Cypress is deprecating the bundled Electron browser starting with Cypress 16.0.0, with full removal planned in a future major version. The decision stems from three core issues: Electron's Chromium version lags behind stable Chrome, Electron behaves differently from real browsers causing hard-to-debug test discrepancies, and security updates are delayed through the Electron release chain. Teams are advised to migrate to installed browsers like Chrome for Testing. The post provides a step-by-step migration guide covering how to install a supported browser, set a defaultBrowser in config, update CI pipelines, switch Docker images, and remove all Electron-specific code and environment variables. Chrome for Testing is recommended as the preferred test browser due to its pinned versioning, no auto-update behavior, and automation-friendly design.
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Does this affect you?Why we made this decisionHow to migrateWhat happens after removalWhat browser does Cypress recommend we use for testing?The takeaway13.3K Impressions1 Comment