Removal of the obsolete API becomes first feature targeted for Java update due in March 2026.
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Even though the next version of Java, JDK (Java Development Kit) 25, is not due to arrive as a production release until September 16, work has begun on the planned subsequent release, JDK 26. That update, anticipated to arrive next March, already has been assigned its first feature: removal of the now-obsolete Java Applet API.
Deprecated for removal in JDK 17 in September 2021, the Applet API is set to be removed altogether in JDK 26. The proposal for removing the Applet API was launched this past December, without a designated release of JDK that would house the plan. Now, the proposal has found a home in JDK 26. The Applet API was deemed obsolete because neither recent JDK releases nor current web browsers support applets. The proposal, updated July 14, notes there is no reason to keep the unused and unusable Applet API.
The Applet API was first deprecated, but not for removal, in JDK 9 in September 2017, because web browser makers were removing support for applets. Java applets were defined as a special kind of Java program that a Java-enabled web browser could download from the internet and run. A Java applet was typically embedded inside a web page and run in the context of a browser, according to Oracle Java documentation. But these applets ultimately lost out to JavaScript programs in web development. There were security concerns around Java applets as well.
Thus, removal of the Applets API has become the first JEP (JDK Enhancement Proposal) officially targeted for JDK 26. Other features that could make it into the JDK 26 feature roster include features being previewed in JDK 25, such as PEM (privacy-enhanced mail) encodings of cryptographic objects, structured concurrency, and primitive types in patterns, instanceof, and switch.
JDK 25 currently is in a second rampdown phase, for bug fixes. While JDK 25 will be a Long-Term Support (LTS) release, backed by five years of premier-level support from Oracle, JDK 26 will be a non-LTS release, backed by just six months of premier support.
