Godot 4.8 reaches feature freeze, adds long-awaited symbol renaming
Godot 4.8 dev 7 marks feature freeze, adding experimental symbol renaming, mobile screen reader support and Android AAR export before the move to beta.
The Godot team released Godot 4.8 dev 7 on 29 September 2026, and with it the engine's next version has reached feature freeze. No more new features will be added to 4.8. Work now moves to bug fixes and regressions ahead of the beta.
This snapshot includes 182 fixes from 80 contributors, and the final features add up to a significant release.
Key additions
- Symbol renaming: a project-wide refactoring tool for renaming identifiers. It went in late, so for now it is experimental and must be switched on manually.
- Runtime CanvasItem editing: 2D items can be moved, resized, rotated and scaled while the game is running, with full undo and redo.
- Animated decals are now fully supported.
- Non-allocating physics queries for 2D and 3D, which return strongly typed result objects and cut down on unnecessary memory allocation.
- Native touch support for TabBar and PopupMenu controls, and theme audio items that play sounds on UI events.
Mobile and accessibility
Screen reader support through AccessKit now covers iOS and Android, though the team notes some limits with editable text fields on iOS. Android projects can now also be exported in the Android Archive (AAR) format.
Why it matters
For small teams building 2D and casual games for phones, built-in touch-friendly UI controls and screen reader support make it easier to ship mobile games that more people can play. AAR export may also help studios that want to embed Godot content inside an existing Android app. As with any dev snapshot, this build is for testing, not for production projects.
Source: Godot Engine
