September 2026 Status Update

In September, we've been focused on preparing for the impending release of Python 3.15, as well as adapting to updates in Xcode and Android Studio.

What we've done

• We dropped support for Python 3.10 across BeeWare's projects and templates, adding support for Python 3.15 in its place.
• We prepared for a new Chaquopy release. The actual release is dependent on the release of CPython 3.15.0, and will also include support for the latest Android Studio and Android SDK releases.
• We substantially improved xbuild, BeeWare's PEP 517 build frontend for cross-compiling wheels. The updates add the ability to automatically fetch a Python install for a target platform, a full test suite, and an xpython command for running arbitrary code in a cross-platform environment.
• We switched Briefcase's iOS support to use xbuild when creating cross-platform virtual environments. This also allowed switching to using the official CPython iOS binary release.
• We modified Briefcase to support changes in Xcode 27, including the new Device Hub.
• We added hash verification for Briefcase's asset cache, protecting against cache poisoning if a build machine is compromised.
• We added support for limiting Windows MSI installer options to a specific install scope.
• We added automatic device selection for iOS and Android, so briefcase run can select (and create, if needed) an appropriate default device without user intervention.
• We migrated Briefcase's use of httpx to httpx2, following the shift in maintenance focus in the HTTP client ecosystem.
• We dropped Briefcase's built-in support for Pygame, in favor of the actively maintained Pygame-CE, which ships its own Briefcase plugin.
• We updated Toga iOS's backend to support the Scene-based application life cycle required by the iOS 27 SDK.
• We migrated Toga's GTK, Cocoa, WinForms and Textual backends to use platformdirs for app-specific paths, improving support for unusual user-space platform configurations.
• We continued hardening our GitHub Actions workflows, adopting zizmor and adding Dependabot cool-off delays on several repositories.
• We fixed a bug where encoding_for_ctype() raised an undocumented AttributeError instead of ValueError for unknown C types.
• We ensured Briefcase doesn't derive an invalid Python keyword as an app's class name, rejected bundle identifiers containing a trailing newline, and logged captured output when a non-streamed subprocess call fails.
• We switched the Windows Visual Studio template to be compatible with Visual Studio 2026.
• We refreshed Toga's iOS testbed, expanding the range of test devices and configurations where the testbed suite will pass.
• We added a documentation guide covering the expired system certificate issue affecting macOS code signing.
• We highlighted the existence of project-specific contribution guides at the top of BeeWare's general contribution guide.

Much of this work is due to the contributions of members of the BeeWare community. Thanks to Abdo (@abdnh), Deepak Thorat (@deepak25000000), Felipe Medici (@femedici), Hyuri (@hyuri), Jenish Gajera (@jenish0908), Joshua King (@jkingok), Mgs. Tabrani (@mgstabrani), Roshan Ramani (@rawsun007), @Rayan-and-beyond, Revar Desmera (@revarbat), Tanya Schlusser (@tanyaschlusser), @TianHengZhuang, and Xiaowen (@Xiaowen-Yang) for their code and documentation contributions this month.

What's next?

The final release of 3.15.0 is days away; once that release is out, we'll be able to make a Chaquopy, Briefcase and Toga release. We also want to explore whether cibuildwheel can make use of xbuild.

Once that work is completed, we're expecting to turn our focus back to Toga. We've made some progress against the "big picture app navigation" plan that we published at the start of the year; once the 3.15 release is behind us, we will be able to focus on delivering that plan, and adding other exciting features to Toga.

Want to get involved?

Want to get involved? We curate issues that should be approachable for first-time contributors to BeeWare. They're all relatively minor changes, but would provide a big improvement to the lives of BeeWare users:

• If you're interested in the tooling for deploying applications to various platforms, take a look at Briefcase.
• Or, if you're interested in GUI widgets, take a look at Toga.

These lists can also be filtered by platform - so you can find issues that are specific to your preferred operating system. Pick one of these tickets, drop a comment on the ticket to let others know you're looking at it, and try your hand at a PR! We have a guide on setting up a Briefcase development environment; but if you need any additional assistance or guidance, you can ask on the ticket, or join us on the BeeWare Discord server.