Ionic extension for Visual Studio Code, which will automatically upgrade community plugins using the following command in the plugin root directory: npx @capacitor/plugin-migration-v4-to-v5@latest. They provide full details about the upgrade process and other new features in their blog post.
