Capacitor 8.0.0 243,123 reached npm 2,036 on 8 December 2025. Minor releases followed every month or two, up to 8.5.2 on 11 September 2026, the version this chapter uses. The core packages always share one version number. Running npm view @capacitor/cli dist-tags shows the release lines: latest is 8.5.2, latest-7 and latest-6 (7.6.9 and 6.2.2, both patched on 31 August 2026) serve apps still on older majors, and next is 9.0.0-alpha.7, a Capacitor 9 still in alpha. Capacitor 8 itself made three visible changes: new iOS projects use Swift Package Manager 25,184 instead of CocoaPods 66,002 , Android apps draw edge to edge through a new SystemBars plugin (you saw it register in What Capacitor Is), and the floors rose to Node.js 22 2,131 , Android API 24 and iOS 15.
| Major | Released | Node.js | Android min / target | Xcode 10 | Notable change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | 15 Apr 2024 | 18+ | API 22 / 34 | 15.0+ | Experimental SPM support |
| 7 | 20 Jan 2025 | 20+ | API 23 / 35 | 16.0+ | Java 21 on Android |
| 8 | 8 Dec 2025 | 22+ | API 24 / 36 | 26.0+ | SPM default, edge-to-edge |
Majors have arrived about once a year since 1.0 in May 2019, each raising the floors to match Google Play 1 's target-API rule and Apple's current Xcode. Plan on one upgrade a year; npx cap migrate (cap migrate) automates most of it.