In response to overwhelming feedback from our most active developers, we're announcing that we will begin releasing new versions of the AdWords API more frequently on an experimental basis, compared to the current three-times-a-year schedule. Starting at the end of January 2016, API releases will occur at the end of every alternate month, continuing through March, May, July, and September. We will reassess the cost and benefits of this release schedule to the developer community throughout the experiment and determine whether to continue with it or fall back to the current three-times-a-year schedule.
We believe that delivering API releases more frequently will help you, the API users, get quicker access to AdWords innovations for making continuous improvements to your tools and platforms.
Each of these releases will be considered a major release and will trigger the deprecation of the oldest outstanding major release. Previously, we supported 2 releases concurrently at any given time, and 3 releases for a brief period of 4 weeks to help you skip a major release entirely. With the new release schedule, we will support 3 releases concurrently at any given time and 4 releases for a brief period of 4 weeks to accommodate developers who want to skip two major releases entirely. Overall, every AdWords API version will still be available for roughly the same time period as before.
The new experimental schedule will result in the following releases:
Our current published sunset schedule remains unaffected. The v201506 release will be sunset on 11 April 2016 as previously announced. The v201509 release will continue to be supported concurrently with the v201601 release and will be deprecated once the v201603 release is announced.
If you have any questions about this announcement please post them on the forum.
We believe that delivering API releases more frequently will help you, the API users, get quicker access to AdWords innovations for making continuous improvements to your tools and platforms.
Each of these releases will be considered a major release and will trigger the deprecation of the oldest outstanding major release. Previously, we supported 2 releases concurrently at any given time, and 3 releases for a brief period of 4 weeks to help you skip a major release entirely. With the new release schedule, we will support 3 releases concurrently at any given time and 4 releases for a brief period of 4 weeks to accommodate developers who want to skip two major releases entirely. Overall, every AdWords API version will still be available for roughly the same time period as before.
The new experimental schedule will result in the following releases:
| New Release (recommended) | Old Release (supported, just not the latest) | Deprecated Release (supported, but going away soon) | Sunset Release (not supported 4 weeks after new release date) |
|---|---|---|---|
| January 2016 | September 2015 | June 2015 | — |
| March 2016 | January 2016 | September 2015 | June 2015 |
| May 2016 | March 2016 | January 2016 | September 2015 |
| July 2016 | May 2016 | March 2016 | January 2016 |
| September 2016 | July 2016 | May 2016 | March 2016 |
Our current published sunset schedule remains unaffected. The v201506 release will be sunset on 11 April 2016 as previously announced. The v201509 release will continue to be supported concurrently with the v201601 release and will be deprecated once the v201603 release is announced.
If you have any questions about this announcement please post them on the forum.