What's new in Avalonia 12

Performance

Rendering that scales to massive visual trees

Avalonia 12.0 delivers up to 1,867% increase in FPS on complex layouts, tested against scenes with 350,000 unique visual elements. These gains are the result of significant investment in the rendering pipeline, including deferred composition and optimised dirty-rect tracking.

Android

Re-architected from the ground up

The Android backend in Avalonia 12.0 has been completely rebuilt. Reliable scheduling at high refresh rates, native support for multiple Android activities, and a streamlined rendering pipeline deliver measurably faster startup, smoother scrolling, and less animation jank.

Mobile

Navigation controls

Avalonia 12.0 brings navigation patterns designed for touch-first experiences on iOS and Android. Drawer navigation, tab bars, bottom sheets, and platform-native gesture handling work consistently across both platforms, giving your mobile users the interaction model they expect.

• CommandBar
• ContentPage
• DrawerPage
• NavigationPage
• TabbedPage

WebView

WebView, now open source

The Avalonia WebView component, previously available through Accelerate, is now fully open source and included in v12. It leverages each platform's native web renderer so your applications stay compact and performant, with no bundled Chromium required. Bi-directional JavaScript interop, OAuth flow support, and full environment customisation come built in across Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android.

Accessibility

Built-in accessibility across every platform

Avalonia 12.0 includes full keyboard navigation, screen reader support via platform accessibility APIs, and semantic UI controls across Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android. These capabilities are built into the framework, not layered on after the fact.

Linux

Native Wayland support for modern Linux Preview

Avalonia 12.0 introduces the groundwork needed for full Wayland support, giving Linux developers direct access to the display protocol that powers GNOME, KDE Plasma, and other modern compositors. In private preview right now, your applications can render through Wayland’s buffer-sharing model for lower latency and better HiDPI handling, while maintaining full backward compatibility with X11.

We're looking for organisations to work with as we bring Wayland support to general availability. Get in touch if you'd like to be involved.

Education

Expanded docs and interactive examples

The Avalonia 12.0 documentation includes 125% more guides compared to 11.x, a rebuilt API reference, and interactive XAML editors embedded directly in the pages. Whether you’re evaluating the framework or debugging a layout issue, the reference material is structured to get you to an answer quickly.

Momentum

Engineering depth and platform momentum

Avalonia 12.0 includes a rebuilt Android backend with reliable scheduling at high refresh rates and native support for multiple Android activities. iOS integration, including Mac Catalyst, has been strengthened for teams building across Apple’s ecosystem. The PR history shows the pace of engineering investment behind these changes.