Feature Freeze for JDK 26: What Will the New Edition Bring? - JVM Weekly

JDK 26 entered feature freeze on December 4th with 10 JEPs scheduled for release on March 17, 2026. Key additions include native HTTP/3 support via the HTTP Client API, removal of the deprecated Applet API, and enforcement of final field immutability. Performance improvements include G1 GC throughput gains (5-15%) through dual card tables and AOT object caching support for all garbage collectors including ZGC. Several preview features continue their evolution: Lazy Constants (renamed from StableValue), Structured Concurrency, PEM encoding API, primitive types in pattern matching, and the Vector API remains in incubation awaiting Project Valhalla.