Java 16
| Status | End of Life |
|---|---|
| Release Date | 2021-03-15 |
| EOL Date | 2021-09-14 |
| Latest Version | 16.0.2 |
| Class File Version | 60.0 |
| Unicode Version | 13.0.0 |
| API Changes | Compare to 15 - 14 - 13 - 12 - 11 - 10 - 9 - 8 - 7 - 6 - 5 - 1.4 - 1.3 - 1.2 - 1.1 - 1.0 |
| Documentation | Release Notes, Language Spec, VM Spec, JavaDoc |
| SCM | git |
The OpenJDK source tree has moved from Mercurial to Git and is now hosted on
GitHub. The migration is described in
JEP 369.
New Features
Here are all new features in Java 16 by category. There is also of list of all features of all Java releases.
JVM
- ZGC: Concurrent Thread Processing (JEP 376)
- Alpine Linux Port (JEP 386)
- Windows/AArch64 Port (JEP 388)
- Strongly Encapsulate JDK Internals by Default (JEP 396)
Language
- Warnings for Value-Based Classes (JEP 390)
- Pattern Matching for instanceof (JEP 394, Java Almanac)
- Records (JEP 395, Java Almanac)
- Static Members in Inner Classes (JEP 395)
- Sealed Classes 2. Preview (JEP 397, Java Almanac)
API
- Vector API 1. Incubator (JEP 338)
- Unix-Domain Socket Channels (JEP 380)
- Foreign Linker API 1. Incubator (JEP 389)
- Foreign-Memory Access API 3. Incubator (JEP 393)
Tools
- Packaging Tool (JEP 392)
Internal
Should I Upgrade?
Java 16 is end-of-life since 2021-09-14. Unless you have a support contract for this version and a compelling reason to stay on the old version you should definitely upgrade to a newer version with active support.
Please consider upgrading to a current long term support LTS version Java 17 or Java 21 to rely on a maintained platform and get advantage of the latest features and improvements.
Downloads
| Vendor | Product | License | Platform Downloads |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adoptium | Eclipse Temurin | GPLv2+CE | |
| AdoptOpenJDK | AdoptOpenJDK | GPLv2+CE | |
| Azul Systems | Zulu Builds of OpenJDK 16 | GPLv2+CE | |
| BellSoft | Liberica | GPLv2+CE | |
| IBM | Semeru Runtime Open Edition, Version 16 | GPLv2+CE | |
| Oracle | Oracle JDK 16 | Commercial | |
| SAP | SapMachine 16 | GPLv2+CE |
Sandbox
Instantly compile and run Java 16 snippets without a local Java installation.